Loleatta Holloway

Loleatta Holloway earned acclaim as the embodiment of a disco diva through her gospel-honed vocal power, robust timbre, flair for captivating spoken interludes, and command of emotionally charged ballads. Although the Chicago-born artist placed highest on the pop singles chart with a ballad—the title track from her sophomore LP Cry to Me (1975)—she later joined Gold Mind, the Salsoul Records imprint headed by producer Norman Harris, where DJs and club audiences embraced her self-titled 1977 album for the dancefloor-optimized cuts “Dreamin’,” “Hit and Run,” and “Ripped Off,” which collectively climbed near the summit of Billboard’s disco ranking. Queen of the Night (1978) delivered the number 11 R&B single “Only You” and a Grammy nomination for her interpretation of “You Light Up My Life.” Holloway further appeared on the Salsoul Orchestra’s number three disco entry “Run Away” and Dan Hartman’s chart-topping disco smash “Relight My Fire” (1979); she reclaimed the top disco slot herself with the Hartman-produced title track from her sixth and final album, Love Sensation (1980). After one more single alongside the Salsoul Orchestra, she issued 45s on additional imprints, most prominently “Crash Goes Love” (1984) with Arthur Baker. Early-’90s samplers placed her voice on Black Box’s “Ride on Time” and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations,” the latter earning her an explicit featured-artist credit. Remixes and additional tracks spotlighting Holloway continued to chart on dance lists well into the 2000s, until her death in 2011.

Born in Chicago in 1946, Holloway refined her abilities singing alongside her mother in the Holloway Community Singers before enrolling in acting courses. As a teenager she stepped into Shirley Caesar’s role within the classic gospel ensemble the Caravans, directed by Albertina Walker and signed to Savoy. In the early ’70s she joined the Chicago production of the musical Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope and soon met Floyd Smith, who became her producer, manager, and husband. Smith helmed Holloway’s first session, a reading of Gene Chandler’s “Rainbow” for his Apache label. Atlanta entrepreneur Michael Thevis, freshly launched GRC (General Recording Corporation), placed her on his Aware imprint, where the double-sided 1973 single “Mother of Shame” (number 63 R&B) / “Our Love” (number 43 R&B) registered modestly and the debut album Loleatta appeared the same year. Sam Dees’s composition “Cry to Me,” the title song of her second LP, supplied her strongest solo R&B and pop showing—number ten R&B and number 68 pop—early in 1975.

While at GRC, Holloway encountered promotion executive Gus Redmond, who later collaborated with her at Salsoul. After GRC shuttered in 1976 she signed with Norman Harris’s Gold Mind imprint. Harris, a Philadelphia soul veteran and former MFSB member alongside Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International operation, had formed Baker-Harris-Young Productions with bassist Ron Baker and drummer Earl Young, shaping acts including the Trammps, First Choice, Double Exposure, Love Committee, and Eddie Holman. Surprisingly, Gold Mind’s initial Holloway release was the Sam Dees ballad “Worn Out Broken Heart,” yet its uptempo Harris-produced B-side “Dreamin’” reached number 72 pop and found favor in clubs. The March 1977 album Loleatta, cut partly in Chicago under Floyd Smith and partly in Philadelphia under Baker-Harris-Young, also contained “Hit and Run,” which peaked at number 56 R&B; together with “Dreamin’” and the album track “Ripped Off,” the trio attained number three on Billboard’s club chart.

Co-written by Vincent Montana, Jr., “Run Away” emerged late in 1977 as the Salsoul Orchestra featuring Loleatta Holloway, registering at number 89 R&B and number three club. Once Gold Mind dissolved, its roster migrated to Salsoul proper. Queen of the Night (September 1978) yielded club favorites “Catch Me on the Rebound,” “Mama Don’t, Papa Won’t,” and “I May Not Be There When You Want Me,” while the Bunny Sigler duet “Only You” became her second-highest R&B single at number 11 and her cover of “You Light Up My Life” earned a Grammy nod in the Best Soul Gospel Performance, Contemporary category. The follow-up LP Loleatta Holloway (September 1979) featured the disco tracks “All About the Papers,” another Holloway-Sigler collaboration “That’s What You Said,” “The Greatest Performance of My Life,” and the deep-soul ballad “There Must Be a Reason.” Around 1979 she supplied vocals for Dan Hartman’s blockbuster “Relight My Fire,” and Hartman in turn produced her signature song “Love Sensation,” which topped the club chart and titled her 1980 album that also included the disco cuts “Dance What Cha Wanna” and “Short End of the Stick.” In 1982 she rejoined the Salsoul Orchestra for Patrick Adams’s track “Seconds.”

Although she never scored a U.S. pop hit, Holloway cultivated an ardent audience in Europe and Japan. Mid-decade, Salsoul ceased operations, leaving her without a contract. Shortly after Floyd Smith produced her version of Rufus & Chaka Khan’s “Sweet Thing,” he passed away in 1984; that same year she signed with Arthur Baker’s Streetwise label. The single “Crash Goes Love” b/w “Sweet Thing” reached number 86 R&B in late summer 1984. Throughout the ’80s and ’90s she recorded for DJ International, Saturday, Warlock, and Select. Sampling trends of the ’90s incorporated fragments of her recordings across global dance releases, occasionally prompting legal disputes such as the one surrounding Black Box’s “Ride on Time.” Holloway’s profile rose again in 1991 when Mark Wahlberg, performing as Marky Mark, sampled “Love Sensation” for the number-one, million-selling “Good Vibrations”; she received featured-artist billing, appeared in the video, and joined Wahlberg for live performances. She toured sporadically thereafter and remained based in Chicago until heart failure following a brief illness claimed her life at age 64 on March 21, 2011, prompting tributes worldwide.