This 1976 No. 1 Hit Song Spawned a Freaky Urban Legend That Lives On 50 Years Later
- IAAM Radio
- Jan 20
- 3 min read
In January 1976, the Ohio Players had a No. 1 hit with the song “Love Rollercoaster”. The funky pop single, about a love story that felt like a coaster ride (but was inspired by a turbulent plane ride), soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in January 1976. It was the second single from the band’s 1975 album Honey, and a bit of a departure from the band’s usual funk /R&B sound.
Ohio Players drummer James “Diamond” Williams told EurWeb in an interview, “’Love Rollercoaster” was a pop song. It went to number one on the pop charts. It was not an R&B or funk song. We wanted to write a pop song, so we wrote a pop song.“
While the song has a feel-good vibe, a moment at the 2:32 mark on the album version spawned an urban legend that has refused to die. At that point in the song, a high-pitched scream can be heard in the background. Over the years, fans have speculated that the scream came from a woman being murdered either inside or near the band’s recording studio in Chicago.
One of the craziest stories was that the album’s cover model, Ester Cordet, was stabbed in the control booth for threatening to sue the band over alleged injuries from her photoshoot. Another rumor was that a cleaning woman was murdered as the Ohio Players recorded the song, per Snopes.
The Rumor Was Started By a Radio DJ
According to Ohio Players drummer Williams, the rumor was actually started by a disc jockey in California, who asked listeners to call in when they heard the scream.
In an interview for the book The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits, Williams explained that it was bandmate Billy Beck who let out 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,” he said. “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.”
Fans Still Talk About the Urban Legend 50 Years Later
While it’s been more than 50 years since “Love Rollercoaster’ topped the charts, the urban legend refused to die. In a 2025 discussion on Reddit, fans were still talking about “that urban legend about the scream of a woman being murdered.”
“Not just any woman, but the model on the album cover, Ester Cordet,” another fan recalled.
“The rumor in our neighborhood was that a woman was being murdered in the next room as they were recording the song! We all believed it, of course,” added another Reddit user.
Ohio Players Bandmates Reunited With Ester Cordet Years Later
The Honey album cover featured Cordet, a Playboy model, dripping in honey. In 2020, Williams told OkayPlayer that the Ohio Players were “notorious for using adoring women on our album covers.” The album concept often centered ariound the cover art.
“When we went to Mercury, the Playboy studio was there and a guy named Bill Laswell,” he said. “[Ohio Players founding member Clarence ‘Satch Satchell] would collaborate and come up with names and concepts for certain albums. The Playboy studio photographer came up with a concept. We approved the concept. Then, we would go finish the album or whatever. They’d take the pictures of whoever they had on the cover. This was a collaborative thing. Most of the models were Playboy models that we used in Chicago,” he explained.
Cordet is by far the most memorable of all of the cover models, given in part to the urban legend about a murder. The model will turn 80 in 2026, 50 years after posing for the famous Ohio Players album cover.
In a 2022 interview with EurWeb, Williams said the bandmates ran into Cordet in recent years. “Yes, we saw her a couple of years back at the Blue Note Club in Hawaii,” he said. “She’s taken really good care of herself and looked really good. She enjoyed the show and, of course, we took a picture with her.”
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