Katrina and the Waves -- Walking on Sunshine

 

I was reminded of this 80s hit because the song got covered as an instrumental jingle on one of the heavy rotation commercials during the Olympics.

Reading the Wikipedia article on Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" from April 1985, I discovered that the band itself had been rather tepid toward the song initially since even the lead vocalist, Katrina Leskanich admitted that none of them were exactly the most up-with-people types. Perhaps that was why the guys in the band looked distinctly cold and miserable for almost the entire length of the music video shot in London although Katrina indeed danced about as if she were really walking on sunshine. When I first saw the video as a university kid, that was the first big impression I got...Katrina was just having a really good day. And we got to see her everyday having a really good day because it was a hit song and the video got heavy rotation on the music shows.

"Walking on Sunshine" hit No. 3 in Canada (going Gold) and then No. 9 in the United States. A recent interview with Leskanich had her saying the song was probably going to outlive her. Well, it already has begun through the Olympics.

So, what else was coming out during that month? We've got the usual three.

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Machikutabirete Yokohama (待ちくたびれてヨコハマ）

Yukiko Okada -- Summer Beach

Minako Honda -- Satsui no Vacance (殺意のバカンス)