"Gonna Make You Sweat " is a hit song by American dance group C+C Music Factory. It was released in late 1990 as the debut and lead single from the album Gonna Make You Sweat. The song is sung by singer Martha Wash and rapper Freedom Williams. It charted internationally and achieved great success in the United States, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where it reached number one on the charts. It was released in late 1990 as the lead single from the album, Gonna Make You Sweat.
The song charted internationally and achieved great success in the United States, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland where it reached number one on the charts. Robert Clivillés wrote and produced an instrumental track that was to become "Gonna Make You Sweat". He offered the track to vocal trio Trilogy, but when they declined to record it, Clivillés decided to use the track for his and David Cole's C+C Music Factory.
The rap verse was performed by Freedom Williams and the female vocals by Martha Wash. The official music video featured Zelma Davis lip-syncing to the actual Wash's vocal parts. After discovering that the group was using model-turned-singer Zelma Davis in the music video, Wash unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with the producers of the C+C Music Factory for sleeve credits and royalties.
Additionally, the song used an edited compilation of vocal parts that Wash recorded in June 1990 for an unrelated demonstration tape. On December 11, 1991, Wash filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court against C+C Music Factory's Robert Clivilles and David Cole, charging the producers and their record company, Sony Music Entertainment, with fraud, deceptive packaging, and commercial appropriation. The case was eventually settled in 1994, and as a result of the settlement, Sony made an unprecedented request to MTV to add a disclaimer that credited Wash for vocals and Zelma Davis (who lip-synced Wash's vocals in the official music video) for "visualization" to the "Gonna Make You Sweat" music video. "The record label, production company and management told me that it was OK to lip sync in the video as long as I sing live in public," Davis recalls.
On the video set, I told members of the crew that it wasn't me singing this particular song. As word spread throughout the set that I was revealing this fact, label representatives and our management pulled me aside and asked that I stop speaking about whose vocals they were." Despite being the track's primary singer, Wash was merelylisted in the album's liner notes as one of six background vocalists. In 1989, Wash received a call to record with a trio of Italian house music impresarios named Groove Groove Melody, who produced for outside singers. Although a settlement was eventually reached, the trio subsequently hired British singer Heather Small to replicate Holloway's sampled vocal slices and re-released the song, assuming that no one would know — or care — enough to notice. Music critics praised "Gonna Make You Sweat" for Freedom Williams' Ice-T-like rap delivery in conjunction with Martha Wash's powerful, exuberant, post-disco vocals and deemed the song as a bona fide classic. Of course, one other direct result was that RCA's parent company BMG Records not only settled the suit, but signed Wash to an eight-year, eight-album contract.
The first album she released with them, a self-titled '93 release, notched two more #1 Billboard Dance Chart hits and her first as a solo artist ("Carry On" and "Give It To You"). The following year, C+C Music Factory finally brought Wash into the fold for second album Anything Goes! No, the singing came courtesy of Martha Wash, seen below from a 1980s music video for her hit song "It's Raining Men," from her singing duo, The Weather Girls (along with Izora Rhodes, who she met when both women were working as backup singers during the late 1970s/early 1980s). Even after all of Wash's personal lawsuits, though, the story was far from over.
In November 1990, nine days after Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus admitted that they didn't sing on any songs by Milli Vanilli, multiple class-action consumer fraud suits were filed by those who bought Milli Vanilli and Black Box albums. In their legal defense, even RCA, the label behind Black Box, said they thought Quinol, not Wash, was the actual singer on the album. As a result of the lawsuits, record labels were forced to assign proper vocal credit for all albums and music videos. C and C Music Factory ("Everybody Dance Now") is one of the greatest dance groups of the nineties. Following on the success of contemporaries Black Box and Technotronic, the single "Gonna Make You Sweat" was a worldwide smash. David Cole and Robert Clivillés' (C + C) music playing on the album with their rapid paced keyboard playing and rhythms are just superb on all the tracks.
