Cathy Dennis (born March 25, 1969 in Norwich, England) is a singer, songwriter and record producer. Dennis achieved her first success as a vocalist with Dancin' Danny D's dance project D Mob when their single "C'mon and Get My Love" reached #15 in the United Kingdom and #10 in the United States in 1990.
She scored three solo top 20 UK/ top 10 US hits and considerable success in Japan in the early nineties with "Just Another Dream" (#13 UK, #9 US, AUS#14), "Touch Me (All Night Long)" (#5 UK, #2 US, AUS#16), which is probably her most remembered hit to date, and "Too Many Walls" (#17 UK, #8 US, AUS#57), but her subsequent releases failed to achieve this level of success. Her last Top 40 hit was "Waterloo Sunset" which made #11 in the UK during 1997.
"Touch Me (All Night Long)" stayed at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, but the #1 song changed from "I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)" by Hi-Five (which was #4 the next week) to "I Don't Wanna Cry" by Mariah Carey.
Cathy released her second album "Into the skyline" in 1992 written with an aim toward the US market. The album which featured the singles "You Lied To Me", "Irresistible", "Falling" and "Why ". Unfortunately the album did meet the same success that Move To This had. Dennis experienced a brief peak of fame, making a cameo in Beverly Hills 90210 singing the song "Being with you". In Japan the album was called "Into the skyline +1", and featured three extra tracks, "Nothing Moves Me", a previous b-side. "Its my style" and "Love's a cradle" which where both released as singles.
Cathy started to record her third album "Inspiration", the title track was recorded with Todd Terry along with another song "Is There Life After You", plus other sings as yet unknown. Cathy decided to stop recording this ablum and only two songs have ever been released, "Find the Key to Your Life" with David Morales for the then-popular movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and "SOS", which can be found on the "Beverley Hills 90210, The College Years" soundtrack.
Cathy made her first attempt at co-writing a song for Dannii Minogue called "Love's on Every Corner".
In 1996 Cathy Dennis changed musical track away from the dance-pop sound of previous releases to a more traditional singer-songwriter approach. The resulting album Am I that kind of 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. However, even though a couple of lead off singles charted in the UK Top 40 (including a Number 11 cover of Ray Davies' Waterloo Sunset), the album failed to make much inroads into the album charts this was much to do with pop music being out of favor at its release and guitar based music being more popular.
Cathy's last release appeared on the OST "Robin Hood Men in Tights" singing "Marian (Duet Version) - Cathy Dennis & Lance Ellington".
In recent years, her greatest success has come as a songwriter: five of her compositions have reached number one in Britain. "Never Had a Dream Come True" and "Have You Ever" (both recorded by S Club 7, and the former of which was as big in America as it was in Britain), "Anything Is Possible" (recorded by Will Young), and "Toxic" (recorded by Britney Spears) all reached number one, with "Toxic" and "Never had a dream come true" also hitting the Top 10 in the United States. Her highest-selling composition, "Can't Get You out of My Head" (recorded by Kylie Minogue), spent four weeks at number one in Britain, rekindled interest in Minogue in America, where it hit #7 on the Hot 100, and sold over 3 million copies worldwide to become the world's second highest selling single in 2001. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" also won Dennis an Ivor Novello Award for the year's most performed composition. She also won this award two years later for "Anything Is Possible".
She co-wrote the American Idol theme for the television series, and in Britain and the United States contestants Will Young, Gareth Gates, Kelly Clarkson, and Clay Aiken have recorded her songs as their first singles. Other artists who have recorded her songs include Dannii Minogue, Delta Goodrem, CĂ©line Dion, Spice Girls, Emma Bunton, Ronan Keating, Rachel Stevens, Hear'Say, S Club Juniors, P!nk, Michelle McManus and Jentina.
