In the 1975 track 'Love Rollercoaster', on the Ohio Players album 'Honey', a scream which sounds like a woman in agony can be heard in the background, at one point in the song. This did not go unnoticed, and about a year after the songs release, a radio DJ started an urban legend.
Was it that of the model on the albums cover, screaming in pain as heated honey burned her flesh? Was she stabbed to death outside of the recording booth, her screams picked up and put into the final track?
Love Rollercoaster
In November 1975, Funk Band 'The Ohio Players' released their album 'Honey', recorded at Paragon Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois. Track two on the b-side was 'Love Rollercoaster', a song that used the rollercoaster as a good way to explain the ups and downs of relationships.
The song was a huge hit, making it to the top of many charts world wide. This is mainly due to the fantastic and catchy sound of the song, but it also had more than a little help from an urban legend that sprang up around it.
Take a listen to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etebeZDt7Eo
Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?
The Scream
At approximately 2:32 into the song, a woman's scream can be heard in the background. This did not go unnoticed, and about a year after the albums release, the 'answer' to what the scream was, was put out by the radio show 'American Top 40'.
Ester Cordet, Playboys Playmate of the month for October 1974, is the model on the cover of the album which featured 'Love Rollercoaster'.
To get the honey to flow sufficiently for the photo shoot, it was heated up, but unfortunately was heated up a little too much. As the honey dripped onto Corbet, it burned her. Ester was burned by the honey. (another similar version states it was not honey but another substance used that looked like honey, but it dried and tore off a large part of her skin when removed).
One version of the legend ends here, with Ester Cordet's screams being picked up by the recording session happening next door, and then being somehow mixed into the final released song.
Another version takes it a little further. Ester, now sporting some permanent injuries, interrupts the bands recording of the song and threatens to sue. The bands manager takes Ester out of the booth, to try to calm her down. Failing that, and with a large financial burden looming over his head, he stabs Ester to death and her screams were picked up on one of the microphones.
The band mixed her scream into the track as a memento.
There are a few problems with the second, extended version of events - according to many, Ester Cordet is still alive and well. Hardly murdered by a manager, or anyone else!
There are several other versions as to why the scream is present: A cleaning lady is murdered, just outside the recording studio. A rabbit is slaughtered, its scream being picked up. A scream from a 911 call that the band inserted, or finally, it is inmates of an asylum undergoing cruel and painful therapies.
However the truth of the matter did come to light some time ago.
The Truth?
Jimmy 'Diamond' Williams, a drummer for the band at the time the album was recorded, explained the origin of the 'scream':
"There is a part in the song where there's a breakdown. It's guitars, and it's right before the second verse, and Billy Beck does one of those inhaling-type screeches, like Minnie Riperton did to reach her high note or Mariah Carey does to go octaves above. The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us, "Did you kill this girl in the studio?" The band took a vow of silence because you sell more records that way."
So nothing really untoward about it. It is still a fun story, and one still often talked about, though generally when told the truth of the matter is omitted.
Even when the truth is told there are still those who state Jimmy Williams story is a cover up for the truth. However, to date, no police or investigators have looked into the scream and the story of the murder seriously.
