Cathy Dennis

by David Jeffries
 
A dance diva with a great, soulful voice, Cathy Dennis is best remembered for a handful of pop hits from the early 90s, but her presence on the charts extends well past that. Born in Norwich, U.K., Dennis started publicly performing at the age of 13 with her fathers big band playing various resorts and hotels. In her late teens she was performing with a cover band when she was spotted by Simon Fuller, then managing Dancin Danny D and his club act, D-Mob. Fuller worked a deal with Polydor Records where Dancin Danny D would produce a Dennis album. Three years later there still wasnt any album, so Dennis took a break and recorded vocals for D-Mobs Cmon and Get My Love. The dance track was a huge hit and appeared on both D-Mobs Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That and Dennis finally completed debut, Move to This, released in 1990.
 
She stayed on the charts with the dance follow-ups Just Another Dream and All Night Long (Touch Me), as well as the ballad Too Many Walls, co-written with the Art of Noises Anne Dudley. Ultra-successful dance producer Shep Pettibone was at the helm for most of the 1992 sophomore album, Into the Skyline, but it yielded no hits and quickly fell off the charts. Dennis recorded a more soul-based third album, Inspiration, but the singer was becoming disenchanted with performing and the album was scrapped, with only the track S.O.S. seeing release on the Beverly Hills 90210: College Years soundtrack.
 
Becoming more and more interested in the music of Paul Weller and the Kinks, Dennis recorded the more rockish and earthy Am I the Kinda Girl? It made even less of an impact than Into the Skyline, but the few reviews it received were positive, most focusing on the emotional cover of the Kinks Waterloo Sunset. Having such a personal album tank was enough for Dennis to give up performing indefinitely and turn to writing and producing for 19 Productions, a company Simon Fuller was about to turn into a gold mine. The Spice Girls sold millions of copies of their single Wannabe, and with her Bumper to Bumper on the flip side, Dennis was knee-deep in royalty checks. Successful work for S Club 7 followed, but the crowning achievement was when Kylie Minogue took Cant Get You Out of My Head to the top of the charts almost everywhere. Dennis and her co-writer — Rob Davis, former member of the glam band Mud — had a worldwide hit on their hands, for which they received an Ivor Novello songwriting award in 2002.
 
Fuller was experiencing worldwide success producing the talent search-styled television shows Pop Idol in the U.K. and American Idol in the U.S. Dennis penned the theme and her songs appeared on the runners-up and winners albums (Tell Me One More Time for Gareth Gates, Measure of a Man for Clay Aiken, and Before Your Love for Kelly Clarkson). By the end of 2002 four different publications had named her as one of the highest-paid women in the U.K.