Ride on Time
"Ride on Time" is a song by the Italian dance group Black Box, released as a single in 1989 and included on their debut album, "Dreamland" (1990). Songwriter Daniele Davioli described "Ride on Time" as an attempt to create a dance track with the power of a rock song. The first version used an unlicensed vocal sample from the 1980 single "Love Sensation" by Loleatta Holloway, who objected to its use. After the copyright owners took legal action, the single was reissued with rerecorded vocals by Heather Small, who later found fame as the vocalist of M  People. For television appearances, Black Box hired model Katrin Quinol to mime the vocals. Black Box signed the single to Italian label Discomagic; in the UK, it was licensed by Deconstruction. It was popularised in the UK by DJs Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling. "Ride on Time" topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks and became the UK's bestselling single of 1989; it also topped the charts in Iceland and Ireland, and entered the top 10 of several other countries. It has appeared in critics' lists of the best house tracks, and in 2020 the "Guardian" named it  one of the greatest UK number ones. Recording. "Ride on Time" was written and produced by the Italian production team Groove Groove Melody, comprising Daniele Davoli, Mirko Limoni and Valerio Semplici. Davoli visited New York City and bought a 12-inch acapella of "Love Sensation", a 1980 single by Loleatta Holloway, planning to use it to create mashups. Back in Italy, he was introduced to samplers, and persuaded the club where he worked to buy an Akai S900 sampler. He created the first version of "Ride on Time" using the S900 to sample the "Love Sensation" vocals. Limoni added piano  chords and additional vocal samples. Davoli said that as Italian rock music was not taken seriously, "Ride on Time" was the group's attempt to "do a song with the power of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but with a dance beat". The basic backing track was finished in less than an hour, but it took weeks to finalise the ordering of the samples. Davoli tested the track in a club, but the audience responded poorly: "It was heartbreaking. The floor had 1,000 people dancing, and it cleared it." However, his bandmates assured him that it was "the wrong club . The song title derives from the sampled lyric Thank you baby, 'cause you're "right on time"". Davoli explained that, owing to his limited knowledge of English and to Holloway's American accent, he thought the line was ""ride" on time". Release. Black Box showed "Ride on Time" to numerous Italian record labels, but none were interested, feeling it did not match their markets. Finally, Davoli took it to Discomagic Records, who he said "would release almost anything". Shortly after the track was finished, British DJs Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling visited Italy looking for Italo house music. They heard  an early pressing of "Ride on Time" in a record shop, purchased all the available copies, and brought them to England. Around the same time, the UK record label Deconstruction contacted Discomagic, interested in licensing Black Box's earlier track "Numero Uno", but it had been licensed to Beggars Banquet. Instead, Deconstruction licensed "Ride on Time" and released it with no promotion, competing with the imported copies arriving in UK record stores. "Ride on Time" was included on Black Box's debut album "Dreamland" (1990). In 2019, for the song's 30th anniversary, Black Box created a new mix in  the style of a 1970s disco track. Sampling dispute. Deconstruction was concerned about clearing the "Love Sensation" sample, which was owned by Salsoul Records. Davoli mistakenly believed Holloway was dead and that sampling less than two seconds of copyrighted music without permission was legal. Dan Hartman, who wrote "Love Sensation", asked for a third of the royalties. Although Black Box initially baulked at the offer, they later learnt Hartman could have asked for 100%, and Davoli said he had been "a true gentleman". After negotiations worsened with Salsoul, BMG, which owned Deconstruction, had Black Box record a replacement vocal. The  new vocalist was Heather Small, who later found fame as the singer of M People. Small was not told what the purpose of the recording was, and recorded her vocals within an hour for a flat fee. According to Davoli, BMG were secretive about her identity even with Black Box, saying it was "a singer doing them a favour, someone who hadn't released any music yet but was a big priority for BMG for the future". BMG refused to confirm Small had provided the vocal even after M People became successful. Within a