- If you’re “walking on air,” you’re feeling pretty good. But you know what’s even better? Walking on sunshine.In this song, Katrina is filled with such unadulterated joy because she’s now sure her man loves her. Apparently it’s a long-distance relationship, but that’s OK. She knows that someday he’ll show up at her door and they’ll live happily ever after.
- Before Katrina Leskanich came along, the band was simply The Waves. Based in England, they were led by Kimberly Rew, who left the group in 1978 to join Robyn Hitchcock in The Soft Boys. When The Soft Boys broke up in 1981, Rew and his former Waves bandmate Alex Cooper joined forces with two Americans whose fathers were in the Air Force and stationed in England: Leskanich and Vince De La Cruz. Leskanich took over from Rew as lead singer and also played rhythm guitar; Rew was on lead guitar, Cooper on drums, De La Cruz on bass.As The Waves, they released an independent album in 1982 called Shock Horror! with the song “Going Down to Liverpool,” later covered by the Bangles. In 1983, rechristened Katrina & the Waves, they released “Walking On Sunshine” on an album of the same name that was issued only in Canada, where it created enough buzz to get the attention of Capitol Records. In 1985 they re-recorded “Walking On Sunshine” and released it as the lead single from their first Capitol album, the self-titled Katrina & the Waves. With the promotional might of Capitol behind it and a music video that MTV adored, the song became a big hit and endured as an ’80s classic.
- “Walking On Sunshine” was written by Kimberly Rew, the primary songwriter in the band (he also wrote “Going Down to Liverpool”). He brought a pop sensibility to the group that contrasted with his more psychedelic punk sounds in The Soft Boys.
- The song has a multigenerational appeal that earned it a huge audience but also made it hard for the group to target a specific fanbase. They performed it on both the teen bop American Bandstand and the older-skewing Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.Capitol Records decided the follow-up single should be “Do You Want Crying?”, a breakup song that’s quite a lyrical departure from “Walking On Sunshine.” They were trying to show that the band was more nuanced, but may have been better served with a more cheery tune. It stalled at #37 in America, and the band lost their momentum. They went to #16 in 1989 with “That’s The Way,” but had some lean years before making a surprising comeback in 1997 with “Love Shine A Light,” which was chosen to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest and won the contest handily. Katrina & the Waves broke up in 1999.
- As is often the case with a band’s breakout hit, the songwriter isn’t all that impressed with it. “Up until the time it was a hit, it was just another song,” Kimberly Rew told Creem.
- This song has been used in a number of feature films, including: The Secret of My Success (1987), Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie (1997) and American Psycho (2000). Also, Jack Black’s character in High Fidelity (2000) plays this song on a cassette tape. A cover by the duo Aly & AJ was used in the 2005 Disney motion picture Herbie: Fully Loaded.
- The video got a lot of airplay on MTV. It shows the band hanging around London, with Katrina very colorful and bouncy, and her bandmates more subdued. She had to make her own sunshine, as there was none in London – it was a typically cloudy and cold day.Katrina’s look was anti-glam, with tennis shoes and the kind of fashions you’d find at the mall. In interviews from this time, she often took shots at singers like Madonna and Pat Benatar for adopting more suggestive looks.
- “Walking On Sunshine” is the favorite song of Philip J. Fry, a character from the TV series Futurama. He sings it while showering, though the only words he remembers are “I’m walking on sunshine,” so he hums the rest.
- Dolly Parton recorded this for her 1996 covers album, Treasures. In 1999, a dance remix of her version was also released.
- While recording “Walking On Sunshine,” the band had to change the song’s key when a newly added horn section found it too difficult to play.
