Patty Donahue Explained

Patty Donahue
Background:solo_singer
Birth Name:Patricia Jean Donahue
Origin:Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Birth Date:29 March 1956
Death Date:
New York, New York, U.S.
Instrument:Vocals, guitar
Genre:New wave
Years Active:1978–1996
Past Member Of:The Waitresses

Patricia Jean Donahue (March 29, 1956 – December 9, 1996), known as Patty Donahue, was the lead singer of the 1980s new wave group The Waitresses. She is best known for the band's singles "I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrapping".

Early life

Patricia Jean Donahue was born on March 29, 1956, in Akron, Ohio.[1] [2] Her parents divorced when she was two years old. She told an interviewer that her mother raised her to be an independent woman.[3]

Like her mother and sister, Donahue attended St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland.[3] She studied at Ohio State University but dropped out for financial reasons. She tried to finish at Cleveland State University but left there too, dissatisfied with the school.[3] She eventually graduated from Kent State University.[4] In her early 20s, before joining The Waitresses, she worked as a waitress.[4]

Music career

Donahue met Chris Butler while at Kent State.[3] Butler was in the art rock band Tin Huey but he had written a number of songs that were not used in their repertoire.[3] As he later explained in the liner notes of The Best of the Waitresses (1990), he met Donahue in a barroom challenge: "One day I write this song, and then it's noon and the liquid lunchers are packed into a...bar. I stand on a chair and bang a beer bottle for attention and declare: 'I need a chanteuse to coo a tune. The song is funny and stupid and cool and different, and is anybody interested?' A voice in the back says, 'Uh-huh.' It's Patty."[5]

Donahue was among the performers who developed a new standard for women in rock music during the new wave era.[6] Although Butler was the leader and songwriter of the Waitresses, fans and music journalists often singled out Donahue as the band's primary asset. Butler wrote the lyrics but, as Rolling Stone asserted, "Donahue is no pop-band puppet".[4] She rejected the notion that she was simply singing another person's words: "I'm relating my experiences too" she told an interviewer; "He wrote the songs, but I'm not just singing what he feels".[4] Syndicated music columnist Hugh Wyatt considered her an exceptional artist despite her lack of formal training, calling her "one of only a handful of rock singers who has truly harnessed the attitudinal approach of post-punk".[7]

During the recording of the second and final Waitresses' album Bruiseology, Donahue left the band and was replaced temporarily by Holly Beth Vincent before Donahue rejoined soon afterward.[8] Donahue was sought personally by Alice Cooper to duet with him on the single "I Like Girls". Cooper exuberantly told an interviewer: "I'd be driving in the car...and every time I'd want to turn up the radio, it was Patty Donahue."[9] "I Like Girls" appears on Cooper's album Zipper Catches Skin with Donahue credited for "vocals and sarcasm".[10]

Soon Donahue stepped away from performance altogether. She took work as a talent scout for MCA Publishing, and later became an A&R rep for MCA Records.[11]

Death

On December 9, 1996, Donahue, who had been a heavy smoker most of her adult life, died of lung cancer in New York at the age of 40.[1] [2] She was interred in the in Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Wilson, Scott . 2016 . Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons . 3 . Jefferson, NC . McFarland . 201 . 9780786479924.
  2. Book: Simmonds, Jeremy . 2012 . The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches . Chicago . Chicago Review Press . 361 . 9781613744789.
  3. News: Righi . Len . July 7, 1982 . Head Waitress talks about her on-the-job training . The Morning Call . Allentown, PA . D11 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20190620004241/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28980189/patty_donahue/ . June 20, 2019 . live.
  4. News: Fricke . David . May 6, 1982 . Waitresses Finally Get Some Tips . Wisconsin State Journal . Madison, WI . 61 . . . April 4, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190407015134/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28980384/the_waitresses/ . April 7, 2019 . live.
  5. Web site: Allen . Craig . Craig Allen Says: Meet the Waitresses . NJ1015.com . . December 6, 2014 . June 21, 2019.
  6. News: Harrington . Richard . May 15, 1982 . 'Girl Groups' Take On Rock . The Pantagraph . Bloomington, IL . 53 . The Washington Post . . https://web.archive.org/web/20190712210415/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2186528/patty_donahue/ . July 12, 2019 . live.
  7. News: Wyatt . Hugh . June 10, 1983 . Waiting on new Waitresses . New York Daily News . F18 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20190618022804/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28980347/patty_donahue/ . June 18, 2019 . live.
  8. Book: Talevski, Nick . Knocking on Heaven's Door: Rock Obituaries . Omnibus Press . 2007 . 137 . 978-1-84609-091-2.
  9. Goldstein . Toby . Alice Cooper Jokers Wild . . March 1983 . 28–29.
  10. Zipper Catches Skin (CD reissue) . Zipper Catches Skin . . 2009 . Liner notes . Collectors' Choice Music . CCM-2079.
  11. Web site: Gensler . Andy . When Quitting Pays Off: David Gray Talks Leaving His Music Behind to Build Up Shawn Mendes, DNCE & Other Hitmakers . . September 16, 2016 . June 19, 2019.