Do You Want Crying?

Album: Walking On Sunshine (1985)
Charted: 96 37
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Songfacts®:

  • How do you follow "Walking On Sunshine," one of the bounciest hits of the '80s? For Katrina & The Waves it was with "Do You Want Crying?", a heartbreak song where lead singer Katrina Leskanich lets her ex know she's been shedding tears since he walked out on her. Musically the songs aren't all that far apart, but lyrically they're steak and carrots.

    "Walking On Sunshine" was a huge hit for the group but a tough one to launch a career from. Capitol Records didn't want listeners to think of Katrina & the Waves as a party band, so they insisted on "Do You Want Crying?" as the follow-up to show their depth. The song did OK, reaching #37 in the UK, but it didn't earn them many new fans. The band had a few more minor hits before winning Eurovision for the UK in 1997 with "Love Shine A Light."
  • Most Katrina & the Waves, including "Walking On Sunshine," were written by their guitarist, Kimberley Rew, but "Do You Want Crying?" was written by their bass player, Vince De La Cruz. He and Katrina were the Americans in the group; they started making music together at the Air Force base in England where their fathers were stationed. They joined Rew and drummer Alex Cooper, both graduates of Cambridge University, in their band The Waves, which they re-named Katrina & the Waves.

    Leskanich explained that De La Cruz wrote songs specifically for her to sing, whereas Rew's songs didn't really relate to her. She told Creem: "'Do You Want Crying' was Vince's first song. He played it with just acoustic guitar onto a tape recorder; then he was so nervous he ran away for three weeks. The first time I heard it, I had goose bumps."

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