Album of the Day — July 7
Album of the Day — July 7
Black Box — Dreamland
Black Box — Dreamland
07.July.2020
Black Box
Dreamland
1990
Black Box is a house music group made up of:
Daniele Davoli — a club DJ
Valerio Semplici — a classically trained clarinet teacher
Mirko Limoni — a keyboard and electronic music wunderkind
In the mid-80s they began working together under a host of different names like Starlight, Starlight Invention Group, and Groove Groove Melody the three Italian producers charted a couple of dance hits in the UK before changing their name to Black Box in 1989.
Dreamland was released in 1990 and six of the nine songs contained vocals by Martha Wash, who had achieved fame as 1/2 of the group Two Tons of Fun and as the backing vocalist for disco star Sylvester.
Two Tons of Fun charted three successful dance songs before being re-branded as The Weather Girls and charting the mega-hit “It’s Raining Men.”
After The Weather Girls shuttered, Wash moved to house music and racked up a total of fifteen number-one songs on Billboard’s Dance Chart. Accordingly, Martha Wash has been adorned with the crown and title of The Queen of Clubland.
HER PIPES ARE THE REASON
Besides having an incredible voice, it was Martha Wash who sparked legislation in the early 1990s that made vocal credits mandatory on albums and music videos.
Wash’s identity was largely unknown because different women were used for videos and live performances. Wash had been labeled “unmarketable” due to her weight. This meant that she was denied credit AND royalties for many of the songs she recorded … including the C+C Music Factory monster hit “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”.
That’s right, Martha Wash sang the vocals to BOTH “It’s Raining Men” & “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”.
Rolling Stone went so far as to name Wash “The Most Famous Unknown Singer of the ‘90s”.
The entity known as Black Box didn’t treat Wash any differently. After recording Wash, they would then use model Katrin Quinol as the group’s image. It would be Quinol who would lip-sync their songs in music videos and on televised performances.
Wash claimed in a lawsuit filed soon after the success of Dreamland that she was paid a flat fee to provide demos of the songs for Black Box. Then the vocals would be re-recorded by a different vocalist.
That didn’t happen — Martha Wash sang lead vocals on six of the nine songs on Dreamland.
She reached an agreement with RCA Records that led to a recording contract as well as an undisclosed financial settlement.
The legal action by Martha Wash created the legislation in the United States that makes vocal credits mandatory on albums and music videos.
Dreamland was made for two reasons:
Shaking rumps
Charting hits
The album generated seven singles — including a cover of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Fantasy”. Five of the seven singles would at least crack the Top 40 of dance charts all over the world while the album Dreamland would also make its way into the top tier of most charts.
If you’ve got an itch for house/club/disco music, Black Box will scratch that itch for you.
Lawsuits notwithstanding, critics were fond of the album.
Alex Henderson at AllMusic said: “The real star of Dreamland is Martha Wash, whose full-bodied, gospel-influenced belting is on a par with the best ’70s disco/soul of such divas as Gloria Gaynor, Linda Clifford and Loleatta Holloway (who puts in a superb guest appearance on “Ride on Time”). For all its cutting-edge hip-hop and house-music appeal, Dreamland has strong soul-music roots — a fact that Wash is, no doubt, well aware of.”
The success of Dreamland made Black Box realize that it’s very far from a dream to piss off a woman with a voice, literally and figuratively, as powerful as Martha Wash.
Hell hath no fury as a female vocalist scorned.