"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" is a song by Italian electronic music producer
Spiller
Cristiano Spiller (born 3 April 1975) is an Italian electronic music DJ and record producer. He is best known for his 2000 single " Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The song reached number-one in the UK, Australia, ...
with lead vocals performed by British singer-songwriter
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is an English singer and songwriter. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded Ellis-Bextor went solo and ach ...
.
Various versions of the single were later featured on the German reissue and some UK editions of Ellis-Bextor's debut solo album, ''
Read My Lips''.
The single was released on 14 August 2000 by
Positiva Records
Positiva Records is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and concentrates on releasing dance music in the United Kingdom, UK. The record label was set up in 1993 in music, 1993, by Nick Halkes, who previously ran XL Recordings. Its headquar ...
. In addition to receiving critical acclaim, it became a hit in Europe and Australia, peaking at number one in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia, and it reached number three on the US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot Dance Club Play
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...
chart. On 22 July 2013, the song was
certified
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...
(BPI), and it has sold 642,000 copies in the UK as of March 2019.
Background
The track was originally created by
Spiller
Cristiano Spiller (born 3 April 1975) is an Italian electronic music DJ and record producer. He is best known for his 2000 single " Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The song reached number-one in the UK, Australia, ...
in early 1999 as an instrumental, with no singing, and was included on the ''Mighty Miami'' EP. It is mainly built upon samples from "Love Is You", a disco song originally performed by
Carol Williams with the
Salsoul Orchestra
The Salsoul Orchestra was the backing band of session musicians for many acts on the New York City label Salsoul Records and, under its own name, recorded several hit singles and albums between 1975 and 1982.
History
The orchestra was formed i ...
. The origin of the song title is taken from the name of South Beach, Miami nightclub 'Groovejet', where the song was first played (as an instrumental) in 1999.
In order to make the track more palatable for airplay, as the instrumental is somewhat repetitive,
Positiva Records
Positiva Records is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and concentrates on releasing dance music in the United Kingdom, UK. The record label was set up in 1993 in music, 1993, by Nick Halkes, who previously ran XL Recordings. Its headquar ...
asked British singer
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is an English singer and songwriter. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded Ellis-Bextor went solo and ach ...
, formerly with indie rock band
theaudience
Theaudience (styled as theaudience) were an English rock band, formed in London in 1996. They released one album and saw three singles enter the UK Singles Chart. The band's singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor became a successful solo artist after the b ...
, to provide lyrics and vocals for the song. Before recording, Ellis-Bextor's lyric was partly reworked by
Rob Davis, who replaced her hook "And so it goes... how does it feel so good?" with "If this ain't love... why does it feel so good?", thereby providing the song with its subtitle.
Boris Dlugosch
Boris Dlugosch (; born 2 August 1968) is a German house music producer from Hamburg. Boris is usually known for funky/deep house tracks, mostly produced in conjunction with Mousse T. and Michi Lange, his partners in the Peppermint Jam Records l ...
produced the vocal portions added to the track. Sharon Scott is the back-up vocalist.
The track has been remixed by Boris Dlugosch and Michi Lange,
Todd Terry
Todd Norton Terry (born April 18, 1967) is an American DJ, record producer and remixer in the genre of house music.
Musical career
Todd Terry was influential in moving House music beyond the early Chicago house sound of 1984–86. He crossed ...
, Solar, Ramon "
Ray Roc
The Roc Project is an American electronica act, composed of the New York City-based DJ Ray Roc and, most often, the vocalist Tina Novak. Their debut single, " Never (Past Tense)" was released in 2003. However, because of difficulty getting the ...
" Checo and Ernest St. Laurent. "Groovejet" was the first song ever to be played on an
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
, specifically on a prototype unit in August 2001. Upon its inclusion on ''Now That's What I Call Music! 46'' in the UK, released a month before the single, the booklet write-up correctly predicted it to be a hit.
Critical reception
"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" has received critical acclaim. Piers Martin of ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' was favourable, saying "this is a slip of irresistible ice-filtered summer
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
. This year's '
Sing It Back
"Sing It Back" is a song written and performed by Irish-English electronic music duo Moloko (Róisín Murphy and Mark Brydon). It first appeared in its original version on Moloko's second album, ''I Am Not a Doctor'' (1998); it was released as a ...
' and '
Music Sounds Better with You', if you will."
Stylus Magazine
''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog.
Addi ...
's Dom Passantino rated the single 8/10, describing the song as "
handbag house
Diva house or handbag house is an anthemic subgenre of house music that became most popular in gay clubs during the second half of the 1990s. ''The Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture'' defines handbag house as having "prominent female ...
's last hurrah, except we'd stopped drinking
Hooch by then and it was all about
sambucca..."
Tom Ewing of ''
Freaky Trigger
''Freaky Trigger'' is an Internet publication and e-zine that focuses on popular culture with topics varying from music to cinema. It was founded by the music critic Tom Ewing in 1999 and features Pete Baran and Mark Sinker as editors. From 2000 ...
'' rated the single 9 out of 10, saying: "There's a beautiful tension in 'Groovejet', an apt flirtation between Bextor’s languid, cut-glass vocals and the delightful indulgence of Spiller's music. It’s not just any
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
he's reviving, after all. No
Chic
Chic (; ), meaning "stylish" or "smart", is an element of fashion. It was originally a French word. Pronounced Chick.
