Black Box or Loleatta Holloway - Ride on time. But which artist deserves the credit?
I haven't written anything of interest of late for you out there. However, what stirred me into writing again was when I was listening to the radio whilst driving around in my car in my hometown which is Ipswich Town (England).
I heard a single that I hadn't heard in such a long time. The single in question was Black Box's - "Ride in Time", which was released in the Year 1989. It was such a joy to hear as it brought back so many memories of times that were carefree and worry-free!
But the question that I like to ask is this. Black Box or Loleatta Holloway - Ride on time. But which artist deserves the credit?
I remember the single being everywhere; within the nightclubs of the time. All over the Radio and in the newspapers and of course Top of the Pops ( BBC MUSIC CHART SHOW)
Black Box's - RIDE ON TIME - 1989.
Little was I to know at the time, the same as millions of other music fans across the world that the lead singer of the group was not actually singing a word of the monster hit.
We were about to witness another Milli Vanilli escape all over again, but this time in the form of Dance/House music.
We eventually learned that the lead singer of the group that was Black box who was the French Model Katrin Quinol wasn't the actual singer of the song at all. It was all done by Loleatta Holloway.
LOLEATTA HOLLOWAY - Live appearance at ERIC FLOYD'S "QUEENS OF THE NIGHT" - New York City - 18th of Feb, 1989
In the year 1980, the Disco queen that was Loleatta Holloway topped the USA dance music charts with two Dan Hartman compositions.
One was "Relight my fire", which was later covered by TAKE THAT together with the vocalist known as LULU (The Year being 1993); and the other single was Love Sensation".
It's that single called "Love Sensation" which was released on Salsoul Records and got all the column inches here ( In the UK), and around the world via the world's media when it reached number one on various music charts.
Indeed no part of her single called "Love Sensation" was left untouched by musicians and music producers who used every part of this song for the creation of their own pending music releases.
Loleatta Holloway, I have since learned died in the year 2011 in the City of Chicago, USA. It was a shock to me as I never knew of this in any shape or form.
It was Her single called "Love Sensation" which was featured heavily in Black Box's worldwide hit called "Ride on Time" in the year 1989.
Holloway was so incensed by the use of her single for Black Box's International hit that she engaged in a press attack on the group, which successfully secured a settlement that paid the singer an undisclosed sum.
The group had legally cleared the samples with Salsoul Records, who had released the original track, but Holloway was in arrears for advances from the label and thus was not recompensed by Salsoul Records.
"Not only did the production outfit not have permission; it also employed a French model to lip-synch over the Chicagoan’s vocals" stated Holloway.
“I thought I was gonna lose my mind,” Holloway told writer and DJ Bill Brewster in 2005.
“Seriously. I almost had a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t talk about it without cryin’. I’d spent so long tryin’ to be an entertainer, and I’m not even getting credit for it? It was like, ‘How dare they?’ Someone’s just taken something from you, right in front of your face.” She added: “For years it destroyed me.” added Holloway.
I spent the next half hour failing to persuade Holloway to talk about the sunnier side of her recording career adds DJ Bill Brewster in 2005
“Music didn’t do anything for me,” she retorted at one point. “I would probably have done better staying in the gospel and getting me a nine-to-five job. I probably would have been better off than trying to make a career out of this because my career was destroyed, starting with Black Box.”
She maintained that “Loleatta Holloway is not even a person,” adding that “you can cry, cry, cry so much, and then it’s like, for what reason?” She had suffered more than most. “I know I’m one of the most sampled women there is,” she added. “It’s one thing with the sample if you give someone credit, but when you take the sample and take the credit and you are them, it’s another thing altogether. There’s so much they’ve done to me to just knock me out completely like I never existed". Holloway tells DJ Bill Brewster in 2005.
A re-recording of the song with uncredited vocals by Heather Small was released in the second week of September 1989, and the original Holloway version was discontinued from distribution.
This version was released as the "UK Remix" and contained the same three mixes as the original but with Heather Small's vocals in place of Loleatta Holloway. The Original Mix, Garage Trip Mix, and Pianopella Mix became Massive Mix, Epsom Mix, and Ascot Mix respectively.
The song's title derives from a sample of Holloway singing the lyrics "Thank you, baby, 'cause you're right on time".
Daniele Davoli explained in a UK television station known as Channel 4, via a documentary Pump Up The Volume that, owing to his limited knowledge of English and the song being sung in an American English accent, with t-flapping so that "t"s sound like "d"s, he thought that Loleatta Holloway sang "ride on time" instead of "right on time".
The song called "Ride on Time" was written and produced by the Italian production team Groove Groove Melody, consisting of DJ Daniele Davoli, programmer Mirko Limoni, and musician Valerio Semplici - which included the famous "Love Sensation" within the track.
The team that was Black Box worked with French model Katrin Quinol, who was the face and image for the group. Within the video and in live performances Quinol lip-synced to the original vocals.
Katrin Quinol (The French Model who was seen lip-synching the famous track on THE BBC's - TOP OF THE POPS MUSIC SHOW IN 1989) - Was interviewed on the 26th of May 2016 and has had her chance to say on the matter. Please click on this link - Katrin Quinol's full interview
Here is a small snippet of the Interview mentioned below to read if you don't want to read the full interview mentioned above! (You can click on the above to get the full interview):
You've been a member of the Italian dance music band Black Box. How did you happen?
I was a model during the day and a go-go dancer in nightclubs. I loved to sing at the end of the night and one night the producers came. They offered me that opportunity. I wasn't that excited (LOL), I loved my job, but I was young and I told myself: why not? They want a singer: OK, let's try.
In the Eurodance scene, it was very common to use models Lyp Sync over tracks by Chorus singers. Was it frustrating for you?
