Love Rollercoaster

"Love Rollercoaster"
Song

"Love Rollercoaster" is a song by American funk/R&B band The Ohio Players, originally featured on their 1975 album Honey. The song was a hit upon its initial release, reaching the top of both the R&B and pop charts, and still sees wide airplay on classic funk and R&B stations. The song uses the roller coaster, a common theme park attraction, as a metaphor for the ups and downs of dating and romantic relationships.

Urban legend

While the song is known within the music community for its distinctive and influential sound, within the popular imagination it remains best identified with a persistent urban legend. During an instrumental portion of the song, a high-pitched scream is heard (between 2:32 and 2:36 on the single version); this is the scream of Billy Beck, but according to the most common legend, the "victim's" identity varies greatly depending on the version. The supposed sources of the scream have included an individual who was killed at some prior time, his scream inexplicably recorded and looped into the track, or a rabbit being killed outside the studio whose scream was accidentally picked up by the band's recording equipment (of all the explanations, this is the least plausible — professional recording studios are soundproof). Also there was another high-pitch earlier at 1:27, which was the real cause of the myth, and that scream was also said to be the scream of the "victim", but actually it was a scream of a woman on a roller coaster ride, which they recorded it and looped in the song.

The most widespread version of the myth, however, tells that Ester Cordet, who appeared nude on the Honey album cover, had suffered permanent disfigurement due to the substance used to replicate honey for the photo; she interrupted the band's recording session, so the story says, at which point she was stabbed to death. Another version is that she was in the booth next door doing the photo shoot for the cover and was on top of fibre glass, when she poured the honey on herself the honey fused with the fibre glass and her legs sticking her to the floor, as she tried to get up the skin got ripped off her legs, thus the scream, this put an end to her modeling career she then said that she would sue the band for everything they had, at this point the band manager stabbed her to death. However this is also highly improbable as Ester Cordet is still alive. Ester Cordet, however, did not make any answers about this.

Casey Kasem reported the urban myth of the girl being killed in the studio recording booth while the song was being reported on his radio show, American Top 40 when the song was on the charts in 1976.

Jimmy "Diamond" Williams explained that the scream was nothing eerie or disturbing:

There is a part in the song where there's a breakdown. It's guitars and it's right before the second verse and Billy Beck does one of those inhaling-type screeches like Minnie Ripperton did to reach her high note or Mariah Carey does to go octaves above. The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us, 'Did you kill this girl in the studio?' The band took a vow of silence because that makes you sell more records.

Red Hot Chili Peppers cover

"Love Rollercoaster"
Song

"Love Rollercoaster" was covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1996, with lead singer Anthony Kiedis adding a rap to the song, and the horn section replaced with an approximation played on kazoos. Their version appeared on the soundtrack of the animated film Beavis and Butt-head Do America. There was also an animated music video that was made for the song, featuring Beavis, Butt-head, and the band riding an amusement park roller coaster, intercut with scenes from the film. The song is played early in the movie itself, when Beavis and Butt-head arrive in Las Vegas. In the dance hall scense, a fictional funk band is shown performing the song live (the one appearing on the background of the single cover).

Track listing

CD Single 1

1. "Love Rollercoaster"
2. "Lesbian Seagull - Engelbert Humperdinck"

CD Single 2

1. "Love Rollercoaster" (Clean Edit)
2. "Love Rollercoaster" (Rock Rollercoaster Mix)
3. "Love Rollercoaster" (LP Version)

In the media

The song was featured briefly in the film Urban Legend, where a reference is made to the myth associated with it.

It makes a more prominent appearance in the third Final Destination film, where the song is played as death stalks and manifests itself to kill two naked teenage girls tanning in a tanning salon. This use is a dual reference used as a "sign" in the film citing the metaphoric legend of that song is known for, and the literal rollercoaster which plays an important deadly role in the film.

The song was also featured in the movie After The Sunset. The song was played during a point when an FBI agent was locked in his car and the "villans" were flooding the car with sleeping gas.

This song was used in the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete during a band scene.

The song was also in an episode of the Bernie Mac show during the scene where Jordan was having his party and the kids were passing germs along the way.

This song was featured in popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, played on the game radio station Bounce FM. The DJ for the radio station Bounce FM comes on when the song ends asking if the listeners had heard the woman screaming, he claims that he caused her to scream after exposing himself to her.

A cover version of the song, based on the Red Hot Chili Peppers version, is featured in the Nintendo Wii game Boogie. Some of the more sexually suggestive lyrics were changed.

The song was sampled by Rodney O & Joe Cooley in their 1991 song Get Ready to Roll.

See also

• Hot 100 number-one hits of 1976 (United States)