Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) by Spiller

Album: Essential Spring Break (2000)

Charted: 1

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Songfacts®:

In 1998 the Italian DJ/producer Cristiano Spiller visited a Miami nightclub called Groovejet. He was inspired and returned home to create an instrumental record in its honor based around the bass line of an obscure 1977 disco track, "Love Is You" by Carol Williams. In 2000 he re-recorded it with vocals by Sophie Ellis-Bextor (formerly of the alternative group The Audience). It is claimed that Sarah Cracknell of St. Etienne was the first choice vocalist but was unavailable at the time. Songwriter Rob Davies, formerly of 1970s glam rock group Mud wrote the chorus and Spiller asked Sophie to write a verse.
This entered the UK charts at #1, selling 202,500 singles, creating a media frenzy by just beating Spice Girl Victoria Beckham's track "Out Of Your Mind," which sold 181,000 copies. "Groovejet" finally sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide reaching #1 also in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Spiller recalled, "All the time I was playing 'Groovejet,' many people kept saying to me, 'when are you going to put some vocals on it?' I thought about it and liked the idea of putting a sweet white voice like Sophie's on it."

Sophie Ellis-Bextor said, "I didn't really like the chorus. The line 'If this ain't love, why does it feel so good' was about this girl being indecisive and I didn't really like that dithery mentality. What I tried to do with the verse was to set the about the idea that, she knew the answer to the question isn't love, it's lust, so it's all about a holiday romance." (both quotes from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh)
In 2001 a team of Apple engineers developed the first ever working model of an iPod. A group of people took turns listening on a set of headphones from someone's old Sony Walkman. The first song, they listened to was this.
Cristiano Spiller is noted for being the tallest DJ in the world at a height of 6 feet 9 inches. When this song topped the UK chart, he became the tallest artist to have a UK #1 hit. Spiller overtook 6-foot-7-inch Long John Baldry, who reached the summit in 1967 with "Let The Heartaches Begin."
Sophie Ellis-Bextor is also the daughter of former British children's TV program Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis. She went on to record several hits under her own name including "Take Me Home (A Girl Like Me)" and "Murder On The Dancefloor," which both reached #2 in the UK in 2001.

Comments: 2

Melinda from AustraliaItalian sophistication at its best!
Melinda from AustraliaThis song defined the early 2000’s. Especially in Europe. Although it isn’t that old yet in music terms. It will become iconic. And get the respect it deserves. It’s a song that floated us from the 1990’s and into the new, the 2000’s. Music definitely changed with this song.
While the UK’s Groove Armada made techno sexy and at times smooth ..and yet highly danceable. Groovejet by Spiller made clever sexy techno mainstream.
And some of us young women then were tragically fascinated by Christiano Spiller, the tall tall good lookin blonde Italian basketball playing DJ ...who created this piece of music.
And the guys, by Sophie Ellis Bextor, the very pretty model and vocalist who was Christiano Spiller’s English girlfriend at the time, I believe.
If you were clubbing it in 2000 and 2001. This song was probably part of the backdrop to your youth. It’s a perfect song.

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