JENNINGS: The Ohio Players and 'Love Rollercoaster' rumors

On Friday, the Ohio Players will be in town for a performance at Seneca Niagara’s Bear’s Den on Friday. The group’s history dates back 61 years to 1959 in Dayton, Ohio when they performed under the moniker Ohio Untouchables, a backing group for The Falcons, a Detroit-based group that included Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett. (Floyd is best known for the hit “Knock on Wood” and Pickett’s hits include “In the Midnight Hour” and “Mustang Sally.”)

It was not until 1973 that the Ohio Players had their first hit with the song “Funky Worm.” It peaked at number one on the soul chart in 1973 and found its way into pop culture because of its inclusion in the video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” in 2004. “Funky Worm” has also been sampled by numerous hip-hop artists including Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and perhaps most notably in the DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince’s single “Boom! Shake the Room.”

The band’s next hit, “Fire,” not to be confused with the Bruce Springsteen song of the same era, became a million-selling single and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song is used as the theme for the Fox reality show "Hell’s Kitchen" and in commercials for Toyota and Papa John’s Pizza. David Letterman used the guitar solo in “Fire” as the outro of his Top Ten segment on Late Show with David Letterman.

The group’s most iconic hit, “Love Rollercoaster” is the subject of many urban legends thanks to a California radio disc jockey who started the rumor about the recording session of the song. During one four-second segment of the song, there is a sound that appears to be a woman screaming. Most of the legends involve a woman dying during the recording session, some versions of the story are more detailed than others.

The most popular version is that the nude woman who appears on the cover of the band’s “Honey” album was badly burned by the honey dripping on her that is depicted on the album cover. Other versions of the story claim that the honey used in the photo shoot was an acrylic substance, and she screamed when it was removed from her body.

Another version claims that a woman fell off a rollercoaster and perished, and the scream was captured on tape and added to the recording. There is also a version that has a woman seeing a rabbit killed outside the studio during the recording of the song.

The myth was further perpetuated when a 1998 horror film entitled “Urban Legend” included a scene where someone claimed that a cleaning woman was stabbed to death in a nearby studio while the group recorded “Love Rollercoaster.”

For many years the band did not comment on the origin of the scream but drummer Jimmy “Diamond” Williams cleared up the mystery years ago, revealing that the source of the scream was keyboardist Billy Beck, who still performs with the group. That story is a lot less interesting than the urban legends, but “Love Rollercoaster” is still a great song even if nobody was stabbed during the recording session.

Thom Jennings covers the local music scene for Night and Day.