Walking on Sunshine (Eddy Grant album)  

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Walking on Sunshine is the second studio album by Guyanese-British musician Eddy Grant, originally released in 1978 by Ice Records. Recorded at Grant's Stamford Hill recording studio, the album was the follow-up to his solo debut Message Man (1977) and fuses styles of Caribbean music like reggae, soca and calypso with other genres, including funk and pop. The musician played most of the album's instrumentation himself, and described the record as reflecting his joyousness. However, some songs feature tough cultural themes, particularly those on the first side.

The album was only originally released in Africa and the Caribbean, markets Grant was popular in since his British success had dwindled in the years before, and proved particularly successful in Nigeria. However, the Nigerian government banned exported records during the album's high sales peak, leaving Grant with 10,000-20,000 further copies he was unable to send. Thus, he and his brother sold the remaining copies to British retailers and discos, especially those in London. Nightclub disc jockeys began playing the song "Living on the Frontline" and the song gradually rose in popularity among British discos, leading to a one-off distribution deal with Ice Records to release it commercially, and it reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. Unsold copies of the album were bought back from shops by Grant's brother for a major album relaunch.

Now distributing with Virgin Records in Britain and Epic Records in the United States, Ice released Walking on Sunshine anew in major markets on 1 October 1979. The title track was chosen as the next single but was commercially unsuccessful, as was the album itself. Critics generally complimented the album's genre fusions and uplifting sound. In 1989, the title track was re-released to promote a Grant best-of album and reached number 63 in the UK, while in 2008, a deluxe edition of Walking on Sunshine was released by Ice and Universal Records.

Track listing

All tracks composed and arranged by Eddy Grant

Side one

1. "Walking on Sunshine" – 5:22
2. "Living on the Frontline" – 5:57
3. "The Frontline Symphony" – 7:23

Side two

4. "My Love, My Love" – 4:35
5. "Just Imagine I'm Loving You" – 6:35
6. "Dancing in Guyana" – 3:21
7. "Say I Love You" – 3:55
8. "We Are" – 4:42

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes of Walking on Sunshine<ref name="booklet1" />

Musicians

• Eddy Grant - vocals, multiple instruments, backing vocals, engineer
• Jackie Robinson – background vocals (track 8)
• Kofi Ayivor – conga (tracks 4, 5 and 8)
• Sonny Akpan – conga (tracks 5 and 8)
• George Agard – background vocals (track 8)
• Conrad Isidore – drums (tracks 5 and 6), background vocals (track 5)
• Roy Bedeau – background vocals (track 5)
• Hughes Edmonds – piano (track 5)

Additional

• Jackie Mills – engineer
• Pete Walters – engineer
• Ron Telemaque – engineer
• Roy Marshall – engineer
• Herb Shcmitz – photography
• Cooper/Stevens – design