Monday, December 18, 2017

"Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina & the Waves

Top 10 Alert!
Song#:  2260
Date:  03/23/1985
Debut:  86
Peak:  9
Weeks:  21
Genre:  Rock, Pop



Pop Bits:  This English band came about when two members of a band called The Waves reconnected via another band called Mama's Cookin'. They were mainly a cover band but began to turn to originals done by member Kimberly Rew (formerly of The Waves). Rew and American singer (and original Mama's Cookin' lead vocalist) Katrina Leskanich shared lead vocal duties, but then Rew began writing songs for Leskanich to sing and soon she took over the lead on most all of the band's songs. By this time, they had went back to using The Waves as their name, but that eventually evolved into Katrina & the Waves. The band financed their own demo and shopped it around. A Canadian label, Attic, decided to pick up the band and a debut album was issued in Canada only in 1983. It proved to be popular enough to support a tour and a second LP the following year. Major labels then came calling and the band signed on with Capitol. For their self-titled major-label debut, the band remixed and did overdubs on track from their previous albums and then completely re-recorded two of their songs including this first single. The bouncy track gained in popularity slowly made its way into the Pop Top 10.  It also got to #19 Dance, #21 Rock, and #21 AC. The hit helped push the album to #25.

ReduxReview:  This song is just an utter blast. If someone doesn't like this song, then I doubt I'd like to hang out with them. If you wanna make people dance, smile, be dorky, and sing along, this is your go-to tune. The feeling of the music with the quick tempo and horns certainly fed in the lyrics and the band certainly made everyone feel like they were walking on sunshine. It's an incredibly happy song without being cloying. I think it's time to feel good - yeah!

ReduxRating:  9/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) This song proved to be a huge long-term financial success for the band. The track has been licensed for use in countless advertisement, TV shows, films, radio spots, etc., since it became a hit. Because of that, it has been reported that the song annually earned a significant amount of money for the band, who apparently had retained the publishing rights. In August of 2015, the rights to the song sold to BMG, along with some others written by Kimberly Rew, for $10 million. 2) This song also helped the band secure a Best New Artist Grammy nomination. They were aced out of the award by the exotic sounds of Sade.

_________________________________________________________________________________

No comments:

Post a Comment