Catherine Roseanne Dennis (or just Cathy Dennis for short) is a British born (Apr 25) singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. Dennis achieved her first success as a vocalist with D Mob, when their single "C'mon and Get My Love" reached UK#15 and US#10 in 1989. A second collaboration with D Mob, "That's the Way of the World", was also a UK hit.
In 1991, Dennis's debut solo album, "Move to This" was released and three sizeable hits. The biggest of them was the cover of the Wish and Fonda Rae's "Touch me (All night long)", which reached US#2, spent 1 week as US Dance #1 and was top 5 in the UK. "Just another dream" and "Too many dreams" were all UK Top 20 and US Top 10 hits. "Touch Me (All Night Long)" stayed at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, and was kept out of the No. 1 spot by Hi-Five's "I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)" in the first week, and Mariah Carey's "I Don't Wanna Cry" in the second week. "Touch Me (All Night Long)" reached #1 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, and its follow-up, "Too Many Walls", which Dennis co-wrote with Anne Dudley of Art of Noise (who also co-wrote the ABC track "All of My Heart"), was a No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit in the United States. During this period, she recorded a song called "Find the Key to Your Life" with David Morales, for the soundtrack to the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Subsequent releases were only minor hits.
Dennis released her second album, Into the Skyline, in September 1992, written with a focus toward the US market. The album featured the singles "You Lied to Me", "Irresistible", "Moments of Love," "Falling", and "Why". The latter was credited to D Mob with Dennis. Dennis experienced a brief peak of fame, making a cameo in Beverly Hills, 90210 singing the songs "Moments of Love" (a minor US Adult Contemporary chart hit), "Why" (in the episode, not to feature D Mob) and "Touch Me (All Night Long)". She also provided background vocals on PM Dawn's US Top 10 and UK Top 20 hit "Looking through Patient Eyes", released in 1993.
Dennis began to record a third album, Inspiration. The title track was recorded with Todd Terry, along with another song "Is There Life After You". Only one song from the recording sessions was ever released, "S.O.S.", which can be found on the Beverly Hills 90210: The College Years soundtrack. She wrote her first song for another artist by writing a song for Dannii Minogue called "Love's on Every Corner".
In 1996, Dennis changed her musical style: away from the dance-pop sound of previous releases, to a more traditional singer-songwriter approach. The resulting album, Am I the Kinda 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. Three singles from the album were released: "West End Pad" (UK#25), "Waterloo Sunset" - a cover of The Kinks' song (UK#11), and her last solo single, "When Your Dreams Turn to Dust" (UK#43).
90 Hits (
Discography):
Date UK Song
May 1991 5 Touch Me (All Night Long)
Jul 1991 13 Just Another Dream
Oct 1991 17 Too Many Walls
Dec 1991 25 Everybody Move
Aug 1992 34 You Lied To Me
Nov 1992 24 Irresistible
Feb 1993 32 Falling
Feb 1994 23 Why (D Mob with Cathy Dennis)
Aug 1996 25 West End Pad
Mar 1997 11 Waterloo Sunset
What happened next?
After a moderately successful international solo career, Dennis later achieved great success as a writer of pop songs, scoring eight UK number ones and winning five Ivor Novello Awards.
In 2004, Dennis was listed 66th in the Q Magazine list of the top 100 most influential people in music and in 2006, she won the UK music industry's Woman of the Year Award.