week of Small recording the vocal , Deconstruction withdrew the single and released a new version on the "Ride on Time Remix" EP, which counted towards sales of the original song. The edited track appeared on the EP as the "Massive Mix". Radio stations continued to play the original version, and it continued to appear on some versions of "Dreamland" and compilation albums. According to Davoli, Holloway was never paid for "Ride on Time", as the sample was owned by Salsoul. However, music journalist James Masterton reported that she reached a settlement over the track and bought a fur coat with the proceeds. Holloway said: "I've  been around for years trying to get this one hit record. It annoyed me knowing that Black Box were number one and I was not getting any credit for it." Davoli said he regretted not meeting Holloway before her death in 2011, and would have liked to apologise "for how messy things got". Black Box bought the rights to the "Love Sensation" sample in 2018. Miming. When Black Box were invited to perform on the British music series "Top of the Pops", they hired model Katrin Quinol to mime the vocals, as "none of us three blokes from Italy would  be convincing replacements for Loleatta Holloway". Quinol also appeared in the music video and other performances. Davoli said, "You could tell those vocals didn't come from a slim girl like her. But she had a great influence on the public – she had the moves on stage and looked great and of the time." The miming drew criticism, which surprised the band, as it was normal on Italian television. Davoli later said he regretted using Quinol: "It was wrong. But in Italy, a lot of people used to sing on a record and labels would ask young people to become  the image ... We looked at American and English artists and realised they don't do that." The group allowed Quinol to perform in Europe under the Black Box name. Sales. "Ride on Time" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 28 in the week of August 12th, 1989. Boosted by demand for the import, it reached number one in its fifth week, on September 3, 1989. It topped the chart for six weeks, and became the UK's bestselling single of 1989. It also reached number one in Iceland and Ireland, number two in Sweden and Greece, and entered the  top ten in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and West Germany. It reached number four on the Eurochart Hot 100. In Australia and New Zealand, "Ride on Time" reached number two. In the United States, it reached number 39 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. As of 2018, it had been streamed over nine million times on Spotify. It was certified Gold in Sweden, Silver in France and Platinum in Australia and the UK. Reception. Reviewing "Dreamland" In 1990, Chris Heath from "Smash Hits" described "Ride on Time" as "quite brilliant". "Daily Vault" reviewer Michael R. Smith  wrote in his 2009 review of "Dreamland" that he did not like the song when it became a hit, "though now I recognise how effective and timeless these tunes really are. Maybe it was the fact that they were overplayed to death back then. Now that a lot of time has passed, they sound fresher and fuller of life than ever." In 2010, Tom Ewing of "Freaky Trigger" described "Ride On Time" as "a series of peaks, with the union of 'Right on time!' and the piano riff the highest and most thrilling". He added that Holloway "isn't doing  all the work. The trappings of Italo house – light, sequenced keyboard lines, bouncy bass, endless hi-hat all working in unison to give that gorgeous piano its lift – seemed to be on a hundred hits that summer, and the vocal hooks made this the biggest." In 2011, James Masterton wrote that Small's replacement vocal was "almost comically bad", with a noticeable Manchester accent, and that it was "a shame that Loleatta Holloway is being remembered mostly for her vocals on a track which doesn't actually feature them on most of the copies that were sold". "Fact" included "Ride  on Time" in its 2014 list of "diva-house belters that still sound incredible", writing: "Some people see this as a guilty pleasure now. Those people are fools. Banging piano + Loleatta Holloway = world changing greatness." "Mixmag" included the song in their 2019 list of the 20 best diva house tracks, writing that its "overall feel and wailing vocal accompaniment still bangs to this day and it is considered one of the first high-profile examples of italo house". In 2020, "The Guardian" named it the 67th greatest UK number one, writing: "Heather Small blows the house down ... This  is a Terminator of a song, unstoppably delivering a payload of pure euphoria as Chicago house is spliced with Italo disco to create perfect pop."