Songoftheday 7/25/17 - It's your world and I'm just a squirrel tryin' to get a nut to move your butt to the dance floor, so your butts up hands in the air come on say yeah...
from the album Gonna Make You Sweat (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song of the day comes from the dance music act C&C Music Factory, which was named for the producers and remixers behind the project, Rob Clivillés and David Cole. Besides transforming songs from the likes of Mariah Carey to the dancefloor, Rob and David had been originally part of the house music collective 2 Puerto Ricans, A Black Man and A Dominican (as one of the PRs and the black man), and had a huge underground club hit with "Do It Properly", which climbed its way to #33 on Billboard's dance chart in 1987, but was a big success in the New York area. (A year later, Cole had a solo top-40 dance hit with "You Take My Breath Away" at #26). The duo then struck out on their own in 1989 as the 28th Street Crew, hitting #3 on the club list with "I Need A Rhythm".
That same year, Clivilles and Cole put together a record under the moniker Seduction with the single "(You're My One and Only) True Love" with Martha Wash providing uncredited vocals, and had an unexpected top-40 pop/top-3 dance hit, causing them to put together a new trio under the Seduction name. They also recorded another song with Martha, which would come into their own "C&C Music Factory" brand, "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)". Along with rapper Freedom Williams, Clivilles wrote the song and co-produced it with Cole, but again leaving Wash, famous for her "It's Raining Men" days with the Weather Girls, in the dark promotion-wise, having hired-on singer Zelma Davis mime the lyrics for the music video, making it the third time in a year (along with the Seduction track and Black Box's "Everybody Everybody") that Martha was reverse-catfished out of a music video for one of her performances. Nonetheless,the record became a huge success, dominating the clubs and finding a home of the radio, becoming after Madonna's "Vogue" the second big house music single to top the American pop chart. And with the heavy synth noises that sounded like the crunch of guitars, this single had just as much the makings of a great rock single as it did a club jam...
"Gonna Make You Sweat" went all the way to the top of the American pop charts, scoring the Factory their sole #1 pop hit in February of 1990. The single also topped the R&B chart in Billboard magazine for a week, while the 12" club single spent an amazing five weeks atop their Dance Club Play list, the longest stay at the top since Prince's "When Doves Cry" spent six weeks at #1 in 1984. Internationally, the song went to #1 in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria, and hit the top ten in Spain (#2), New Zealand (#2), the UK (#3), Australia (#3), Belgium (#5), Sweden (#5), Norway (#5), Canada (#6), and Finland (#8). (France was the major European hold-out, missing the top-40 at #43.).
Since at the time the whole Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal was happening, Clivilles and Cole quickly made sure the rest of the Gonna Make You Sweat album actually featured the real vocals of Zelma Davis (who was a good singer herself, though definitely distinct from Wash). However, Wash ended up suing the act for credit in 1994, and while that did taint the legacy of the track a little, the song remains one of the most popular dance music tracks of all time, and especially the decade.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the original 12" "Slammin' Vocal Club Mix" that hit the clubs and topped the dance chart for five weeks...
...and the alternative Clivilles and Cole "DJ's Choice" mix...
Next, here's the Factory appearing on Live At The Apollo, with Zelma giving it her all singing live over Martha's vocals...
In 2006, French DJ/producer Bob Sinclar interpolated "Gonna Make You Sweat" into his club jam "Rock This Party", which went top ten all around the world and topped the American dance chart...
At the time of the lawsuit, Martha and Freedom were interviewed for a news clip..
Here's an later interview with Martha Wash about the single. She had since reconciled with the duo, even recording and touring with them...
Finally, here's Martha performing the song live in New York...
Up tomorrow: Teen queen has all options covered.
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