Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)

"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" is a song by Italian electronic music producer Spiller, featuring vocals from British singer and songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor.[1] The single was released in August 2000 by Positiva Records. It peaked at number one in the UK,[2] New Zealand, Ireland and Australia, as well as charting at number three on the American Hot Dance Chart. On 15 September 2000, the song was certified gold record status by the British Phonographic Industry, and was certified platinum on 22 July 2013. 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. In 2003, Q Magazine ranked "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" at number 782 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever".[3]

"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)"
Single by Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Released14 August 2000
Recorded2000
GenreHouse, nu-disco
LabelPositiva
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Spiller singles chronology
"Mighty Miami EP"
(2000)		 "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)"
(2000)		 "Cry Baby"
(2002)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor singles chronology
"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)"
(2000)		 "Take Me Home"
(2001)
Alternative covers
French CD single cover

Background

The track was originally created by Spiller in early 2000 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.

In order to make the track more palatable for airplay, as the instrumental is somewhat repetitive, Positiva asked British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, formerly with indie rock band theaudience, 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.[4]

Boris Dlugosch 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, Solar, Ramon "Ray Roc" Checo and Ernest St. Laurent.[5]

According to technology journalist Steven Levy, "Groovejet" was the first song ever to be played on an iPod, specifically on a prototype unit in August 2001.[6] Upon its inclusion on Now 46 in the UK, released a month before the single, it became only one in a few songs to be included on a Now album before it had been released as a single. The booklet write-up correctly predicted it to be a hit.

Commercial performance

In the UK, the single was first released in the same week as "Out of Your Mind", Victoria Beckham's first song since the breakup of her group, the Spice Girls. "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.[7][8] The song was the 8th best selling 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.[9]

The song was ranked at number 486 in Pitchfork Media's list of the Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s.[10]

In April 2015, the Official Charts Company announced that "Groovejet" was the biggest-selling vinyl single of the millennium in the UK.[11]

Mixmag included "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" in their list of "The 30 best vocal house anthems ever" in 2018.[12]

Reception

"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" has received critical acclaim from critics. Piers Martin of NME was favourable, saying "this is a slip of irresistible ice-filtered summer funk. This year's 'Sing It Back' and 'Music Sounds Better with You', if you will."[13] Stylus Magazine's Dom Passantino rated the single 8/10, describing the song as "handbag house's last hurrah, except we'd stopped drinking Hooch by then and it was all about sambucca..."[1]

Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger rated the single 9/10, 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 he's reviving, after all. No Chic 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 or Amii Stewart 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."[14] 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."[14]

Music video

The video for the song shows Spiller and Sophie making their way separately around Bangkok. Spiller meets people and signs autographs, while finding his height makes life there difficult; Sophie sings wistfully at various tables in bars. Spiller takes a taxicab while Sophie takes a tuk-tuk, and eventually they meet at a nightclub.

Track listing

UK CD single

  1. "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (radio edit) – 3:47
  2. "Groovejet" – 6:18
  3. "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (Solar's Jet Groove Dub Mix) – 8:18

UK Cassette single

  1. "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (radio edit) – 3:47
  2. "Groovejet" – 6:18
  3. "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (Spiller's Extended Vocal Mix) – 7:27

Charts and certifications

References
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  2. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 650. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. "Q - 1001 best songs ever (2003)".
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