days while negotiations took place, and the result was that overseas releases would not include the "Roadblock" sample. Dorrell later stated that he believed SAW would never have noticed the highly distorted sample had he not rashly boasted about it in a radio interview. The offending article consisted of seven seconds of an anonymous background voice moaning the single word "hey", involved no musical or melodic information and could never be considered plagiarism in the literary sense. SAW member Pete Waterman wrote an open letter to the music press calling such things "wholesale theft". Some publications were quick to point out that Waterman was currently using the bassline from the Colonel Abrams song "Trapped" in his production of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", which was competing in close proximity to "Pump Up the Volume" in the pop charts. Observers suggested that SAW's motives had just as much to do with extending the run of "Never Gonna Give You Up" at the top of the chart. SAW could afford extensive legal resources and M|A|R|R|S stood little chance of a successful defence. Despite all this, "Pump Up the Volume" went on to spend two weeks at number one in October 1987 and was a chart hit in many other countries, receiving considerable airplay on American, Australian and European airwaves. While the offending "Roadblock" sample was stripped from the official American release, the version containing it reached the Australian charts. In the U.S., where the song was licensed to 4th & B'way Records, the original version contained several samples from previous 4th & B'way releases, and the label was able to provide clearance for new samples for the American version. Influence As one of the first big British-made house hits, "Pump Up the Volume" marked a turning point in the popularity of the genre. Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full", which had been released prior to the M|A|R|R|S track, also hit the top 20 in November, and both singles borrowed heavily from Coldcut's previous UK chart success "Say Kids What Time Is It?". This was a very rapid response, as "Pump Up the Volume" seemed to catch the record industry off-guard. It was not until February 1988, four months after "Pump Up the Volume" reached the top ten, that the floodgates truly opened. Like "Pump Up the Volume", many of the first major wave of British house hits were on