Dennis achieved her first success as a vocalist with Dancin’ Danny D’s dance project D Mob, when their single “C’mon and Get My Love” reached #15 in the UK Singles Chart and #10 in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990. Originally, it had only reached #93 (UK). It is regarded as an underground classic in the dance music field, and a second collaboration with D Mob, “That’s The Way Of The World,” was also a major dance hit. It was followed by Dennis’ debut album, Move to This. She subsequently scored three solo Top 20 UK / Top 10 U.S. hits and had considerable success in Japan in the early 1990s with “Just Another Dream” (#13 UK, #9 U.S., #14 Australia), “Touch Me (All Night Long)” (#5 UK, #2 U.S., #16 Australia), which is probably her most remembered hit to date, and “Too Many Walls” (#17 UK, #8 U.S., #57 Australia). Subsequent releases were only minor hits. Her final Top 40 hit in the U.S. was “You Lied to Me” in 1992, and her final Top 40 hit in the UK was “Waterloo Sunset”, which made #11 during 1997. That same year her last solo single “When Your Dreams Turn To Dust”, peaked in the UK at #43. “Touch Me (All Night Long)” stayed at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, and was kept out of the #1 spot by Hi-Five’s “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)” the first week and Mariah Carey’s “I Don’t Wanna Cry” the second week. The song was a cover of a 1985 single by Wish featuring Fonda Rae, which had hit #70 on the U.S. R&B chart that year. “Touch Me” did reach #1 on the U.S. Dance chart, and its follow-up, “Too Many Walls,” which Dennis co-wrote with Anne Dudley of Art of Noise, was a #1 Adult Contemporary hit. It was around this time Dennis agreed to join MTV Club’s first tour, booked for six weeks. She dropped out on the third date, later publicly accussing one of Milli Vanilli’s members (the tour’s headline act) of sexual harassment. Dennis released her second album, Into The Skyline, in December 1992 written with an aim toward the U.S. market. The album featured the singles “You Lied To Me”, “Irresistible”, “Falling” and “Why [D Mob with Cathy Dennis]”. The album got to #8 in the UK, whilst in the U.S., “You Lied to Me” was a Top 40 hit and “Irresistible” made the Adult Contemporary Top Ten; however, the album descended the chart rapidly. Dennis experienced a brief peak of fame, making a cameo in Beverly Hills 90210 singing the song “Moments of Love” (a minor U.S. AC chart hit), “Why” and “Touch Me (All Night Long)”. In Japan the album was called Into the Skyline +1, and featured three extra tracks, “Nothing Moves Me”, a previous b-side, and two tracks that were both released as singles, “It’s My Style” and “Love’s a Cradle.” Dennis started to record her third album Inspiration. The title track was recorded with Todd Terry, along with another song “Is There Life After You”, plus other songs as yet unknown. She decided to stop recording this album and only two songs have ever been released, “Find the Key to Your Life” with David Morales for the then-popular movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and “SOS”, which can be found on the Beverley Hills 90210, The College Years soundtrack. Dennis made her first attempt at co-writing a song for Dannii Minogue called “Love’s on Every Corner”. In 1996 Dennis changed musical track away from the dance-pop sound of previous releases, to a more traditional singer-songwriter approach. The resulting album Am I the Kind of Girl? was more in keeping with the Britpop sound of bands such as Blur and performers such as Stephen Duffy, and featured collaborations with Guy Chambers of The Lemon Trees and Andy Partridge of XTC. However, even though a couple of singles charted in the UK (including a Number 11 cover of Ray Davies’ “Waterloo Sunset”), the album failed to make much inroads into the album charts. Dennis’ last release appeared on the OST Robin Hood Men in Tights singing “Marian (Duet Version) - Cathy Dennis & Lance Ellington”. In recent years, her greatest success has come as a songwriter: in 1996 she co-wrote “Bumper to Bumper”, which was the B-Side to Spice Girls’ first hit single “Wannabe”. Five of her compositions have reached number one in Britain. “Never Had a Dream Come True” and “Have You Ever” (both recorded by S Club 7), “Anything Is Possible” (recorded by Will Young), and “Toxic” (recorded by Britney Spears) all reached number one, with “Toxic” and “Never Had a Dream Come True” also hitting the Top 10 in the United States. Her highest-selling composition, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (recorded by Kylie Minogue), spent four weeks at number one in Britain, rekindled interest in Minogue in America, where it hit #7 on the Hot 100, and sold over three million copies worldwide to become the world’s second highest selling single in 2001. “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” also won Dennis an Ivor Novello Award for the year’s most performed composition. She also won this award two years later for “Anything Is Possible” (Cathy Dennis, Chris Braide). She co-wrote the Pop Idol theme for the television series, and in Britain and the United States contestants Will Young, Gareth Gates, Kelly Clarkson, and Clay Aiken have recorded her songs as their first singles. Other artists who have recorded her songs include Dannii Minogue, Delta Goodrem, Céline Dion, Spice Girls, Emma Bunton, Ronan Keating, Rachel Stevens, Hear’Say, S Club Juniors, P!nk, Brooke Hogan, Michelle McManus, Hooverphonic and Jentina. She has recently collaborated with the British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and song-writer Greg Kurstin, on a track called “Catch You”. Ellis-Bextor’s album entitled Trip the Light Fantastic is set to be released in early 2007 through Fascination Records. |
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