Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Loleatta Holloway

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Loleatta Holloway

In my own personal big gay church, there is a wing festooned with disco balls, strobes and a pulsing dancefloor. Here reign the Divas of the Dancefloor; a rare cultural phenomena somewhat confined to the clubs. Their siren calls beckon you forth, bewitching you with soulful sounds and inspirational words, causing your body to gyrate as if taken by a spirit. Theirs is the world of house - and by house, I mean, these ladies know how to take you to church, son. With their voices we soar and are liberated from gravity's and reality's pull.

One such diva?

Loleatta Holloway

Few have contributed more to dance music than Loleatta Holloway. 

Her throaty, gospel inspired vocals brought to life numerous club stompers. She remains one of the most sampled vocalists of all time. 

When you heard her voice? She was calling you to church!

After cutting her teeth in gospel groups while growing up in Chicago, Holloway met producer, manager and future husband Floyd Smith, who got her signed to Atlanta soul label Aware. Smith produced her first two albums before the label shut its doors. 

It was her work for Norman Harris at Salsoul Records which introduced her sonic powers to the clubs, where she's kept us dancing ever since. A string of dance club favorites helped guarantee her a place to perform for life. 

With the practice of sampling becoming prevalent in the industry, it was inevitable that someone would tap Holloway's mighty love as inspiration. However, a few did more than that - making big bucks in the process while giving our diva zero credit.   

The fall-out was brutal, taking a heavy emotional toll. But Holloway triumphed. Her bitter legal battle with Black Box, eventually settled out of court, drew a line in the sand: one cannot borrow from the best without paying proper tribute!

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Herstory

"I was signed to GRC first, out of Atlanta, Georgia, on the Aware label. The owner of the record company went to jail."

"He was the pornography king. He was the one who did the movie Behind The Green Door. They put him in jail because it was illegal then. Once they got him in jail they made it legal, but they still kept him in jail. We left from there and went to Salsoul."

"I always got on with Kenny (Cayre, founder of Salsoul Records.) Kenny is fine with me. No matter what I might think about Salsoul, Kenny was more of a friend to Floyd and myself. We were more of a family. Kenny was more of a family member to most of the artists. I might have been one of the only ones, but we often stayed at Kenny’s apartment when we came over. Even if we couldn’t get a room, we’d come and the doorman would let us in and Kenny would come home and our kids would be all over the house! He was more like a brother to me."

"I was signed through Ken Cayre of SalSoul. They just had a different label called Gold Mind, but it was still SalSoul. The first record I did with them came out in '76 and that was Hit And Run, that was the first record I recorded with them."

"I thought it was the worst song I’d ever heard. I didn’t want to sing 'I’m an old-fashioned country girl,' because I hadn’t been born in the country. I was from Chicago, so to me it was an insult. But once I heard the groove and the music started playing..."

"I wondered how on earth I was going to sing that fast... and that long! I thought it would never stop. And then if you notice at the end of it, this guy says 'Now let's do the album version.' It was like a joke because it took us a few days to do it because they never wrote the vamp, they only wrote the song. And after the song it went on and on and on, and nobody knew what to do. That's when they say, 'Well, what are we gonna do?' It took a couple of days so then one day they say, 'Well, let her go for herself.' And that's when the vamp started. Mostly every time I would record they'd say, 'Give her the vamp,' and then I took off with the vamp. And the vamp was always the part that made the song."

"One day I did a show at a club called the Fun House and Dan came by there. After the show he said, 'I want you to do this song.' Originally he was trying to figure out whether he wanted Bette Midler or Patti Labelle to sing it, but after he came by that night he decided he wanted me to sing it. So I said, 'Yes!' So they made an agreement that he had to write me a song and that was, Love Sensation. So we did Relight My Fire and then he wrote Love Sensation."

"When I went to record it, I did it at his house. Most of it was finished except for maybe some of the backgrounds, but he gave me a rough (mix) of the song a month before so I had chance to know it frontwards and backwards. That was the difference then. So when you went into the studio you really knew the song well. You gotta give me the song in advance to get the best of me, to get the feeling and the meaning."

"I sang that song 30 times! When I went in there I was as clear as a bell. The first time I did it, it was perfect, I thought. I did it a second time. Then he said, 'Your voice is too clear – I want it hard and deep!' So he’d be working in there with me, jamming, and at the end he’d go, 'That’s great! Let’s do another one!' Then at the end where I hold that note, I was so hoarse I didn’t know what to do. He said, 'Now I want you to hold that note,' but I was so hoarse that I couldn’t talk."

"He said, 'What can I do?' I said, 'Sometimes I eat Vicks!' So he went and got some Vicks and I had some coffee and I held the note. But he wanted it longer. I was cursing! So I had to wait overnight, go to sleep and get up the next evening just to hold that note. But the song really paid off for somebody!"

 

Hit And Run - Loleatta Holloway

Love Sensation - Loleatta Holloway

Keep The Fire Burnin' - Dan Hartman feat. Loleatta Holloway

Frankie Knuckles' Classic Throwback Mix

And one last parting shot....

"You know, at one time, with the Black Box situation, I thought I was gonna lose my mind. Seriously. I almost had a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t talk about it without cryin’. I’d spent so long tryin’ to be an entertainer and then here’s this big record in London of all places, one of the biggest records, and I’m not even getting a credit for it!"

"It was like, 'How dare they?' Someone’s just taken something from you, right in front of your face. For years it destroyed me. It made me a person I don’t like, and I’m not a bad person. But in life you get what you got coming. You know, the other day Marky Mark (actor, Mark Wahlberg) was on the TV talking about that record, and he never even mentioned my name. I’m so used to it that it doesn’t even phase me anymore. I remember a time that would’ve hurt me. I’ve come a long way!"