C+C is the cornerstone of intelligent and masterfully produced dance music featuring rapper Freedom Williams and Zelma Davis on vocals. C and C Music Factory ("Everybody Dance Now") is one of the greatest dance groups of the nineties. Following on the success of contemporaries Black Box and Technotronic, the single "Gonna Make You Sweat" was a worldwide smash. David Cole and Robert Clivillés' (C + C) music playing on the album with their rapid paced keyboard playing and rhythms are just superb on all the tracks.
The problem, at least for Seduction and Black Box and C+C, was that more than enough people in the industry recognized Wash's voice when they heard it that word got around anyways. People started asking questions, and soon enough Wash realized that those demo tracks she'd recorded for other singers weren't actually using those other singers. That's also how she settled her suits with Seduction's label A&M and Black Box's label RCA — the latter of whom didn't even know it was Wash providing the vocals on the album in the first place. Then in his mid-20s, Williams had a rich, baritone timbre and a rhythmic flow that was at once deadpan and bombastic. (According to Discogs, Williams also has writing credits on four other tracks from Gonna Make You Sweat. Wash was listed as a backup singer on the album, though not the lead singer).
Clivillés claimed that's as far as Williams' contributions went. "He had nothing to do with the photo or video sessions, the creation of the music, or the rest of the songs in the [C&C Music Factory] catalog," Clivillés said. This is not the first C&C Music Factory-related controversy over how its members are credited. In 1991, Martha Wash, who sang the huge vocal hook in "Everybody Dance Now," sued the group after another C&C Music Factory vocalist, Zelma Davis, lip-synced her parts in the song's music video. Had this legislation been in place when Wash recorded her vocals for "Everybody Dance Now" she likely would have been properly credited in the video for her contribution to the song.
According to Wash, she was paid a flat fee to record demos to be presented to other singers. Instead, the producers included her vocals on nearly every song on Black Box's debut album Dreamland, including future hits "Everybody Everybody," "I Don't Know Anybody Else," "Fantasy" and "Strike It Up." Wash was never credited in the album's liner notes. While none of the producers in Black Box publicly said why Quinol was used as the face of Black Box in videos over Wash, it wasn't hard to figure out. When Dreamland was released in May 1990, the cover featured a crouching Quinol, clad in a cropped jacket and mini skirt, showing off her toned legs and staring longingly. The song held the top spot in the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play for five weeks in December 1990, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1991 (February 9 and February 16.) It also topped the Canadian RPM Dance Chart. In Europe, it peaked at number-one in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The single managed to climb into the Top 10 also in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece , Iceland, Norway, Spain , Sweden and the United Kingdom, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100, where it hit number 2. In the UK, "Gonna Make You Sweat " peaked at number 3 in its sixth week at the UK Singles Chart, on January 13, 1991, a full month before its American pop success. It even found success in the urban contemporary music world as it crossed over to the R&B charts where it reached number-one for a week.
Additionally, it was a Top 20 hit in Ireland and a Top 50 hit in France. In Oceania, the single peaked at number 2 and 3 in New Zealand and Australia. It earned a platinum record in the US, after 1 million singles were sold there.
The official music video featured Zelma Davis lip-syncing to the actual Wash's vocal parts. The song many of us know simply as "Everybody Dance Now" isn't actually called "Everybody Dance Now," by the way. In the nearly 30 years since, it has become what I feel comfortable saying is the most recognizable dance song of the '90s, if not in history; the list of movies and TV shows in which it has appeared is pretty astonishing.
(It includes five separate episodes of The Simpsons with air dates ranging from 1994 to 2011, for example.) I'm pretty sure starring in the story of Man Who Receives Ticket For Singing is a new usage of it, although it's also no stranger to controversy. Clivilles and Cole, the C+C of the group's title, were among the most successful producers of the 90s, producing records under the C+C title. The duo was also known for their remixes and worked with some of the worlds biggest artists from Michael Jackson to Taylor Dayne to Natalie Cole. They both worked closely with Mariah Carey that when Cole died, she penned the song "One Sweet Day (feat. Boyz II Men)" in tribute to him. Wash and Davis shared leads on another number-one hit, "Do You Want to Get Funky," ending rumors that their was conflict between them. C+C Music Factory released three studio albums in the 90s but the first was the group's most successful.
