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Loleatta Holloway (1946 - )

Lifespan: 1946 -

Related: black music - American music - Salsoul record label - disco - vocalist

Titles: My Loleatta bootleg

...it's such a good vibration, it's such a sweeeeet sensation ...

Sleeve artwork by Richard Bernstein

Biography

Loleatta Holloway is an african american singer born on November 5, 1946 in Chicago Illinois. 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 troup of Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope.

Mainstream audiences recognize Holloway's vocals from the chorus hook of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's #1 song "Good Vibrations" in 1991. That hook was in fact an interpolation of Holloway's own song "Love Sensation" from 1980. Although "Good Vibrations" is her only major Hot 100 credit, she is considered a legendary vocalist in the dance club community, where she has placed eighteen songs on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts, including four #1s. Her most recent dance chart entry was "Relight My Fire" (credited to Martin featuring Loleatta Holloway), which hit #5 in 2003. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loleatta_Holloway [Aug 2005]

Timeline

  • 1976 Norman Harris signs Loleatta for his Gold Mind label, most of the album covers are painted by Richard Bernstein, who also did Grace Jones' work on Island and First Choice covers on Gold Mind.
  • Nicky Siano says: Loleatta's first performance as a club artist was at The Gallery, shortly after her first album came out on Salsoul [Gold Mind?]
  • 1979 Loleatta sings on Dan Hartman's "Relight My Fire"
  • 1980 Dan Hartman records 'Love Sensation' for Loleatta
  • 1982, Loleatta teams up with The Salsoul Orchestra again on "Seconds" produced by Patrick Adams
  • 1982-1983 Shep Pettibone revives the sounds of people like Loleatta Holloway, Rochelle Fleming and Jocely Brown to great success on the Salsoul label;
  • 1946 Born in Chicago, raised on the West Side
  • Loleatta sings in her mothers' choir
  • 1963 At 17, Loleatta is invited to join The Caravans
  • sings in a couple of Broadway musicals
  • 1971 Loleatta meets Floyd Smith, turns to secular music
  • 1971 - 1975 The sides she cuts for Aware, stand alongside the very finest soul music ever made
  • 1984 Salsoul goes belly-up
  • 1984 Smith passes away
  • 1985 Loleatta gives a one off performance at Better Days. It was recorded by Bruce Forest. Check here for the full story.
  • 1985 -1995
  • 1995 Loleatta tours Japan and Europe

    artwork by Richard Bernstein

  • 1996 Loleatta has a quadruple by-pass operation and is forced to spend much of the rest of 1996 recuperating.
  • 1998 Loleatta and British dance act Fire Island release 'Shout To The Top' (penned by Paul Weller and originally recorded by the Style Council) on the JBO label, with a mix by Frankie Knuckles.

    Selected 12" Discography