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Ohio Players ride Love Rollercoaster - TIMH

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John Cooper's lucky pig's picture
November 3, 2015 at 8:54am
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Dayton’s own Ohio Players released one of their biggest hits today in 1975. “Love Rollercoaster” would eventually climb all the way to #1 in January of 1976 but not before spawning a stubbornly persistent urban myth.

There is a high pitched scream during a guitar breakdown on the track. After playing the song a radio DJ whose name has been lost to history claimed that the scream was that of a woman being murdered in the studio. Sometime later, the voice of American radio (and the voice of Shaggy from Scooby Doo), Casey Kasem, repeated the story on his radio show American Top 40. American Top 40 was must-listen radio at the time and the urban myth spread faster than Jabril Pepper’s alleged venereal disease.

As urban myths often do, this story took on a life of its own and was soon embellished. A new story claimed that the scream was actually that of Ester Cordet, the cover model on many of the Ohio Players’ albums. A photo shoot for the album on which “Love Rollercoaster” appeared, “Honey”, was taking place at the same time as the recording of the album. The honey that was used in the photoshoot was super-heated and burned Ms. Cordet, resulting in the scream. Other variations kept the molten honey but added that when Ms. Cordet confronted the band's manager he stabbed her to death.

None of them are actually true and the simplest explanation in this case is the correct one. The scream was that of keyboardist Billy Beck trying to hit a high note. To the band's credit, they did absolutely nothing to clear up the rumors and instead purposely fanned the flames by committing to a vow of silence. Rumors sell records, afterall.

Let none of this distract you from the song, dear reader, as it is a straight funk/disco classic. The Ohio Players were one of the best bands to come out of the Dayton-Cincinnati area during that era, which is impressive considering Bootsy Collins, the Isley Brothers, Zapp and Roger (“More Bounce to the Ounce”) and Lakeside (“Fantastic Voyage”) also called the area home.

The song has been sampled numerous times by bands as diverse as Salt n Pepa, Spearhead and George Clinton. (For an even more heavily sampled Ohio Players song check out “Funky Worm”, which was used heavily in the West Coast, G-Funk sound.)The Red Hot Chili Peppers covered “Love Rollercoaster” in 1996 and the song again entered the charts some 20 years after it was released.

Here is the original single by the Ohio Players:

 

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