Etymology
'' Chic'' is a French word, established in English since at least the 1870s. Early references in English diction ...
for Spiller, none of that poise or aspirational elegance. The sounds 'Groovejet' loots are the syn-drums and ray-gun synths of disco's overripe peak and decline, when it was corny, wonderful, mass-market pop music: you can hear hints of
Kelly Marie
Kelly Marie (born Jacqueline McKinnon; 16 October 1957) is a Scottish singer, best known for the song " Feels Like I'm in Love", a No. 1 hit in the UK in 1980.
Early career
Born to Alex and Jeanette McKinnon, Kelly Marie began training for a p ...
or
Amii Stewart
Amy Paulette "Amii" Stewart (born January 29, 1956) is an American disco and soul singer and dancer who found prominence with her 1979 U.S. Billboard number 1 hit cover of Eddie Floyd's song " Knock on Wood", often considered a classic of the ...
in the song, before that sweetness falls back into the dreamy groove. 'Groovejet' is a fond tour of disco when it ruled the world, and proof that it still could."
He described the music's sophistication as coming from Ellis-Bextor, who "offsets the track's bubbly repetition, adds a bittersweet note without ever sounding like she's above it. In fact she sounds carried along by it."
The song was ranked at number 486 in
Pitchfork Media
''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog.
Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...
's list of the Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s. ''
Mixmag
''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights.
History
The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was prin ...
'' included "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" in their list of "The 30 best vocal house anthems ever" in 2018. In 2003, ''
Q Magazine
''Q'' was a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. '' ...
'' ranked "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" at number 782 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever".
Commercial performance
In the United Kingdom, the single was first released in the same week as "
Out of Your Mind
"Out of Your Mind" is a song by UK garage duo True Steppers. It features Dane Bowers and Victoria Beckham, in her first appearance as a solo artist away from Spice Girls. The single was released on 14 August 2000 and reached number two on the U ...
",
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spice. Wi ...
's first solo single. "Out of Your Mind" held the midweek number one in the UK singles chart until Saturday, when "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" overtook it in sales; it was hyped by the media as a personal battle between the two artists. The song was the eighth best-selling song of 2000 in the UK.
A live version of the track appeared as a B-side to Ellis-Bextor's single ''Music Gets The Best of Me'', and in 2003, "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" was re-released as part of Positiva Records 'Remixed' series. In April 2015, the
Official Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...
announced that "Groovejet" was the biggest-selling
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
single of the millennium in the UK.
The single also found success worldwide. It reached number one in Ireland (two weeks),
Australia (three weeks),
and New Zealand (seven weeks).
In mainland Europe, it charted within the top five in Iceland,
Norway,
and Switzerland
while becoming a top-ten hit in Denmark,
Finland,
Hungary,
Italy,
the Netherlands,
and Portugal.
On the
Eurochart Hot 100
The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by '' Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately ...
, it peaked at number 12 on 21 October 2000.
In the United States, "Groovejet" peaked at number 27 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
In the issue dated March 16, 1985, '' Billboard'' magazine debuted its first chart devoted exclusively to 12-inch Singles Sales. The 50-position weekly ranking joined ''Billboard''s established Club Songs chart, reduced to the same 50 positions, ...
chart and number three on the ''Billboard''
Hot Dance Club Play
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...
chart.
The track has earned platinum
certifications
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
in Australia,
New Zealand,
and the UK.
Music video
The
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for the song shows Spiller and Ellis-Bextor making their way separately around
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
. Spiller meets people and signs autographs, finding his height makes life there difficult; Ellis-Bextor sings wistfully at various tables in bars. Spiller takes a
taxicab
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
while Ellis-Bextor takes a
tuk-tuk
An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many terms in various countries including auto, auto rickshaw, baby taxi, mototaxi, pigeon, jonnybee, bajaj ...
, and eventually, they meet at a nightclub.
Track listings
European CD single
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (radio edit) – 3:43
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (instrumental radio) – 3:30
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (BMR's club cut) – 6:57
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (Spiller's extended vocal mix) – 7:28
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (
Todd Terry
Todd Norton Terry (born April 18, 1967) is an American DJ, record producer and remixer in the genre of house music.
Musical career
Todd Terry was influential in moving House music beyond the early Chicago house sound of 1984–86. He crossed ...
's In House remix) – 6:51
# "Groove Jet" – 6:18
UK CD single
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (radio edit) – 3:47
# "Groovejet" – 6:18
# "Groovejet" (Solar's Jet Groove dub mix) – 8:18
UK 12-inch single
:A1. "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (Spiller's extended vocal mix) – 7:27
:AA1. "Groovejet" – 6:18
:AA2. "Groovejet" (Solar's Jet Groove dub mix) – 5:55
German maxi-single
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (radio edit) – 3:41
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (original version) – 6:16
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (BMR's club cut) – 6:57
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (Spiller's extended vocal mix) – 7:26
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (Todd Terry's In House remix) – 6:47
# "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (
Ray Roc
The Roc Project is an American electronica act, composed of the New York City-based DJ Ray Roc and, most often, the vocalist Tina Novak. Their debut single, " Never (Past Tense)" was released in 2003. However, because of difficulty getting the ...
's Trackworks Remix Part II) – 8:10
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{Authority control
2000 debut singles
2000 songs
House music songs
Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
Number-one singles in Australia
Number-one singles in New Zealand
Number-one singles in Scotland
Positiva Records singles
Songs written by Rob Davis (musician)
Songs written by Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Ellis-Bextor songs
UK Singles Chart number-one singles