Loleatta Holloway, dead at 64

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

RIP Loleatta Holloway
by RAY FITZGERALD on MARCH 22, 2011

Soul and Disco singer Loleatta Holloway died Monday evening following a brief illness. She was 64 years old.

Holloway got her start as a gospel singer, recording with Albertina Walker and the Caravans. In the early 1970s, she signed a recording contract with the Aware Recrods. Holloway recorded two albums for the label, both of them produced by Floyd Smith—Loleatta (1973) and Cry to Me (1975). Holloway later married Smith. Her first single from the second album, the ballad Cry to Me (video below) rose to No. 10 Billboard R&B and No. 68 on the Hot 100, but before the label could really establish Holloway, it went out of business.

Top Philadelphia arranger and producer Norman Harris quickly signed her in 1976 for his new label, Gold Mind. The first release from the album Loleatta was another Sam Dees ballad, Worn-Out Broken Heart, which reached No. 25 R&B, but the B-side, Dreaming, climbed to No. 72 on the pop chart and launched her as a disco act.

Eighteen songs of hers charted on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, including four No. 1s. However, it was a ballad that proved to be another big R&B hit for her. Only You was written and produced by Bunny Sigler, who also sang with Holloway on the track, and it reached NO. 11 in 1978.

R.I.P., Loleatta.

spinningsoul.com/2011/03/riploleatta/

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She was a major force in Dance music since the 70s, especially with her recordings for the legendary Salsoul label. Her more well-known songs, in terms of mainstream releases included Dan Hartman's "Relight My Fire", and her own "Love Sensation", "Dreamin", and "Runaway."

Her vocals were sampled countless times to create new songs. Some of the more notable ones included Black Box's "Ride On Time", which jump started the whole sampling debate, and Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch's "Good Vibrations." Both sampled "Love Sensation." A short sound bite of her high note from her 80's club hit "Crash Goes Love" became the basis for the 90's club hit "The Witch Doktor" by Armand Van Helden.

New remixes and updates of "Love Sensation", which is basically her signature song have been coming out almost every year for the last 20 years. She occasionally performed new vocals for new songs during the late 90's and early 2000's.

She will truly be missed. RIP Loleatta. :'(

[Verisimilitude]

OH NO. :'(

Very, very tragic loss. "Love Sensation" = one of the best songs ever.

[WotUNeed]

Wow. Quite sad news. I enjoy a lot of her work; an artist whose level of acclaim never matched her level of artistry. R.I.P. Ms. Holloway, and thanks for the many great musical contributions.

[d.t.m]

Oh no! I loved her disco work.

[Fresh]

:(

[TGAC]

This is my fave Loleatta song:



R.I.P. :(

[lolhey]

Such sad news, Love Sensation is such a staple and her vocals were just out of this world. Rest In Peace :'[

[Nick]

R.I.P. to a dance legend. Saw her perform at a club years back.
"Love Sensation" has been sampled countless times.

[KeepDeanWeird]

I'll never forget an interview with LH after Ride on Time came out and was #1 in UK, but she received no credit. She was in tears that her work was copped. (It was a legal sample, but she wasn't paid, until she sued.) I felt so badly for her -- it was great that she finally got that US #1 with Good Vibrations. What a voice.

[Nick]

Mar 22, 2011 19:24:03 GMT -5 KeepDeanWeird said:

I'll never forget an interview with LH after Ride on Time came out and was #1 in UK, but she received no credit. She was in tears that her work was copped. (It was a legal sample, but she wasn't paid, until she sued.) I felt so badly for her -- it was great that she finally got that US #1 with Good Vibrations. What a voice.

Blackbox f*cked over Loleatta Holloway and Martha Wash until they sued.

[Luckie Starchild]

R.I.P.

[CookyMonzta]

For those of you who collect old records, find her magnum opus, "Hit And Run", which I first heard in 1977. Never is there a better tune than one that is more than 5 minutes long. This one clocks in at 11 minutes! A classic that any 12-inch vinyl (especially disco) collector should have.

[CookyMonzta]

And for all the b-boys and b-girls out there, look for her 1984 electro/freestyle hit "Crash Goes Love", produced by none other than Arthur Baker.

[HolidayGuy]

She also sang on Black Box tracks? I thought Martha Wash was the only one screwed on that one.

