Atomic Kitten is an English girl group from Liverpool composed of Liz "Lil" McClarnon, Natasha "Tash" Hamilton, and Jenny Frost - who replaced original member Kerry Katona in January 2001. Many of their singles and albums entered the Top 40 charts worldwide such as "Right Now," "Whole Again," "Eternal Flame," "The Tide Is High," and "Ladies Night."
Atomic Kitten was formed in 1997 by Andy McCluskey of '80s band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and included Heidi Range in the original line-up. However, Heidi left the group and was only featured on the demo recordings. In 2001, Heidi joined another girl group, Sugababes. Atomic Kitten was originally named "Honeyhead", but later renamed "Automatic Kittens", the name of the label of its designer. "Automatic Kittens" was eventually changed to "Atomic Kitten." [1]
The group's first single "Right Now" debuted in December of 1999 and ended up reaching the British top 10. After the initial success Atomic Kitten made an Asian tour during which it scored their first hit with "Cradle". The album, also titled Right Now, was first released in Japan on March 16, 2000 and subsequently released in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2000 with a slightly modified track list. In July 2000, the group released a cover version of "The Locomotion" for the movie Thomas and the Magic Railroad
Right Now was a modest success upon its release. Initially, there were no plans to focus on the global market and Atomic Kitten's record label, Innocent Records, was even considering dropping them because of their limited success, however they persuaded to record one more single.[2] This one single changed the career of Atomic Kitten because they scored their first No. 1 hit in the UK in 2001 with "Whole Again". The song and video for "Whole Again" originally featured Kerry Katona, however, she left the group several days prior to the number-one position because of her pregnancy.[3] The single was remade when Jenny Frost was added to the line-up as Kerry's replacement. The success was such that it was decided to remaster and re-release the album, which then went to number one on its second appearance on the chart.
The next single "Eternal Flame", a cover version of the 1989 hit by The Bangles, also became a No. 1 hit.
Second album and independence
Given the success of "Whole Again", a new album, Feels So Good, was recorded. The songwriting and production agreement with Andy McCluskey was an increasing source of tension within the group and the girls decided to terminate the contract with McCluskey halfway through the recording of the album.
The first single off the album was "It's Ok!". Even though this song performed well in the charts, securing a No. 3 position, it was the next single "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)", a remake of the 1965 song by The Paragons, also made famous by Blondie in 1980), which attained Atomic Kitten their third number-one single. In April 2002, Natasha announced that she was pregnant, but had no intention of leaving the group, and wanted the scheduled 2002 tour to continue. Natasha filmed the music video for "The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)", and made an appearance at Party in the Park before finally going on pregnancy leave.[4]
During January and February 2003, Atomic Kitten toured around Southeast Asia, visiting Singapore, Thailand and Korea.Natasha, who had given birth to her son, Josh, on August 24, 2002, decided to take her newborn baby with her on the tour as well.[5]
American album release
In April 2003, the group released the album, Atomic Kitten in the United States. Until that time, the group had not focused on the American market. The album consisted of tracks from the first two Atomic Kitten albums, Right Now and Feels So Good. Promotion for the album began with the single, The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling), appearing on the soundtrack for the Disney film, The Lizzie McGuire Movie starring Hilary Duff. However, the album only managed to peak at #102 on the Billboard chart, it was decided the band would focus on the European and Asian markets.[6]
Ladies Night and tour
Before recording their third album, Kool and the Gang approached the group about a collaboration for their Odyssey album. Kool and the Gang wanted an updated version of Ladies Night and were looking for a girl group to sing the lyrics. Atomic Kitten liked the idea and inquired whether they could use it for their next album which was subsequently named Ladies Night in honour of this collaboration.[7]
Atomic Kitten spent late 2002 and early 2003 in the studio recording their third and final studio album. Up until the recording of Ladies Night, the group mainly relied on songwriters and sometimes co-wrote songs featured on their albums. While recording Ladies Night, they decided to be directly involved in the creation of eight of the fifteen songs. Ladies Night was released on November 10, 2003.
In early 2004, a tour to support Ladies Night and the upcoming release of their Greatest Hits album was planned. The tour was dubbed "The Greatest Hits Tour". Shortly before the tour kicked off, the girls announced they would be splitting after the completion of the tour.[8]
Reunion appearances
On January 23, 2004, Natasha Hamilton decided to devote more time to her young son and wanted to take a hiatus from the group. Atomic Kitten released the single "Someone Like Me/Right Now 2004" as a "goodbye" to their fans, but were reunited on Valentine's Day to release the charity single "Cradle 2005", a new version of the original on their album Right Now. "Cradle 2005" peaked at No. 10, with proceeds going to World Vision.[9]
In 2005, the group was featured on the soundtrack of Disney's Mulan II with the song "(I Wanna Be) Like Other Girls Lyrics". The track was Atomic Kitten's third time as a featured artist on a soundtrack. In 2005 they also performed together in Krakow, Poland on August 28 as main star of Coca-Cola SoundWave Festival.
In 2006, Atomic Kitten recorded a one-off single, "All Together Now (Strong Together)", in association with Goleo VI, the official mascot of the FIFA World Cup 2006. The track is taken from The Official FIFA World Cup Album and was released for digital download and in CD form on June 6, 2006, in Germany, where the World Cup was held ten days later. The single was listed by the HMV website for release in the UK many weeks prior to the competition, the single was taken off from schedule and deleted from the catalogue, due to the amount of competing football records that were being released at that time. The proceeds of the single went to SOS Children's Villages.[10]
On December 4, 2006, the group reunited once again for a one-off performance of "Whole Again" and two other songs at a benefit concert for the Michael Shields appeal at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. [1]
On December 31, 2006, Atomic Kitten performed at the Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong at Nokia's New Year's Eve celebration. The appearance marked their second international appearance since splitting in 2004.
2008 Reunion
In January 2008, Atomic Kitten returned to the music industry after almost four years since performing in the UK as a band.
They released their new single, Anyone Who Had A Heart on 27 January 2008, a version of Cilla Black's 1964 hit as part of the Liverpool Number One Project. On 18 January Liz McClarnon appeared on GMTV to discuss their comeback and premiered a clip from the music video for the song. On 19 January, Atomic Kitten returned to the stage for the The Number One Project, where they sang "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "Whole Again" and "The Tide is High (Get the Feeling)" live. On 25 January the band appeared on GMTV, talking about The Number One Project and performed "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in the studio. Later that same day Liz and Tash appeared on Radio 1's Scott Mills Show. The single reached number 77 in the UK Single Charts
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