V.A. Saturday

In 1989 house music burst its way into the popular consciousnesses and the mainstream. Dance acts began to top the charts. No one exemplified this better than Black Box, an Italian team, who took their single Ride On Time to the top of the UK charts at a time when doing that meant selling serious amounts of vinyl. Ride On Time was genius, a huge uptempo dance track, powered like a rock song, and a gateway to rave. The trio behind it- Daniele Davoli, Mirko Limoni and Verlio Semplici- sampled three separate vocal lines, one an unauthorised line by Loleatta Holloway's 1980 single Love Hangover. They sampled Love Unlimited Orchestra too and went out to road test their new song in a club in Italy. Davoli played it in his set, 1000 people on the floor. It cleared the floor. Daniele was heartbroken. His mates told him that it wasn't the record, it was the wrong club. Excellent advice.  

Ride On Time

After legal action from Loleatta they re- recorded the vocals, an uncredited Heather Small, later of M- People, taking over at the mic. Just to show we were not in indie/ rock land any more where credibility is everything and miming is deception, they hired a model to be the frontperson/ 'singer' for all the TV appearances- of which there were many. Katrin Quinol was as unforgettable miming and dancing as the song itself. 

Ian Brown said in an interview at the time that there were only three good records in 1989- his own band's Fool's Gold, Doug Lazy's Let It Roll and Ride On Time. He missed a few I think but he's right to include it. 

From Ride On Time it was a short step for many people to the various artists compilation Italia (Dance Music From Italy), a budget price album clad in a distinctive blue sleeve, packed with further gems from the Italian club scene, from the beaches of Rimini and the bars of the Amalfi Coast. Dr. Zharkov, Gino Latino, The Jam Machine, D.F.C. Team, and Psycho Team all contributed more uptempo, piano-led dance music for all your partying needs. And this one, Starlight's Numero Uno, another massive crossover hit.

Numero Uno

 'Talk is cheap!'

Right On Time

1989 was a good year. I don't know if we knew this at the time or just at the age of nineteen (I was anyway) we expected that all years would be like that. This single by Italo House outfit Black Box was number one for six weeks in the UK. It caused some controversy at the time because Loleatta Holloway's original vocal (swiped from Love Sensation) was mimed to by French model Katrin Quinol (pictured lounging about above). Loleatta's lawyers got involved even though sample clearance had been agreed. Loleatta got paid, the single withdrawn and the vocals were re-recorded by Heather Small. I'm not sure the record buying punter really cared- they just found it irresistible for dancing too (and still do).

Originally the line was 'because you're right on time' but somewhere in Italy it got misheard or mispronounced and changed to 'ride on time' which is good because it sounds better. Much like when Gerald ran out of character space on the title display when naming Voodoo Rage and instead went for Voodoo Ray. Happy accidents.

If I've got this right, and there's a chance I haven't, this is the first version with Loleatta's withdrawn vocal...

Ride On Time (Loleatta Holloway vocal)

And this is the remixed version with Heather Small

Ride On Time (Heather Small vocal)