In the mid- to late '80s,
house music took over
dance floors across Europe and in larger American cities, namely Chicago. By 1990, several
house music hits climbed the upper reaches of the U.S.
pop charts, among those being
Snap!'s
"The Power," Technotronic's
"Pump Up the Jam," Deee-Lite's
"Groove Is in the Heart," and
Black Box's
"Everybody Everybody," but
C+C Music Factory took it all the way to number one in early 1991 (the very same week of the Gulf War) with their unstoppable
"Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)." The song incorporated
dance,
house, and
hip-hop beats, wailing diva vocals (courtesy of
Martha Wash), and
rap (courtesy of
Freedom Williams) to come up with one of the year's most exciting hits. Controversy ensued around that song's video when it was revealed that former
Weather Girl Martha Wash sang the lead (as she did with
Black Box's recordings), but it was
Zelma Davis who lip-synced on video. Nonetheless, this controversy didn't hurt
C+C Music Factory (or
Black Box) because
Zelma Davis proved herself a singer in her own right (although nowhere near
Martha Wash), and sang on the rest of the album's tracks.
"Gonna Make You Sweat"'s follow-up, the anthemic
"Here We Go, Let's Rock & Roll," became a Top Five smash, and melded
house,
hip-hop, and
rock.
Gonna Make You Sweat's third single,
"Things That Make You Go Hmmm...," took a phrase popularized by
Arsenio Hall and made it into another cleverly infectious Top Ten smash. The album's final single,
"Just a Touch of Love," was a sleek, elegant, straight-up
house jam sans
rap, featuring
Zelma Davis on vocals, but didn't become as big a hit as the others.
Zelma offers up another anthemic
house tune on
"Live Happy." Other highlights include the ten-minute funky
rap jam (a la
DNA's remix of
Suzanne Vega's
"Tom's Diner")
"A Groove of Love" and the slinky
"Ooh Baby," which features rare vocals courtesy of frontman
David Cole. The act took several years (and a lineup change) before their follow-up,
Anything Goes!, hit the shelves, but by then the magic had faded and American popular music had turned into
grunge and
gangsta rap. Tragically,
David Cole died shortly thereafter. But when
C+C Music Factory were hot, they were unstoppable, and this album captures them at their best, and, despite a couple of dull spots, stands as one of the definitive
dance/
pop albums of the 1990s. As an additional note, the album includes an eight-minute bonus
house track. ~ Jose F. Promis
![Blood Sweat and Tears [Expanded]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0886978832320_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Blood Sweat and Tears [Expanded]")
![Illuminate [2017 Deluxe Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0602557611076_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Illuminate [2017 Deluxe Edition]")
