Just like The Pretenders, Katrina and the Waves featured an American female lead singer with a band formed in England. Katrina Leskanich was born in Topeka, Kansas, but she moved frequently with her military father, eventually landing in England where she formed the band that made her famous.

Katrina and the Waves are generally considered a “one-hit wonder”, but they actually charted three Top-40 songs.  “Walking On Sunshine” was their first, and biggest,  hit, reaching #9 on the charts in 1985; later that year, they scored another hit, “Do You Want Crying?” that reached #37.  Their next two releases failed to get higher than the 70s, but in 1989, they came storming back with “That’s The Way”, their final American chart hit (they had another big British hit), that cracked the top twenty at #16.  It’s not as infectious as “Walking On Sunshine”, but it’s not a bad pop tune.

I requested it, but Big Joe didn’t play it.

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