The song was written by Stephen "Beanz" Rudden, Tatiana Mais, Paul Hardy, and Jay Williams. It was released by China Records and Planet 3 as a single from Love City Groove's album Hard Times on 27 March 1995. It was subsequently released in several versions in the same year, with three remixed versions released in Germany in 1996. Another version was released in Japan in 2003 for DJ use only.
Chart success
"Love City Groove" reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart that May,[3][4] selling over 200,000 copies.[5]
The vocals were performed in hip hop style by Williams and the only female band member, Yinka Charles, performing as Reason.[3]
Critical reception
John Bush from AllMusic deemed "Love City Groove" "an upbeat pop/reggae track".[6]Larry Flick from Billboard described it as a "fun" and "infectious hybrid of reggae, pop, and hip-hop styles".[7] In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton noted that the song, being in "a soul/dance vein", "certainly [is] one of the most credible records to be a British Eurovision entry for years".[8]
Tim Jeffery from Music Week's RM Dance Update wrote, "A very pleasant mid-tempo groove with great vocals and a bit of rapping that swings along beautifully in quite old-fashioned jazz funk way and it really gets on your brain. Only trouble is it's a real summer tune — released at the right time this could be another Zhane."[9]Iestyn George from NME praised it as an "impossibly sunny soulful hip-hop groove", noting that it features Saint Etienne collaborator QT, RPM's Jay Williams and Dina Carroll backing vocalist Paul Hardy.[10]
Eurovision Song Contest 1995
Jonathan King, then working for BBC Television, tasked with finding and producing an entry for Eurovision, requested that the song be submitted for the "A Song for Europe" contest in 1995. The selectors were looking for something different from past British Eurovision entries, that better represented what was popular in the charts. The band members were all from different backgrounds, and multi-racial. Hardy's father was from Cyprus, Williams is of Hispanic background, and Reason (Yinka Charles) is Jamaican/Irish.[11]
After "Love City Groove" won A Song for Europe with 70,000 votes, controversy arose when it was alleged that the song had broken contest rules for receiving extensive airplay before the selection process, as it had been previously available as a white label release. At the time, the rules stated that a song was not allowed to receive airplay before the contest, but seven British radio stations broadcast the song 27 times in early 1995, including BBC Radio 1. Following an investigation led by A Song for Europe producer Kevin Bishop, it was determined that the song had not violated contest rules since its airplay ultimately did not affect the contest's results. This decision upset several managers of the competing entrants, including Tom Watkins (representing Deuce) and Laurie Jay (representing Dear Jon). Jay called the decision a "scam," and Watkins refused to participate in the contest again, saying, "People might say I've got sour grapes, but I'm in third place anyway so I'm out of the running. I just think it's a bloody mockery."[12]
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