Black Box

Formed in 1988 in Italy, Black Box is a Italo-dance/Eurodance group best known for their early hits in the 1990s including the genre-defining “Ride on Time”. Formed by Valerio Semplici, Daniele Davoli, and Mirko Limoni, the trio was initially a production team that went by the name Starlight. Their debut single, “Numero Uno”, was released in 1988, reaching Number 9 on the UK singles chart. After a few more releases and productions, they changed their name to Black Box in 1989. While working on their first album, they added model Katrin Quinol to the line-up as the ‘face’ of Black Box. In July 1989, they released the single “Ride on Time”, which became a massive worldwide hit, landing in the Top 10 singles charts in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK (where it reached Number 1). The single “I Don’t Know Anybody Else”, which nearly matched the success of “Ride on Time”. Their next two singles “Everybody Everybody” and “Fantasy” – were also successful. Their debut album, Dreamland, was released in May of 1990, which entered the Top 20 Albums charts in Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, the U.S., and Australia. While the band basked in their success, it was revealed that Quniol, who had lip-synced to the band’s music in videos and on television performances, was not the vocalist on the recordings. Soul vocalist Loleatta Holloway’s voice on the Dan Hartman-penned “Love Sensation” was sampled and used on “Ride On Time” while The Weather Girls’ Martha Wash provided uncredited lead vocals on six of the album’s tracks. Holloway, Hartman, and Wash took Black Box to court and won their cases and were later credited on the band’s releases. Black Box hired American vocalist Charvoni Woodson for their second album, Positive Vibration (1995), which was not successful. Black Box has continued sporadically, occasionally releasing collections, remixes and singles.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.