A the beginning, I wasn't frustrated at all. It was a job like any other, I wasn't expecting anything special. I couldn't imagine becoming that famous being black boxes' faces. I thought I would go to a recording studio and sing their tracks, but everything was ready (LOL). I was used to lip-syncing on the 70s/80s show before, and I had fun doing it. It was just fine with Black Box too.
When I started to figure out the situation and wanted to sing for real, it was too late: Black Box washuge, and I was trapped. "Ride on Time was the biggest-selling single of the year 1989 in the UK, I couldn't stop. It was a lot of fun, but of course, I would have loved to record the songs.
What memories do you have of the Black Box years??
I did travel a lot: Australia, the USA, Japan... I met a lot of nice people and had crazy nights. I had a lot of lovers (LOL). Many great memories. But on another hand, I was exhausted, never home. I was living in planes and hotels. They were my home sweet home. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it
What is your favorite track from Black Box
Without a doubt "Ride on Time"
"Ride On Time" became a massive hit in Italy and then worldwide, after legal rights were obtained in all territories.
The song spent six weeks at No. 1 in the UK, ultimately becoming the biggest-selling single of 1989 It fared less well in the United States, where it failed to chart as a pop record, although it did reach No. 39 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.
It was the first high-profile example of an Italo house record. The genre is noteworthy for extreme amounts of "borrowing", usually in single phrases, sometimes in couplets, and the lyrical "hooks" from other compositions.
It has been estimated that "Loleatta Holloway" vocals have been used in over 300 songs which is double the amount of music used by any other Disco labeled artists within the gene. For instance, Donna Summer comes to mind here
"Love Sensation" is a 1980 song performed by singer Loleatta Holloway, taken from her album called Loleatta Holloway. The song was produced and written by Dan Hartman, put together by Norman Harris, and mixed by Tom Moulton.
These are just some of the songs that have been sampled and used "Love Sensation in their compositions
- "I Wanna Have Some Fun" (1988) by Samantha Fox
- "Ride On Time" (1989) (Holloway's vocal as well as the Salsoul Orchestra's instrumental portions) by Black Box
- "I Don't Know Anybody Else" (1989) by Black Box/Martha Wash.
- "Grand Piano" by Mixmaster
- "Good Vibrations" (1991) by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
- "We All Feel Better in the Dark" by the Pet Shop Boys
- "Move" (1993) by Moby
- "Take Me Away" (1991) by Cappella
- "Take Me Away" by 2 in a Room (using the same sample as Cappella)
- "(You Got Me) Burnin' Up" with Cevin Fisher
- "Take Me Away" (2008) by Chase & Status
- "Blind Faith" (2011) by Chase & Status
- "Love Sensation" (2006) by Eddie Thoneick & Kurd Maverick
- "Just Like A Queen" by Ellis Dee
- "Overtime" (2013) by Cash Cash
- "Bootleg Fireworks (Burning Up)" (2012) by Dillon Francis
- "Day and Night" feat. Will Miller & Carter Lang (2014) by A Billion Young
- "Good Vibration" (2015) by Majk Spirit & DJ Mad Skill
- "Semisation" (2004) by Technical Itch
- "Semisation 2013" (2013) by Technical Itch vs. The Panacea
- "Soul Train" (2012) by Geck-e
- "Burning Up" (2009) by Skream
- "Good Vibes" (2015) by Kryder & The Wulf
- "Temptation" (2015) by Still Young, Simon de Jano & Madwill
- "Gud Vibrations" (2015) by NGHTMRE & SLANDER
- "So Nice!" (2016) by Diserpier
It seems as if we lost an unhappy artist in the form of Loleatta Holloway. She died of heart failure in the year of 2011. However, the 300 recordings of her voice show testimony about her talent and her voice that many producers depended upon.
I myself never bought the single that caused all the storms all those years ago. I remember seeing BLACK BOX on Top of the Pops ( BBC MUSIC CHART SHOW), and noticing that there seemed to be a trend going on here.
This movement called Italo House by the dance music magazines at the time here in the UK seemed to be FAVOURED BY THE NIGHTCLUB DJs of THE TIME.
These Italian-style dance/House tracks were being released furiously due to the House music scene.
That many thought would have ended after the Second Summer of Love movement here in the UK.
For me, it seemed as if the movement of House music, in general, was taking another influence from another country to broaden its appeal even further to music lovers around the world.
This single helped the music of Italo House within the HOUSE music movement scene to gain even further momentum and challenge the popularity of HipHop music within the UK and Europe.
This particular single - Black Box - "Ride on Time" reached number 1 on the Uk Pop Charts of 1989. And then opened the floodgates for more Italian-styled House/dance tracks to dominate clubland.
But the vocals were all American (*Well usually). For this single, they used the vocalist - Loleatta Holloway
Loleatta Holloway, Singer, and songwriter died on the 21st of March 2012 in Chicago, Usa. She was born in the city of Chicago, on the USA 5th of November 1946. She was married to Floyd Smith (who died in 1984) she leaves behind three sons and one daughter).
She made six studio albums in her time. Out of them came only two music single hits. These were Only You (1978) and Love Sensation (1980).
A fellow artist named Carol William (Singer) who worked with her at the same time, and on the same Music label which was - the Salsoul Record label, states, "When she recorded in the studio, she would have to stand so far back from the mic.
Most singers, you know, go right up to the mic and almost have their lips on it. Loleatta could stand feet away."
Please click on the link below provided by the BBC to learn about her life and death.
Disco singer Loleatta Holloway dies at 64
Loleatta Holloway was a great vocalist in her own right. Unfortunately, she will always be remembered for the single that was released in 1989, that was "RIDE ON TIME" in which the DJ/PRODUCERS(OF Blackbox) tried to steal her vocals for their own ends.
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