Description
Katrina And The Waves – Walking On Sunshine
Label: Capitol Records
Catalog#:CL 354
Format:Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM
Country:UK
Released:1985
Genre:Rock
Style:Pop Rock
Tracklist
A Walking On Sunshine 4:00
B Going Down To Liverpool 4:30
Producer – Katrina And The Waves , Pat Collier
“Walking on Sunshine” is a song written by Kimberley Rew for Katrina and the Waves’ 1983 eponymous debut full-length album. A rerecorded version was released on the bands 1985 self-titled album as the albums second single (see 1985 in music) and reached #4 in Australia and #9 in the United States, as well as #8 in the United Kingdom. It is the Waves’ first U.S. top 40 hit, and their biggest success in the UK until “Love Shine a Light” (1997). Conceived of as a ballad, Katrina decided the better part of valor was to belt the song out.[1]
2010 is the 25th anniversary of the release of “Walking on Sunshine” and a series of back-catalog re-releases and a re-recorded version of the track are being released.
Royalties from airplay and advertisements of “Walking on Sunshine” has been extremely high. Katrina and the Waves kept the publishing rights and the royalties that typically go to the songwriter have been divided among the band members, though Katrina Leskanich was fired from the band in 1998. Estimates are that the song has earned $1 million per year for the ten years ending in 2010. According to a former employee of EMI, “Walking on Sunshine was the crown jewel in EMIs catalog,” and that it was one of EMIs biggest earners from advertisers.
The music video depicts the band performing live at a London concert. Katrina herself is either with or not with them, but either dancing in her apartment, or walking through Hyde Park on a cloudy day, past an English prison, the Tower Bridge, a cliff and Old St. Pauls. She catches up with the others and feeds ducks (one of them eats the leftovers, referring to the Waves). Katrina returns home and cleans her face using cotton.
Covers
The song was covered by Jeffries Fan Club on their debut album Feelin’ Sorry…For All the Hearts We’ve Broken in 1997. In 2007, pop group Girl Authority covered the song on Road Trip. The song was also recorded by Dolly Parton on her 1996 cover album Treasures. In 2009, the song was also featured in a mash-up with “Halo” (Beyoncé), on the TV Show Glee.
Argentine singer-songwriter Diego Torres recorded a version of the song with lyrics in Spanish named Por la vereda del sol for his album Tratar de Estar Mejor
Matthew Gerrard produced a cover of “Walking on Sunshine” for American pop rock duo Aly & AJs debut album, Into the Rush. The song was released as the albums fourth single on June 22, 2005 (see 2005 in music). It was also used to promote the film Herbie: Fully Loaded, and makes an appearance on the movie soundtrack. The singles video features Aly & AJ performing, and is intercut with clips from the film Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song was shortened down to one minute and 55 seconds (1:55), as it is used for the video. This song was also featured in the 2010 film Ramona and Beezus.
The song is very popular in commercials and advertisers typically pay $150,000 to $200,000 per year to use the song. It has also been featured in several movies, including American Psycho (2000), High Fidelity (2000), Ask Max (1986), The Secret of My Success (1987), Daddy Day Care (2003), Bean (1997), Look Whos Talking (1989), Moon (2009), and Into the Wild Green Yonder. It was played in the five-minute trailer for Bye Bye Love (1995). It has been played on the TV shows Gilmore Girls, “Rendezvous”, Sports Night, and the Drew Carey Show. In television, it is the favorite song sung by Fry in Futurama and appeared as part of a mash-up with Beyoncés song “Halo” in the Glee episode “Vitamin D”. The song is also featured in the video game series Lego Rock Band, Singstar and Band Hero.
Katrina and the Waves: how we made Walking on Sunshine
‘It was a dancefloor emptier so we binned it. Then we realised you couldn’t get it out of your head’
‘It’s just a piece of simple fun’ … Katrina and the Waves, with Katrina Leskanich, left, and Kimberley Rew, second from right.
I was in a band called Mama’s Cookin’, playing US airforce bases around Britain. It was a circuit I knew because my dad, who was in the US army, was stationed in Norfolk. I’d phone up and say, “I’m an American singer,” and that got us gigs. We’d play 45-minute sets to GIs shouting for Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. We played Heart and ZZ Top – anything they wanted. And, by day, I’d wash dishes in the canteens.
Alex Cooper, our drummer, had been in a band called the Waves, playing with a guitarist called Kimberley Rew. We got together and became Katrina and the Waves. I’d always been a covers singer, but Kim had different ideas. One day, he stood in the chapel where we rehearsed and presented Walking on Sunshine. I thought it wasn’t really us. Vince de la Cruz, our bass-player, thought it was irritating. I was going through a Velvet Underground and Nico phase – lots of black eyeliner – and here was a Motown-type fun song about sunshine. It proved to be a total dancefloor emptier. So we dropped it.
Then the Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner heard our self-financed, 1,000-copies-only album at a party in Cambridge and played a track from it. Next, the Bangles got wind of us and had a hit covering Going Down to Liverpool. Soon Capitol signed us up.
By now we’d realised that, however annoying Walking on Sunshine was at first, it was impossible to get out of your head. As we were recording it, an arranger wandered in and said: “You should put horns on that.” And he hummed what became that pumping melody. But the horn section we got in whinged so much about how hard it was to play that we had to drop the key just for them.
It had a feelgood element that was perfect for radio. DJs loved it but they used to talk right over the bloody drum intro. “You’re listening to WKRP in Cincinnati,” they’d say and kick it in where I go: “Ow!” I’d been this sulky goth and suddenly I was “Chrissie Hynde with a smile” fronting “the new Monkees”. The song changed my life. I’ve ended up adoring it. It’s been used in films – from American Psycho to bloody Daddy Day Care – and it’s even been covered by Dolly Parton. People are always coming up to me and saying: “We played it at our wedding.” If I hand the mic over, they can sing the entire thing themselves.
Kimberley Rew, guitarist and songwriter
I’d love to say Walking on Sunshine relates to a significant event in my life, like walking out of my front door, seeing a comet and being inspired. But it’s just a piece of simple fun, an optimistic song, despite us not being outstandingly cheery people. We were a typical young band, insecure and pessimistic. We didn’t have big hair and didn’t look anything like a Motown-influenced group. We didn’t have any credibility or a fanbase in awe of our mystique. We were a second-on-the-bill-at-a-festival-in-Germany pop band. But we had this song.
There was an element of synchronicity to how it took off: it came out at the beginning of a very hot summer in 1985. We were on our first – and only – American club tour when it entered the charts. Suddenly, whenever we played it, everyone went nuts.
Before Katrina and the Waves, I wrote and played songs in Cambridge. And now I write and play songs in Cambridge. In between, I’ve had this global hit that’s made me very comfortable. My wife plays bass in our band. We don’t do Walking on Sunshine very often. But when we do, it goes down a storm – especially at Christmas.
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