Earlier this morning, I was saddened to hear that one of the pillars of house music has died: Loleatta Holloway, the Chicago-born singer who contributed to the likes of Mark Wahlberg (aka Marky Mark), Marques Wyatt, and Stanton Warriors, and who began singing gospel with Albertina Walker before transitioning to the disco movement.
Her manager Ron Richardson reported that Ms. Holloway passed away after slipping into a coma. Loleatta Holloway’s voice was a powerhouse. Her popularity gained momentum when she signed with the now-defunct Salsoul Records in the early ’70s. When she left the label nearly a decade later, her signature vocals became ubiquitous within the emerging house music scene in her hometown and abroad. Holloway will mostly be remembered by her hit “Love Sensation.” It was sampled in 1991 by then-rapper Mark Wahlberg in his Billboard chart-topper “Good Vibrations.” It was the first time—since being sampled—she received full compensation for her voice.
The news of Ms. Holloway’s death inundated Twitter’s real-time feeds. She was 64 years old.
