Patty Donahue | |
|---|---|
_onstage_1982.jpg) Donahue onstage, 1982 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Patricia Jean Donahue |
| Born | (1956-03-29)March 29, 1956 Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | December 9, 1996(1996-12-09) (aged 40) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | New wave |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1978–1996 |
| Formerly of | The Waitresses |
Patricia Jean Donahue (March 29, 1956 – December 9, 1996) was the lead singer of the Americannew wave groupThe Waitresses, most active in the 1980s. She is best known for the band's singles "I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrapping".
Patricia Jean Donahue was born on March 29, 1956, inAkron, 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 attendedSt. Joseph Academy inCleveland.[3] She studied atOhio State University but dropped out for financial reasons. She tried to finish atCleveland State University but left there too, dissatisfied with the school.[3] She eventually graduated fromKent State University.[4] In her early 20s, before joining The Waitresses, she worked as a waitress.[4]
Donahue metChris Butler while at Kent State.[3] Butler was in theart rock bandTin 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 ofThe 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 thenew 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, asRolling 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 whathe 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' albumBruiseology, Donahue left the band and was replaced temporarily byHolly Beth Vincent before Donahue rejoined soon afterward.[8] Donahue was sought personally byAlice 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 albumZipper Catches Skin with Donahue credited for "vocals and sarcasm".[10]
Soon Donahue stepped away from performance altogether. She took work as a talent scout forMCA Publishing and later became anA&R rep forMCA Records.[11]
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 theHoly Cross Cemetery [Wikidata] inBrook Park, a suburb of Cleveland.[1]
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