Cathy Dennis. Before she became THE go to female songsmith of the Noughties, she was a pop star! Imagine that.
British by birth, but worldly by design, Cathy's first notable appearance was on D-Mob's 1989 (but released in the US in 1990!) smash C'Mon and Get My Love.
Fun Fact: This track was/is directly responsible for Better The Devil You Know. SAW/PWL had cooked up a version, but after Kylie heard this, she took the demo to American producers to update its sound! (And if you listen to BTDYK, it's a little less than a ripoff of this song.)
The first official single from her debut, Move to This. It flopped in the UK upon original release; after it went to number nine on the Hot 100, her countrymen and women gave it a second choice.
A 80s club hit for Wish and Fonda Rae, Cathy kept the stabbing synths and chorus and ditched everything else, rewriting the melody and lyrics to the verse and bridge. The result?
A song that was kept off the top spot in the US by Mariah. SUCCESS.
Third single - obligatory ballad. Too Many Walls also went top ten, giving Cathy four US top tens from her debut album. What could go wrong?
I think she fell victim to the 90210 soundtrack curse. Every artist that contributed to that mess saw diminishing returns, and was kept from the top 10, from that point forward (i.e. Shanice, Vanessa Williams, Paula Abdul, Jody Watley, Tara Kemp, Color Me Badd, Lisa Stansfield, After 7, etc.)
Please include "Moments in Love". It's a flawless love song.
Well, if you know pop history at all, you know what happens next. An artist, usually from the UK, gets success in the States. Moves to the States, works with American producers, loses everything that made them special in the first place. Result? Flop second album.
But You Lied to Me went top forty, and Cathy became the unofficial mascot of season 3 (the best season!) of Beverly Hills, 90210 - she performed twice, and contributed a song to the soundtrack! So there's that.
C'Mon and Get My Love (with D'Mob)
Just Another Dream
Touch Me (All Night Long)
Too Many Walls
You Lied to Me
Cecilia Veronica Peniston. CeCe for short. Born in Dayton, Ohio, raised in Arizona. Sung from an early age, and won Ms. Black Arizona in 1989. While at college, she began writing lyrics. An old friend told her that a local rapper by the name of "Overweight Pooch" (not making this **** up) was looking for a singer to collaborate with. OP, or Tanya Davis, had another girl in mind, but CeCe still threw her hat into the ring. Everyone loved it, but they loved CeCe's voice more. Record execs approached CeCe to record her own song; she dusted off some lyrics she had written in college about the struggle to find 'Mr. Right' and came up with a melody. Finally was born.
An immediate smash on the dance charts in late 1991, by early 1992, it was number five in the U.S. and number two in the U.K!
CeCe had two months to put an album together. Dance smashes We Got a Love Thang and Keep on Walkin' went top 20 on the charts, and heated up clubs throughout 1992.
Any song with the word dowdy in it deserves a 10.