R.I.P.- Loleatta also did a cover of "Like a Prayer" on the Virgin Voices tribute album.

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

Mar 23, 2011 9:49:57 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

She also sang on Black Box tracks? I thought Martha Wash was the only one screwed on that one.

R.I.P.- Loleatta also did a cover of "Like a Prayer" on the Virgin Voices tribute album.

Several of Loleatta's vocal samples from "Love Sensation" were used in the original version of Black Box's "Ride On Time". A new version was recorded later on with Heather Small (who was later the lead vocalist for M People) on vocals. She did a decent job, but it was all about the original version.

[Blaise.]

Mar 22, 2011 0:13:17 GMT -5 WotUNeed said:

Wow. Quite sad news. I enjoy a lot of her work; an artist whose level of acclaim never matched her level of artistry. R.I.P. Ms. Holloway, and thanks for the many great musical contributions.

MTE. May she rest in peace.

[esoteric76]

Mar 22, 2011 23:47:49 GMT -5 CookyMonzta said:

For those of you who collect old records, find her magnum opus, "Hit And Run", which I first heard in 1977. Never is there a better tune than one that is more than 5 minutes long. This one clocks in at 11 minutes! A classic that any 12-inch vinyl (especially disco) collector should have.

This mix is on the album Loleatta, which was reissued a few times, but hopefully will get another shipment with her sad passing.
I love her voice, and have freaked out many a time to the Thunderpuss mixes of Share My Joy!

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

Mar 23, 2011 16:03:50 GMT -5 esoteric76 said:

Mar 22, 2011 23:47:49 GMT -5 CookyMonzta said:

For those of you who collect old records, find her magnum opus, "Hit And Run", which I first heard in 1977. Never is there a better tune than one that is more than 5 minutes long. This one clocks in at 11 minutes! A classic that any 12-inch vinyl (especially disco) collector should have.

This mix is on the album Loleatta, which was reissued a few times, but hopefully will get another shipment with her sad passing.

The long version was also released on a handful of Salsoul compilations. The Suss'd label out of the UK did an extensive series of reissues a few years ago of most of the Salsoul catalogue, including singles, collections, and anthologies.

The 11 minute version of "Hit And Run" is included on this one:
www.discogs.com/Various-The-Definitive-12-Masters-Vol-2/release/481432

[$uperb@tDuDe]

So young R.I.P.

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

The New York Times recently featured this article about Loleatta's life and career.

Loleatta Holloway, Gospel and Disco Singer, Is Dead at 64
By JON PARELES

Loleatta Holloway, a gospel-charged disco singer whose 1980 hit “Love Sensation” had a long afterlife when fragments of it were used in later hits, died Monday in a suburban Chicago hospital. She was 64 and lived in Chicago.

She died after slipping into a coma after a brief illness, her manager, Ron Richardson, said in a statement.

Ms. Holloway was born in 1946 and grew up singing in gospel groups, including her mother’s Holloway Community Singers choir. From 1967 to 1971 she sang in one of gospel’s most respected groups, the Caravans, led by Albertina Walker. She then turned to secular music, bringing the raspy fervor and airborne whoops of her gospel performances to songs about desire.

Her rhythm-and-blues career began with the single “Rainbow ’71,” produced by her future husband, the guitarist Floyd Smith. Mr. Smith went on to produce her first two albums, “Loleatta” in 1973 and “Cry to Me” in 1975. He died in 1982; Ms. Holloway is survived by four children and nine grandchildren.

Her 1975 remake of the Solomon Burke hit “Cry to Me” reached No. 10 on the R&B chart. But Ms. Holloway’s label, Aware, closed down, and disco was on the rise in 1976 when she signed with the Philadelphia-based Gold Mind label, a subsidiary of Salsoul Records. She recorded with the producer and singer Bunny Sigler, and “Only You,” a duet with him, reached No. 11 on the R&B chart. In 1977 two of her dance tracks, “"Dreamin’ ” and “Hit and Run,” both reached No. 3 on the dance chart, where she would have most of her hits.

In the late 1970s Ms. Holloway began working with the singer Dan Hartman. She can be heard on his 1979 dance-club hit “Relight My Fire,” and he wrote and produced “Love Sensation” for her. Those sessions, Ms. Holloway recalled in a 2009 interview with discomusic.com, required 29 vocal takes over two days of recording. On the second day, she said, she lost her voice, but she put some Vicks VapoRub in her coffee to keep singing. “That’s how I was able to hold that note for so long,” she recalled.

