One of THE baddest jams of late 1989/early 1990 was "Everybody, Everybody" by Black Box. Martha Wash's loud, powerful vocals over that organ and funky ass beat was perfection.

This jam, and so many others that came recently after it, was house music coming above ground for a little while. After four or five years of more "tame", "adult contemporary" type R&B music that had almost taken over the R&B airwaves since 1985, it was great to start hearing jams on the radio again (the little time they lasted before midtempo rap took over). It was like the disco era all over again.

You are so right! I loved it... and I miss them. It was a brief period in the 90's when actual DANCE music peaked. It seems like it was replaced by grunge rock by the middle of the decade and dance music (with that disco sound you talked about) has virtually disappeared ever since. (Of course you do get the sporadic songs every now and then, but, still, not the synth and sample-driven sounds of Italio-disco that Black Box, 49ers, C + C Music Factory, etc. used.)

It's one of my favorite songs and I LOVE the bass and Martha's voice in it!!!

This is the cut! Ghost Box was another standout from this set.

OW!!!



I reallllly like this song

endorphin74 said:

OOH OOH! OOH-OOH-OOH OOH!

LOVE IT!!!!! Oh back in the day when radio was fun.

Thesexofit should like this.

Oh man that was the Jam. I was in 5th grade when that was out and I just LOVED that song. I still jam to it. I wish I was older so that I could have really enjoyed it like in a club.
[Edited 3/15/06 7:30am]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Box_%28band%29

Black Box was an Italian house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The members of the group included a trio made up of a club DJ (Daniele Davoli), a classically trained clarinet teacher (Valerio Semplici) and a keyboard and electronic music "whizz" (Mirko Limoni.) The three had previously joined to form a group called Groove Groove Melody, producing dance music. In 1989, they teamed up with singer and model Catherine Quinol (AKA Katrin) and formed Black Box. In 1990, they had Martha Wash do vocals in their song "Everybody, Everybody" which became a hit in North America. They went on to record music under many other aliases. Eventually it was proven that Wash and singer Loleatta Holloway actually sang all of the vocals. Quinol simply lip synched the vocals in concert and music videos.

Their hit "Ride On Time" featured samples of Holloway's "Love Sensation", and became the UK's best-selling single of 1989. "Love Sensation" was written by Dan Hartman who didn't know it had been sampled by Black Box. According to Hartman's attorney, Patrick McNamara, Black Box ended up having to give Hartman a good percentage of the royalties. [1]

In America, they are best remembered for their early '90s singles "Everybody, Everybody" and "Strike It Up", their biggest hit in the United States, where both their hits are still heard on rhythmic radio and in clubs on a fairly regular basis.


Trivia
Two of Black Box's biggest hits were dubbed into Jock Jams albums.

What is often forgotten amongst dance music critics is that Black Box were one of the few "Piano-house" groups to have a really successful album. Whilst parent album "Dreamland" may not have sold millions, it spawned six massive club hits-the UK chart number one "Ride On Time", "I Don't Know Anybody Else", "Everybody Everybody", "Fantasy", "Open Your Eyes" and "Strike It Up" (the latter song also hit number one on the Billboard dance charts).

The song title "Ride On Time" shows that the Italian producers missheard what Loleatta Holloway sang. The lyrics are really Cause you're right on time.

I finally rediscovered this song this past week. I forgot how much I used to love listening to it in gym class in elementary school with exercising.

GangstaFam said:

CinisterCee said:

"Come And Pet The Puss-aaaaay!!!!! Hey Hey Hey Haaaaayy!!!!" Props to Ms. Holloway & Ms. Wash. For those that don't know, there's a spoof in a movie from the 90's called "Fear Of A Black Hat" that touches upon who sang what on a song, and this topic is the subject of satire. Very funny indeed!!! So WHO sang for Milli Vanilli???? The BAHA MEN??? Or was it the other way around?????

vainandy said:

vain, u ALWAYS leave out newjack, a genre thats so important, it was more then just music. It was and still is an attitude. Damn

woogiebear said:

oh my god! I thought I was the only one here who saw that! I sing that to myself at work sometimes. And the dude was trying to explain the lyrics:
"P-Political, U-Unrest, S-Stabalizing, other S-Society, Y-Yeah"
Reporter- "...NO."
And when they were interviewing the asian woman and she could hardly speak english then that black woman came over and was like "Girl, you KNOW that's me singing that song!!" and the asian chick was like "NO! I sing pet the pussy!!" that movie is fucking CLASSIC.

DynamicSavior said:

Yeah, that is a good movie, and a good spoof of the song. I got the soundtrack somewhere?

i love this damn song, although it was fucked up how they didn't let her be in those videos and had some model lip-synching her vocals but them songs were very energetic though!!!

I'm glad to see someone else remembers The 49ers. Their album was good from start to finish. Every track on it was slammin'.

Yeah, new jack was around at that time also. That's another way the era was similar to the disco era. During the disco era, you had disco people and you had rock people. Ten years later, you had house people and you had new jack people. Both shared the same airwaves and people were usually split down the middle.

I love BLACK BOX. Ride on time is the jam!!!