“Walking on Sunshine” (Katrina and the Waves)

Our final classic summer song of the day this week is “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. Does anybody know of a happier, peppier, summerier song than this one?

“Walking on Sunshine” is a refreshing, upbeat brew of pure joy, guaranteed to pick you up on even the dreariest of days. It’s a really simple song, just A, D, and E (in the key of A major, of course), but the changes go every measure, which gives it a movement you don’t get when a song sits on the same chord for 2 or 4 or 8 bars. (The secret to snappy songwriting—rapid chord changes!) Bandmember Kimberly Rew wrote it and Katrina Leskanich sang it (while wearing red tennis shoes, at least in the accompanying video), and it made the band a lot of money over the years in commercial placements.

Rew wrote the song back in 1983 and the band recorded a version for their 1983 album of the same name. It didn’t do anything. But they re-recorded it in 1985 for their second, self-titled album, and it was a smash. Back then, you couldn’t turn on a radio without hearing it or flip by MTV without seeing Katrina and her red tennies. Despite its near-ubiquity, it only rose to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It doesn’t matter; the song is the song and it’s a great one.

Interestingly, Rew originally conceived the song as a ballad, which is difficult to imagine. Katrina decided to sing it more up-tempo, and she was right. In fact, the original 1983 version, which is very similar to the 1985 version, was recorded at an even faster tempo—too fast, really. They slowed it down a few BPM when they re-recorded it, and that made it just about perfect.

Kimberly Rew also wrote the tune “Going Down to Liverpool,” originally recorded by the Waves but later covered by the Bangles. Both versions are good. The band also had a minor hit with “Sunshine’s” follow-up, “Do You Want Crying?” which hit #37 later in 1985. The band kept going through the last half of the 1980s and into the 1990s, but didn’t have any other hits… until they won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Love Shine a Light.” That one became a big hit in the UK, reaching #3 on that country’s Singles Chart. (It didn’t chart in the U.S., unfortunately.) Katrina ended up leaving the group a year later and, unable to come up with a new frontperson, the band completely broke up in 1999.