Loleatta Holloway

Loleatta Holloway (November 5, 1946 - March 21, 2011) was an American singer, mainly known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation", both of which have been sampled extensively. She began gospel singing with her mother in the Holloway Community Singers and she has also recorded with Albertina Walker in The Caravans gospel group. Holloway was also a cast member of the Chicago troupe of Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope. Holloway found moderate disco success when she placed eighteen songs on the Hot dance Music/Club Play chart, including four Number ones, and was featured on Dan Hartman's disco classic, "Vertigo / Relight My Fire". In the early 1980s, she had another dance hit with "Crash Goes Love", before she had her first Number one in the UK with "Ride On Time" by Black Box, which featured vocal samples from her own Salsoul recording, "Love Sensation". This happened again in 1991 when Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch featured her vocals in the chart topping cover version of the song "Good Vibrations". Although both songs were notorious for initial copyright infringements (see: white label), they did help elevate Holloway to legendary status in the dance music/disco community. A more recent dance chart entry was "Relight My Fire" (credited to Martin featuring Loleatta Holloway), which hit #5 in 2003. Her latest hit "Love Sensation '06" peaked at #22 in the Dutch Top 40 and reached #37 on the UK Singles Chart as well as #49 in Australia. Holloway died on March 21, 2011 from heart failure. She was 64 years old. She is survived by her four children.