Williams made a solo record in 1993, called "Freedom," that was moderately successful. The cause was announced by Robert Clivillés as complications from spinal meningitis brought on by AIDS. Davis still continued to perform around the world and Clivilles continued to produce, write, arrange and remix.
This American music group was formed in 1989 by David Cole and Robert Clivillés. Best known for their chart topping hits "Gonna Make You Sweat ", "Here We Go (Let's Rock & Roll)", "Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…", "Just a Touch of Love", and "Keep It Comin'". The group stopped recording and releasing songs in 1996 following the death of Cole. In 2010 C+C Music Factory reformed with Eric Kupper replacing founder Cole.
C+C Music Factory have earned a total of 35 music industry awards worldwide, including five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, and two MTV Video Music Awards. Billboard magazine claimed they were on of the most successful dance artists of all time. With its instantly recognizable staccato guitar riff and soulful, core-rattling refrain—"Everybody dance now!," scream-sung by 90s vocalist Martha Wash—the song has become something of a pop music cliché. Davis is also featured in the video of the hit song mouthing the "Everybody dance now" line.
When it was first released, "Gonna Make You Sweat " enjoyed widespread commercial success. Topping charts in several countries, the song dominated the airwaves while its accompanying music video received constant rotation on MTV. "Gonna Make You Sweat ." One of the biggest hits of one of the wildest eras in pop-music history, in dance-music history. The future, for quite awhile, can sound uncomfortably like the past.
Lotta dance music that was never quite as vapid or pedestrian as it appeared. One way to summarize the early '90s is that upbeat dance music—including honest-to-god house music—could simultaneously be both super-mainstream and super-super weird. Having her very appearance concealed and her voice transposed into someone younger, skinnier, and more MTV-friendly cut deep to Wash, who'd spent most of her career deeply aware of how rare it was for women who looked like her to be pop stars in an image-conscious industry. It was one thing to put a bikini-clad model in the video to Wreckx-N-Effect's "Rump Shaker" pantomiming the sax that was actually sampled from Lafayette Afro Rock Band's "Darkest Light," but this was something more drastic. While C+C rapper Freedom Williams insinuated as much — "I'd rather look at Zelma onstage," he told A Current Affair — Wash never fully confirmed that her appearance was a significant reason her contributions were downplayed. Wash also sued RCA Records for commercial appropriation last year after the company released an album by the European dance band Black Box that featured unauthorized tracks of her singing.
The million-selling song has topped the pop, dance and R&B; charts in recent weeks, thanks in part to veteran R&B; singer Martha Wash's dynamic "Everybody dance now" vocal hook. According to Clivillés, in 1992, Williams asked C&C to release him from their contract together so he could launch his own career. "We featured him on C&C Music Factory to establish him as an artist, so he could then take it solo," Clivillés said. "The group blew up so fast that by the third single, he was like, 'Yo, I'm good. I'm out.'" Clivillés and Cole let him go, recording their sophomore LP, Anything Goes!
The album generated a few successful singles, although nothing would match the massive success of "Gonna Make You Sweat." Then, in 1995, David Cole passed away from spinal meningitis at the age of 32. After releasing a final album, 1995's C+C Music Factory, Clivillés dissolved the group. But 25 years before,Wash was just a middle school kid who sang well enough to join the choir at a San Francisco high school. Her music teacher had raised enough money for the group to travel to Europe and record albums.
