King Cool

1981 album by Donnie Iris and the Cruisers. Iris's follow-up to Back On The Streets, and the first album to include the band name "The Cruisers" on it.

Performing on the album, in addition to Donnie's vocals, are Mark Avsec on piano, organ, synthesizers, and glockenspiel; Marty Lee on guitar; Albritton McClain on bass; and Kevin Valentine on drums and percussives.

The cover art shows Donnie, in a black sport coat with a guitar-shaped lapel pin and blue jeans, standing in an alley outside a worn-down brick building, smoking a cigarette.

Song listing:
1. Sweet Merilee
2. The Promise
3. Pretender
4. Love Is Like a Rock
5. That's the Way Love Ought To Be
6. My Girl
7. Broken Promises
8. King Cool
9. Color Me Blue
10. The Last To Know

Also the title track of the album, "it's about a guitar player, who makes it big in Rock & Roll" (quoth Iris the first time he played the song publicly). Whenever Iris plays the song live, he always smokes a Salem cigarette, which I once fought off a similarly crazed fan to get as a souvenir (I had to make being in the front row truly memorable). Lyrics were here once but have been removed.