The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are an American swing and ska band established in Eugene, Oregon, in 1989. Formed by singer-songwriter Steve Perry and bassist Dan Schmid, the band has experienced numerous personnel changes over the course of its 30-year history, with only Perry, Schmid and trumpeter Dana Heitman currently remaining from the original founding lineup.
The Daddies' music is primarily a mix of swing and ska, contrastingly encompassing both traditional jazz-influenced variations of the genres as well as contemporary rock and punk hybrids, characterized by a prominent horn section and Perry's acerbic and innuendo-laced lyricism often concerning dark or political subject matter. While the band's earliest releases were mostly grounded in punk and funk rock, their later studio albums have since incorporated elements from many diverse genres of popular music and Americana into their sound, including rockabilly, rhythm and blues, soul and world music.
Initially drawing both acclaim and controversy as a preeminent regional band, the Daddies gained wider recognition touring nationally within the American ska scene before ultimately breaking into the musical mainstream with their 1997 swing compilation Zoot Suit Riot. Released at the peak of the 1990s swing revival, Zoot Suit Riot sold over two million copies in the United States while its eponymous single became a radio hit, launching the Daddies to the forefront of the neo-swing movement. By the end of the decade, however, interest in the swing revival had swiftly declined, along with the band's commercial popularity. The resultant failure of their subsequent album Soul Caddy contributed to an abrupt hiatus in 2000.
The Daddies officially regrouped in 2002 to resume part-time touring, eventually returning to recording with the independently released Susquehanna in 2008. Their eleventh album, the punk and ska-influenced Bigger Life, was released in June 2019.