Walking on Sunshine is the debut studio album by English new wave band Katrina and the Waves,released on December 1,1983,by Attic Records. The album was only officially released in Canada,but now appears worldwide on the 2003 compilation The Original Recordings 1983–1984 . Several of these original 1983 vinyl releases are evidently still in circulation,primarily in the band's native UK,with the record being simply titled Katrina and the Waves (recognizable by the black and white cover,and not to be confused with the band's self-titled 1985 album,which contains revamped tracks from this and the following album, Katrina and the Waves 2 ). The same cover for this UK release was used when the album was remastered and re-released with four bonus tracks on CD in 2010,under the title Katrina and the Waves. To complicate things further,a later greatest hits album by the band is also called Walking on Sunshine. "Que Te Quiero" was released as a single in the UK where it reached #84 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1984. [1]
This album contains the original version of the title track,which would be re-recorded two years later and thereupon become the band's biggest US hit.
Walking on Sunshine was recorded in London at Alaska Studios with engineer and producer Pat Collier,former bassist with the Vibrators. "I had a small studio in a rehearsal room ... I was recording indie records,and that's how I met Kimberley when he was in the Soft Boys," Collier said. Located in a railway arch under Waterloo Station,the studio was noisy and damp,and "very horrible," according to Collier. "They would always record as an entire band," he said. "They might patch and repair stuff after. They would always do the vocal again. But the basic thing was live." [2]
The album,which was originally intended to be sold at gigs and to shop around for a record deal,cost $1,200 to make,which the band put up themselves. [3] Labels in the UK and the US were approached,but only Canadian indie label Attic Records,which had previously released recordings by guitarist Kimberley Rew's former band the Soft Boys,responded with an offer. Consequently,Walking On Sunshine was released only in Canada,despite the band being based in the UK. Critical praise and radio airplay,for the title track in particular,resulted in a Canadian tour. [4]
"Going Down to Liverpool","Machine Gun Smith","Walking on Sunshine" and "Que Te Quiero" would be re-recorded for the band's 1985 major label debut Katrina and the Waves ,while "I Really Taught Me to Watusi" would be reworked for their 1991 album Pet the Tiger .
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Trouser Press | very favourable [6] |
AllMusic's Mark Deming retrospectively called it "a good pop album," and wrote:"Kimberley Rew's guitar work is as stellar as ever,and his songwriting is clever and taut on each of these ten tunes." [3] The Rolling Stone Album Guide called it "a masterpiece of guitar pop," [5] and Trouser Press said that it "flows magnificently from start to end,and subsumes individual accomplishments into a true group effort. A greatest hits album the first time out." [6]
Walking on Sunshine was reissued in 2010 on the CGB label in a limited edition of 1000 copies,each individually numbered. It includes previously unreleased material and all tracks have been remastered from the original master tapes. The booklet includes detailed recording credits,band interviews,rare photos,and liner notes by former Attic Records employee Ralph Alfonso,who got the band signed to the label in 1983. The cover art to the album is the self-released version that the band sold at gigs in the UK before signing with Attic. [7]
All songs written by Kimberley Rew,except where noted.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Dancing Street" | 2:24 |
2. | "Spiderman" | 3:12 |
3. | "Going Down to Liverpool" | 3:45 |
4. | "Machine Gun Smith" | 2:55 |
5. | "Walking on Sunshine" | 3:15 |
6. | "Brown Eyed Son" | 2:03 |
7. | "Que Te Quiero" | 3:17 |
8. | "Don't Take Her Out of My World" | 2:53 |
9. | "I Really Taught Me to Watusi" | 3:02 |
10. | "Ain't No Money (Buy You Love)" | 2:35 |
Total length: | 29:21 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Origin | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
11. | "Wipe Out" | Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller, Ron Wilson | B-side to "Brown Eyed Son" reissue single, 1991 | 2:22 |
12. | "I Want a Man" | Previously unreleased | 2:05 | |
13. | "She Loves to Groove" (7" version) | B-side to "Brown Eyed Son" single , 1982 | 2:37 | |
14. | "Help Me" | Previously unreleased | 3:08 | |
Total length: | 39:33 |
The Bangles are an American all-female pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "Manic Monday" (1986), "Hazy Shade of Winter" (1987), "In Your Room" (1988), and "Eternal Flame" (1989).
Katrina and the Waves were a British rock band formed in Cambridge in 1981, widely known for their 1985 hit "Walking on Sunshine". They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Love Shine a Light".
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Kimberley Charles Rew is an English rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was a member of Katrina and the Waves from 1981 to 1999 and of Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys from 1978 to 1981. For Katrina and the Waves, he wrote "Walking on Sunshine" and "Love Shine a Light". The latter was performed as the United Kingdom's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, taking the country to its first victory in the contest since 1981.
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"Walking on Sunshine" is a song written by Kimberley Rew for British rock band Katrina and the Waves' 1983 eponymous debut full-length album. The rerecorded version was at first released on the band's 1985 self-titled album as the album's second single and reached No. 4 in Australia, No. 9 in the United States and No. 8 in the United Kingdom. It was the Waves' first American top 40 hit, and their biggest success in the UK until "Love Shine a Light" (1997).
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