Love Sensation

Album: Loleatta Holloway (1980)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Love Sensation" was a #1 Dance hit in 1980, but years later it morphed into two much bigger hits.

    In 1989, Loleatta Holloway's vocals were chopped up into "Ride On Time" by Black Box, a #1 hit in the UK. Black Box was a team of Italian dance music producers that got a copy of Holloway's raw vocals; they claimed it came from a bootleg CD with no identifier, so they didn't know who the singer was. They hired a French model who didn't speak English to pretend she was the singer, lip-synching in the video and appearing on the artwork. Holloway was furious and took legal action, eventually getting credited as the vocalist.

    "Ride On Time" uses Holloway's line "'cause you're right on time" as the hook, ignoring the actual lyric in favor of a more distinguished title.

    Black Box pulled more shenanigans when they used Martha Wash's demo vocals for songs like "Everybody Everybody" and "Strike It Up," attributing them to the French model as well. Wash also took legal action.

    In 1991, "Love Sensation" was sampled on "Good Vibrations" by Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch, Marky Mark being Mark Wahlberg. That song was a #1 hit in the US.

    "Good Vibrations" was above board, credited as "featuring Loleatta Holloway." She appears in the video as well.
  • "Love Sensation" was written and produced by Dan Hartman, who had a big hit on his own in 1984 with "I Can Dream About You."

    According to Holloway, they recorded it at Hartman's house, and he pushed her to the edge. "He had his own studio and he had me sing that song 30 times," she told the New Musical Express. "I've never had to do a song that long but he kept me having to sing it over and over until he felt he had what he wanted. I sang that song so hard it nearly killed me, I couldn't even talk."
  • Holloway started out as a gospel singer, and she sure goes to church on this track. The song is about the unbridled energy of passionate love, and Holloway delivers it with conviction.
  • Thanks to "Ride On Time" and "Good Vibrations," this became Holloway's most famous song, and one she performed at dance clubs into the '00s. She died in 2011 at 64.

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