Ride On Time
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| "Ride On Time" | ||
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| Single by Black Box | ||
| Length | mm:ss | |
| Writer(s) | Dan Hartman ("Love Sensation") | |
"Ride On Time" was a popular single by Black Box.
Written and produced by the Italian production team Groove Groove Melody (DJ Daniel Davoli, programmer Mirko Limoni and musician Valeric Semplici) and incorporating the composition "Love Sensation" written by Dan Hartman. The team worked with singer and model Katrin (aka Catherine Quinol). Initially creating a legal stir for its unprecedented borrowing from another composition (more extreme than any other previous example of sampling, if one measures the amount of Hartman's composition that was used in total), this song became a massive hit in Italy and then worldwide, after legal rights were obtained in all territories.
The song attracted some controversy for the uncredited use of Loleatta Holloway's vocals from her recording of Love Sensation. Holloway's counsel engaged in a press attack on Black Box, successfully securing a settlement that paid the singer an undisclosed sum; the group had legally cleared the samples with Salsoul records, but Holloway was in arrears for advances from the label and thus was not compenstated by Salsoul.
The song spent 6 weeks at #1 in the UK, ultimately becoming the biggest selling single of the year. It fared less well in the US where it failed to chart as a pop record but peaked at #39 on the Billboard dance chart, paving the way for "Everybody, Everybody" (the next single by Black Box which would feature uncredited vocals from Martha Wash, whose counsel also went to war with the group).
"Ride On Time" 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, the lyrical "hooks" from other compositions. Italo House's other distinction is that its original Italian lyrics (when present) are translated into a nonsensical form of English that becomes accidentally impressionistic. This element proved to be the greater charm of the genre and the one that would maintain its unique identity when the sampling and lyrical borrowing eventually became ubuquitous in the world House scene.
[edit] Audio sample
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| Preceded by "Swing The Mood" by Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers |
UK number-one single September 3, 1989 |
Succeeded by "That's What I Like" by Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers |
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