“Love Sensation” reached No. 1 on the dance chart. Four years later her “Crash Goes Love” reached No. 5.

But “Love Sensation” proved durable. Samples of her vocal were used by the Italian dance-music group Black Box for “Ride on Time,” a No. 1 hit in Britain, at first without crediting Ms. Holloway; the video clip showed another woman lip-synching Ms. Holloway’s sampled vocals. She successfully sued Black Box, in a case settled out of court. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, led by Mark Wahlberg, also drew on “Love Sensation” — this time giving Ms. Holloway prominent credit — for “Good Vibrations,” which became a No. 1 pop hit in the United States in 1991.

The song was also sampled on dance tracks by Cappella and Cevin Fisher, and Ms. Holloway remade it herself in 2006, as she continued to perform on the dance-club circuit.

“I never thought of myself as a good singer,” Ms. Holloway said in 2009. “When I was 5 years old I started singing in church and I hated my voice because I sounded like a grown woman, not a child. I was ashamed of it.”

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

The New York Times recently featured this article about Loleatta's life and career.

Loleatta Holloway, Gospel and Disco Singer, Is Dead at 64
By JON PARELES

Loleatta Holloway, a gospel-charged disco singer whose 1980 hit “Love Sensation” had a long afterlife when fragments of it were used in later hits, died Monday in a suburban Chicago hospital. She was 64 and lived in Chicago.

She died after slipping into a coma after a brief illness, her manager, Ron Richardson, said in a statement.

Ms. Holloway was born in 1946 and grew up singing in gospel groups, including her mother’s Holloway Community Singers choir. From 1967 to 1971 she sang in one of gospel’s most respected groups, the Caravans, led by Albertina Walker. She then turned to secular music, bringing the raspy fervor and airborne whoops of her gospel performances to songs about desire.

Her rhythm-and-blues career began with the single “Rainbow ’71,” produced by her future husband, the guitarist Floyd Smith. Mr. Smith went on to produce her first two albums, “Loleatta” in 1973 and “Cry to Me” in 1975. He died in 1982; Ms. Holloway is survived by four children and nine grandchildren.

Her 1975 remake of the Solomon Burke hit “Cry to Me” reached No. 10 on the R&B chart. But Ms. Holloway’s label, Aware, closed down, and disco was on the rise in 1976 when she signed with the Philadelphia-based Gold Mind label, a subsidiary of Salsoul Records. She recorded with the producer and singer Bunny Sigler, and “Only You,” a duet with him, reached No. 11 on the R&B chart. In 1977 two of her dance tracks, “"Dreamin’ ” and “Hit and Run,” both reached No. 3 on the dance chart, where she would have most of her hits.

In the late 1970s Ms. Holloway began working with the singer Dan Hartman. She can be heard on his 1979 dance-club hit “Relight My Fire,” and he wrote and produced “Love Sensation” for her. Those sessions, Ms. Holloway recalled in a 2009 interview with discomusic.com, required 29 vocal takes over two days of recording. On the second day, she said, she lost her voice, but she put some Vicks VapoRub in her coffee to keep singing. “That’s how I was able to hold that note for so long,” she recalled.

“Love Sensation” reached No. 1 on the dance chart. Four years later her “Crash Goes Love” reached No. 5.

But “Love Sensation” proved durable. Samples of her vocal were used by the Italian dance-music group Black Box for “Ride on Time,” a No. 1 hit in Britain, at first without crediting Ms. Holloway; the video clip showed another woman lip-synching Ms. Holloway’s sampled vocals. She successfully sued Black Box, in a case settled out of court. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, led by Mark Wahlberg, also drew on “Love Sensation” — this time giving Ms. Holloway prominent credit — for “Good Vibrations,” which became a No. 1 pop hit in the United States in 1991.

The song was also sampled on dance tracks by Cappella and Cevin Fisher, and Ms. Holloway remade it herself in 2006, as she continued to perform on the dance-club circuit.

“I never thought of myself as a good singer,” Ms. Holloway said in 2009. “When I was 5 years old I started singing in church and I hated my voice because I sounded like a grown woman, not a child. I was ashamed of it.”