As rave culture landed in 1989, this pivotal year in pop’s evolution was dominated by Italian house trio Black Box’s huge No.1 hit Ride On Time. But alongside the success came numerous controversies: an uncleared sample from Loleatta Holloway and Dan Hartman’s disco classic Love Sensation saw the band forfeit royalties, while they were also criticised for employing model Katrin Quinol as their frontwoman. Quinol didn’t contribute musically, only miming and lip-syncing in their videos and TV performances. Decades later, we quiz Black Box’s Daniele Davoli on how he wrote their brilliant hit, as well as all the drama that came with it…
You worked under various aliases first before deciding on Black Box. Why the different artist names?