Donnie Iris

Dominic Ierace, who grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, first attracted widespread attention as the frontman for the Jaggerz, the Pittsburgh outfit whose lone major success came in 1970 when their track “The Rapper” climbed to number two. Returning as a solo artist, he placed several singles on the pop charts again in the first half of the 1980s. Singing at local weddings from the age of five, Ierace appeared on regional television and competed in talent shows by eight; after his voice broke he switched to drums, only to resume vocal work during high school. Teaching himself guitar, he started the group Donnie & the Donnells while attending college.

The Jaggerz coalesced from the remnants of several area ensembles and initially operated as an R&B revue rather than a pop act. In Pittsburgh their Gambel Records releases “Gotta Find My Way Back Home” and “(That’s Why) Baby I Love You” received steady airplay, yet wider recognition remained elusive until the band moved to Kama Sutra, where “The Rapper” launched a brief run of three charting singles.

Following the Jaggerz’ dissolution, Ierace joined Wild Cherry on the road; the group had ridden their 1976 smash “Play That Funky Music” into the late decade, only to fade as another one-hit act, leaving him without a band by 1980. That year he began a partnership with keyboardist Mark Avsec, formerly of Wild Cherry and Breathless, resulting in a string of MCA albums. Their first single, “Ah! Leah!,” reached number 29, and six additional mid-chart entries appeared over the next five years. Avsec and Ierace handled both songwriting and production duties effectively until the 1993 release Footsoldier in the Moonlight, by which point Ierace contributed no original material and relied solely on Avsec’s compositions.