The Hitmakers: Cathy Dennis
By Mark Savage
BBC News entertainment reporter


In the run-up to the Ivor Novello awards, the BBC News website is profiling some major songwriters of recent years.
Cathy Dennis - who co-wrote Britney Spears' Ivor Novello-nominated Toxic - has been making hit records since 1989. She started out as a singer with acid-house pioneers D-Mob before launching a solo career.

In recent years, she's concentrated on writing songs for other artists, and has sent Spears and Kylie Minogue to the top of the charts.


Dennis, who already has four Ivor Novello songwriting awards, has written dozens of top 10 hits and worked with legends such as Burt Bacharach and Ray Davies.

But, she says the biggest thrill she gets is still from hearing one of her songs on the radio.


"It's the highest of the highs. Knowing how many people are receiving it, you just get this huge injection of pride and excitement," Dennis says.


Fifteen years have passed since her first single, Just Another Dream, was played on the airwaves.
Back then, she was a solo artist promoting her debut album, Move To This.

Cathy moved to London to write the album in 1986, but it took her three years to finish.

"I'm not quite sure why," she says, "Maybe I was doing sight-seeing tours all the time."

However, it was America that picked up on the album's glossy post-house pop music first, and Dennis soon found herself criss-crossing the States promoting singles like Touch Me (All Night Long) and Too Many Walls.

"There was a lot of laughter on those trips. We had a lot of fun and unfortunately you can never get that innocence back again," she says.
"But there's a lot of aspects of touring that I really don't miss at all. Shaking hands with somebody and having to smile on cue has never sat very comfortably with me."

Rebel

Dennis has a polite and reserved exterior but it hides a rebellious nature.

"I don't like to conform," she says, "and I'll cut my nose off to spite my face.


"I'll ask someone for their opinion and then go the other way for the sake of it. It really annoys me and I don't understand it, but it's just me."

Dennis' stubborn streak caused problems with her solo career.

"My third album was incredibly self-indulgent but I didn't want to commercialise what I was doing," she says.

The album Am I The Kinda Girl features some collaborations with Ray Davies and Guy Chambers, but it stalled at number 78 in the UK charts.
"I started to dig myself into a burrow," she recalls, "I got really frustrated, but I didn't want to commercialise what I was doing."

Melody cool

First and foremost a songwriter - she had a writing contract with EMI before she was signed as a solo artist - Dennis settled into writing songs for other artists from Janet Jackson to Celine Dion and Will Young.


"I like to write from a melodic point-of-view," she says. Most of her songs are co-written, with Dennis adding vocal lines and lyrics to a pre-recorded backing track.
She says her talent stems from a musical upbringing. Both of her parents are musicians, but they didn't force her to learn music in the traditional way.

"I wasn't allowed to do theory or go and have lessons like my dad, but it became a very normal thing to listen to the top 40 on a Sunday night.

"I couldn't relate to the nursery rhymes and boring songs that I was being told to listen to in music class at school. When you're used to listening to pop songs, it's a completely different world."

The impression you get is that, even while growing up in Norwich, in the East of England, Dennis knew her destiny would be in pop music.

That grounding gives her a great deal of confidence when she's in the studio. "If someone tries to dilute what I'm doing... I generally tend to stick my neck out."

Dennis' musical instincts were vindicated in 2001 when she scored her biggest hit to date.


Can't Get You Out of My Head went straight to number one, reinvigorated Kylie Minogue's career, and bagged its writers an unprecedented three Ivor Novello Awards.
"It wasn't conforming to pop," Dennis says, "You think about pop music and you don't think of those kind of notes. It was darker.

"And it led me to a new-found freedom melodically in what I felt was acceptable for me to do."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/...562735.stm

Published: 2005/05/26 07:22:22 GMT

© BBC MMV

"C'Mon And Get My Love"

one of my faves from back in the day.

Like most Americans, I didn't pay attention to Kylie at all until "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" hit.

She's a great songwriter. She's done some great stuff for Janet ("Island Life") and Britney ("Toxic").

I love how she describes her pop songs as having a "dark quality." I totally felt that in CGYOOMH.

my absolute fav cathy dennis song...EVA!!

what's the "speaking out" part here? that sort of connotes some sort of controversial stand or statement she's making. i just see a fluff piece.

I wish she would record herself again. "Move To This" was an incerible CD!

VinnyM27 said:

"into the skyline" had some good tracks as well. most memorable "you lied to me" and "irresistible".

I need to get into Cathy's solo work more. I've been meaning to.

I have that D-Mob album with Cathy Dennis. That LP was almost wall to wall hits. I think all but two tracks were singles.

JANFAN4L said:

At the very least get "Move To This" (the only thing I have from her). It's essentail.

sextonseven said:

I think I saw that super cheap but for some reason didn't pick it up. I think it's often in bargin bins. Next time I see it I'll pick it up.

VinnyM27 said:

I have five 12" singles from that album.

"C'Mon And Get My Love"
"It Is Time To Get Funky"
"Put Your Hands Together"/"All I Do"
"That's The Way Of The World"
"We Call It Acieed"/"Trance Dance"

And there's also a remix of "A Rhythm From Within" on the b-side of the U.K. 12" of "Put Your Hands Together". That just leaves the lone album track, "It Really Don't Matter" as unreleased/unremixed (as far as I know).