“Champion was obsessed with sweet and sour, they called it,” StoneBridge, now 60, recalled by phone from his studio in Stockholm. He turned his Korg M1 synthesizer to the next preset, landed on Organ 2, and played his bass line again. That was the springy, sweet part. The acid was the grinding sound that opens the track, a product of his DX100 Yamaha synth, which he played in red to distort it. I dusted it all off, as did Robin S.’s vocals, with some delay. The result was minimal like early Chicago house music, but shimmering with new sounds. StoneBridge wasn’t sure about his brew, but the deadline forced him to turn it in.
When Robin S. heard it, she was shocked, she said in an interview last week. Finally her song was complete.
She had recorded her vocal in one take years earlier (not counting the ad-libs) while she was suffering from the flu, she recalled over the phone from her home in Atlanta. She was initially unimpressed with the song; and then, years later, with the StoneBridge overhaul, its popularity exploded on a global scale. “Show Me Love” wasn’t the first house song to feature the M1 Organ 2 sound, but it hit bigger than any previous track.
Earlier last week, Robin S. got a call from her son informing her that she was trending on social media as a result of the apparent ‘Show Me Love’ reference in Beyoncé’s song, which replicates that M1 Organ 2 sound ( in a different rhythm). She and StoneBridge both said they had no idea what was coming. StoneBridge discovered the connection while searching for his name on Twitter.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said Robin S., 60. “Of all the songs she has access to, of all the songs her team has access to, she chose mine.” The singer said she was particularly moved because she felt that dancers like her “don’t get their props” despite their hard work.