By the time she graduated high school, Wash's choir had released four albums and the fledgling singer had settled on her career path. No less importantly, Wash became an accidental linchpin for artists' rights. After the singer brought various lawsuits against producers and record labels for proper credit and compensation, federal legislation was created making vocal credit mandatory for all albums and music videos. At one point in 1991, Wash battled herself on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs, as "Gonna Make You Sweat" and Black Box's "I Don't Know Anybody Else"both bounced around the Top 5 for weeks on end. The music video for the song was directed by German director Marcus Nispel and featured dancers performing in front of a white back drop. MONTREAL -- A Canadian man's decision to belt out a 1990s dance hit while inside his car has landed him a $149 ticket for being too loud in public.
"Wonderwall." The music of the '90s was as exciting as it was diverse. But what does it say about the era—and why does it still matter? On our new show, 60 Songs That Explain the '90s, Ringer music writer and '90s survivor Rob Harvilla embarks on a quest to answer those questions, one track at a time.
Below is an excerpt from Episode 14, which explores the history of the C&C Music Factory, their biggest hit, and a strange time for pop music with the help of writer Craig Seymour. Moalla says he was in his car, singing along to his favourite song, C+C Music Factory's 90s dance classic,Gonna Make You Sweat ,in late September when he suddenly saw police lights behind him. Taoufik Moalla says he was singing the chorus of 90s dance song, Gonna Make You Sweat , when police pulled him over and handed him a $149 ticket for screaming in public. Last July, the San Francisco native sued the producers and A&M; Records for unauthorized use of her voice on Seduction's Top 20 pop hit "You're My One and Only True Love"--a recording and video that credited model/singer April Harris as the lead vocalist.
After discovering that C+C Music Factory was using Davis in the video, Martha Wash unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with Robert Clivillés and David Cole for credits and royalties. She later filed a lawsuit against Clivillés, Cole and Sony Music Entertainment for fraud, deceptive packaging and commercial appropriation. The case was eventually settled in 1994 and Sony asked MTV to credit Martha Wash for vocals and Zelma Davis for "visualization" in the music video. Clivillés and David Cole met in the mid 80s, when Clivillés was DJing at New York City club Better Days. Before they had their big break with "Everybody Dance Now," they worked behind-the-scenes, co-writing and producing songs for artists like Chaka Khan and Grace Jones, co-producing remixes, and acting as managers for various groups. Together, they wrote and produced four songs on Mariah Carey's 1991 album Emotions, including the smash hit title track.
Eventually, almost certainly buoyed by the lip syncing scandal involving the pop group, Milli Vanilli, Wash sued the record label to get credit (and royalties from the song's success) and she succeeded. Not only did she succeed, but her actions at least partially inspired Congress to pass legislation making proper crediting mandatory on song releases. "I was told it was going to be a demo for another singer," Wash says of "Gonna Make You Sweat." It wasn't.
In October 1990, the group released the song and subsequent video, featuring the band's other singer, Zelma Davis, lip-syncing Wash's vocals. Wash was fed up and angry, livid that just because she wasn't a size four someone could pass off another person as her. The slight was a painful reminder of her days getting bullied as a child over her weight.
Except now, she had some success behind her to do something about it. In July 1990, the singer filed her first lawsuit against Clivillés, Cole and Seduction's record label A&M Records for unauthorized use of her voice. Two months later, Wash would file another lawsuit against Black Box and RCA Records for "commercial appropriation," claiming she never received proper credit for any of the Black Box songs. The song and video were parodied in the 1994 hip-hop mockumentary Fear of a Black Hat as "Come and Pet the P.U.S.S.Y." — a solo single for rapper Ice Cold — as well as being included on the film's soundtrack album.
After Moalla's story made international news, singer Martha Wash, of C+C Music Factory and The Weather Girls, said she thinks the ticket was "totally ridiculous" and that she's "totally delighted that loved this song so much that he had to sing along with me." Originally the female vocals were credited to Zelma Davis (and Davis appeared in the song's music video), but it was later revealed that former Weather Girls singer Martha Wash was hired as a session musician and performed on the track. Wash later filed lawsuits for not getting credit on this song, plus Black Box "Everybody Everybody" and Seduction "You're My One And Only True Love".
