Mickey was Kitty at first in this song

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Racey / Toni Basil / Tony Basil – Spanish version

The first version

The band Racey released the song “Kitty” in 1979 en it is on their first abum ‘Smash And Grab’. This song was written by legendary duo Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman, also know as ‘ChinniChap’. So Racey didn’t make money of Toni Basil’s version at all.

Miss Basil, originally a choreografer, released the song on may 1981 but it did not become a hit. A year later the song was easily re-released and then it became a worldwide hit with number one positions in among others Australia, America and Canada. In homeland England it reached number two. It was Toni who changed “Kitty” to “Mickey” so the song was about a man. The song was covered in 2004 by Rotterdam based trio The Riplets.

Other languages

Of course there are other language versions. Xegundo Xou da Xuxa released a Portugese version of this song in 1987.

And to bring the story back to Toni Basi: she released a version in Spanish in 1982, the year the song became a global hit.