Ride On Time

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"Ride On Time"
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 it's 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. Holloways 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 whichwould 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, somethimes in couplets, the lyrical "hooks" from other compositions. Italo House's other distinction is that it's 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 it's unique identity when the sampling and lyrical borrowing eventually became ubuquitous in the world House scene.

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