BIO: Loleatta Holloway - Hit and Run

Loleatta Holloway was born November 5, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois. She is mainly known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation" (both of which have been greatly sampled).

She began gospel singing with her mother in the Holloway Community Singers and has recorded with the Queen of Gospel 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. Around this time, she met her future producer, manager, and husband Floyd Smith and recorded "Rainbow '71" in 1971, a Curtis Mayfield song Gene Chandler had recorded in 1963. It was initially released on the tiny Apache label, but shortly thereafter got picked up for national distribution by Galaxy Records.

In 1971, Holloway signed a recording contract with the Atlanta-based soul music label Aware, owned by Michael Thevis. Loleatta recorded two albums for this Hotlanta Sound label, both produced by Floyd Smith: Loleatta (1973) and Cry to me (1975). Holloway later married Smith.

In 1976, Aware went out of business and Norman Harris signed Loleatta for his Gold Mind label, a subsidiary label of the famous New York-based SalSoul Records. She began singing on disco productions, and was contributed vocals to some classics like Love Sensation and Dan Hartman's Relight My Fire. She placed eighteen songs on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, including four Number ones.

In the early 1980s, she had another dance hit with "Crash Goes Love" (#5 on the U.S. Dance chart, #86 on the US R&B Chart) before her vocals from "Love Sensation" were used in the UK number one hit, "Ride On Time" by Black Box. Holloway, however, was uncredited for her powerful vocals, and both Holloway and her attorneys successfully launched a press-attack, and, subsequently, sued Black Box, leading to an undisclosed court settlement in Holloway's favor. In 1992 she also had a hit with dance band Cappella. There she appeared as Cappella featuring Lolleatta Holloway, of which the single called "Take Me Away" (UK #25). Holloway's fortunes dramatically improved, however, when she had her first US number-one hit when Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch featured her vocals in the chart topping song Good Vibrations (1991). Holloway also performed with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch to promote the single, and she received full vocal credit and a share of the royalties. Despite the Black Box copyright infringements, both "Ride On Time" and "Good Vibrations" helped elevate Holloway to legendary status in the dance music community.

More recent dance chart entries include "What Goes Around Comes Around" (GTS featuring Loleatta Holloway) in 2000 and "Relight My Fire" (credited to Martin featuring Loleatta Holloway), which hit #5 in 2003. While not a single, "Like a Prayer", a Madonna cover, was a standout track on a Madonna tribute album, Virgin Voices.

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.

Today, Holloway resides in Chicago, and occasionally tours, most recently Loleatta performed with Take That singing "Relight My Fire" for the bands 2009 "Take That Present: The Circus Live" tour.

Whitney Houston sampled Holloway's 1976 track, "We're Getting Stronger", for her hit single, "Million Dollar Bill", in 2009.

Albums

Loleatta (Aware 1973)
Cry To Me (Aware 1975)
Loleatta (Gold Mind 1976)
Queen Of The Night (Gold Mind 1978)
Loleatta Holloway (Gold Mind 1979)
Love Sensation (Gold Mind 1980)
Greatest Hits (Sony, 1996)
Loleatta Holloway: The Anthology (SalSoul, 2005)

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