Ah! Leah!

Iris was a member of The Jaggerz, who had a hit in 1970 with "The Rapper." He later became a member of Wild Cherry, where he met keyboard player Mark Avsec, and the two formed a musical partnership. In a Songfacts interview with Iris, he explained how this song came together and answered the question, "Who is Leah?" "Mark and I wrote that together in my basement, around the piano, and originally Mark had the idea of an anti-war song," he said. "It started out just as a chant - it's not a chick's name, it's not a certain person or individual, in particular. We wanted to have a hook, or a chorus, to the tune, that sounded almost like a Gregorian chant, and somehow Mark came up with the 'Ah, Leah' just like a chant. I said, 'You know what, Mark, that's a chick's name,' so that's how we named it 'Ah, Leah.' It just so happens that there was a girl by the name of Leah who had dated one of the guys in The Jaggerz years ago, and I always loved that name. She was a very pretty girl, and I always loved her name. So instead of a war tune, which we messed around with and messed around with and didn't have anything in there that we liked to make it an anti-war song, it just turned out as being a love song. It was a total change in direction, and that happened with several of our songs. We were coming up with stuff and, you know, sometimes you just do something and in the end you hate it. That's what happened. We hated that... the way it was coming out as an anti-war song, and when we finally figured it was a nice way to do a love song, then we were happy with it."

The song has a certain yearning to it. Iris explained: "It sounds kind of passionate, when you talk about not being able to be with a chick, and every time you see this girl, you just go nuts, but it ain't right, you know, something's wrong with it. We thought that it was a passionate kind of tune."

Iris credits the songwriting of Mark Avsec as key to their success. He told Songfacts how they came up with their songs: "We'll go into the studio and put down rhythm tracks, and sometimes we'll get together for three or four days and put down 15-20 different tracks of musical pieces. Then the group goes home, and Mark will take the songs home, write the lyrics, and we'll check it out. If we like it, we'll keep it if we think it's good. If not, we'll maybe go for another lyric, or a different track, but he's unbelievable that way - just a brilliant songwriter, it's like he does it in his sleep. And he brings them into the studio, and I'll sit down, I'll go over it with him, and together we'll work out the melodies and stuff."