Whatever happened to Cathy Dennis?
Quite often I will wake up in the morning with a song in my head. When this happened recently I had no idea why it was the song that it was but it did get me wondering.
What happened to all those singers/bands who were famous once?
For this particular adventure we are going back to the early 90’s because the song that was in my head was…
A very 90’s tune performed by a very ginger Cathy Dennis. I thought she was great and loved all her songs. “Just Another Dream” was taken from her first album “Move To This” and the song only charted after its 3rd re-issue. Man, it was a tough crowd back in those days!
She was a big hit in America which is no wonder when she sings songs about (a) wanting to be “touched all night long”…
and (b) inviting the world to “come on and get her love”…
Cathy then continued with this “open” way of living and decided to extend it to her house as she gave us this lovely ballad about there being “too many walls”.
It’s a good job she’s got a big shawl/hood type thing on during the performance beacuse if you knock down all the walls in your house then there will be a lot of draughts…
After the success of her first album she came back with “Into The Skyline” and she was angry. It really appeared that she was looking for a fight…
She was so angry that she actually decided to chop a lot of her ginger hair off…
Don’t panic though, she soon chilled out and gave us “Irresistable” and grew the ginge back…
During the mid 90’s Cathy appeared on hit American TV show Beverley Hills 902010 and popped up various other places too and in 1996 she (along with the rest of the world) wanted to go all indie…
She really should have been comparing notes with Indie Kylie at this point as this direction didn’t work for her either and her latest album failed to make an impression. After this she disappeared quicker than you can say “I’m not ginger, I’m strawberry blonde”.
So, where did Cathy Dennis go?
Cathy never really disappeared.
Chances are everyone knows a Cathy Dennis song but just don’t realise. She decided to follow a songwriter path rather than singer and she has been so, so successful.
Possibly the most successful song would be…
I’m pretty sure Kylie will be eternally grateful to Cathy for writing this song as it really re-launched Kylie as the ultimate Pop Princess.
Cathy wrote practically all songs for S Club 7…
Not only did she co-write the theme song for American Idol she also wrote songs for most of the winners including Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken and the UK winner Will Young…
Seriously, the list of singers that Cathy has written for is massive and includes Delta Goodrem, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, Céline Dion, Ana Torroja, Emma Bunton, Melanie C, Rachel Stevens, Thalía, S Club Juniors, Pink, Christina Milian,Hooverphonic, Jentina, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Róisín Murphy, Leon Jean-Marie, David Cook, Daniel Merriweather, Boy George, Mark Ronson, Linda Eder, Diane, Kelis, Mix The Wanted, F(X), Aluna George, Galantis, Diana Vickers and many more.
Other huge hits everyone will know are…
and…
Finally, one of my all time favourites…
Although I much prefer the acoustic version…
More recently she has been writing with Swedish duo Gatlantis and if rumours are to be believed she even provides vocals – you be the judge…
Cathy Dennis? Whatever happened to her?
Well – she’s been in all of our heads, all of this time without any of us realising. She simply chooses to keep her ginger head down and write all these award-winning songs rather than singing them.
Keep up the great work Cathy.
UPDATE: 11th April – Cathy Dennis to make first live appearance in 20 years this summer at Mighty Hoopla festival.
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