Starlight Invention Group* – Numero Uno

Starlight aka Black Box is out of this world!!! I Quartz's track and Starlight's Numero Uno have nothing to do. Numero Uno is unique!!! Brings me sheer joy!

Nick Halkes signed this for City Beat after hearing Andrew Weatherall play it at a club in Windsor.

i prefer the alternative mix which takes out the piano section to leave a classic acid house sound. classic!

The use in this song of material by Quartz(4) is interesting. Some sources on the Internet say that the piano is sampled from the Quartz track, 'Beyond the clouds (1978)'. How can this be, when the Piano rift is so typical of an Italo House tune circa 1988? After locating the Quartz track and hearing it, I was fascinated (and relieved) to learn that the full on Piano tune from this song is not sampled from Quartz. Numero Uno appears to re-create the intro of the Quartz track, but only up to the point before the killer piano rift. From that point on, I guess the genius of the producers took over and the '88 Piano melody was born. To be able to 'add lib' such a great piano from just 8 bars of an intro is truly impressive and highlights what magnificent musicians these guys were. Totally Numero Uno!

In the summer of 89, Italo House was big! there was several big Italo House tracks in the U.K. charts, and one of them was this biggy.. 'Starlight - Numero Uno' that hit the UK top ten in August 1989 and was produced by Groove Groove Melody.
Originally released a year earlier in 88 on Italy's Discomagic Out Records as 'Starlight Invention Group - Numero Uno', which originally sampled the vocals of Aretha Franklin. A year later, on its rerelease, the vocals had been replaced with some now resung vocals, most likely to avoid legal trouble.
'Starlight - Numero Uno' was an instant hit, was a big track all over Europe with people, and massive in the clubs.
'Numero Uno' was another production that was part of the sample mania that was going on within house music at the time, everyone was sample crazy, and this was one of many, done to great effect with a memorable joyful piano line. Originally, it sampled Disco tracks from 'Aretha Franklin' & 'Rose Royce', put together brilliantly to produce a hands in the air Italo House anthem, with a very catchy melody, and some crazy spoken samples.. "Numero Uno", "Time Sky", and "Talk Is Cheap". Incidentally, the trumpet and "Talk Is Cheap" sample are taken from 'Rose Royce - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is'. A scream sampled from James Browns 1986 hit 'Gravity' is featured in the track and there is a further vocal sample which I believe is taken from the Israeli pop icon Ofra Haza.
What I like best about this Italo House classic of the 80's, is that it has never been overplayed, unlike some of the other Italo House tracks. This one remains set in stone as an Italo house classic of the 80's and should remain there, untouched.