12 Facts About Patty Donahue

Patricia Jean Donahue was the lead singer of the American new wave group The Waitresses, most active in the 1980s.

Patty Donahue is best known for the band's singles "I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrapping".

Patricia Jean Patty Donahue was born on March 29,1956, in Akron, Ohio.

Patty Donahue's parents divorced when she was two years old.

Patty Donahue told an interviewer that her mother raised her to be an independent woman.

Patty Donahue studied at Ohio State University but dropped out for financial reasons.

Patty Donahue tried to finish at Cleveland State University but left there too, dissatisfied with the school.

Patty Donahue was among the performers who developed a new standard for women in rock music during the new wave era.

Butler wrote the lyrics but, as Rolling Stone asserted, "Patty Donahue is no pop-band puppet".

Patty Donahue 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".

Patty Donahue was sought personally by Alice Cooper to duet with him on the single "I Like Girls".

On December 9,1996, Patty Donahue, who had been a heavy smoker most of her adult life, died of lung cancer in New York at the age of 40.