RIP Izora Rhodes Armstead of the Weather Girls

[schwenko]

Definitely NOT New Wave, but of the time-
from the NY Times:

Izora Rhodes Armstead, one half of the disco-pop duo the Weather Girls, who sang the flamboyant and enduring club hit "It's Raining Men," died on Sept. 16 at a hospital in San Leandro, Calif. Her age was unknown.

The cause was heart failure, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The church where Ms. Armstead's funeral was held, St. John Missionary Baptist in San Francisco, confirmed her death.

"It's Raining Men," a bombastic vocal romp that winkingly borrowed from gospel music - "Hallelujah, it's raining men, amen!" goes its chorus - was one of the biggest hits of the genre known as hi-NRG, a souped-up version of disco that ruled dance clubs in the 1980's.

Sung with gusto by Ms. Armstead, then known as Izora Rhodes, and her partner, Martha Wash, the song only reached No. 46 on the pop charts when it was released in 1983, but hit No. 1 on the club charts and later reached No. 2 in England.

Written by Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer - now of "Late Show With David Letterman" - the song has since become an anthem of the gay club scene and in 2001 it again reached the top of the British charts with a version by a former Spice Girl, Geri Halliwell.

The song was the centerpiece of the group's first album, "Success," which featured another booming Jabara-Shaffer composition, "Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas)" and a version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair."

Ms. Armstead and Ms. Wash met in San Francisco in the mid-70's when they both joined a gospel group called Now (News of the World). They were soon recruited to sing backup for Sylvester, a cross-dressing disco singer with a local following.

The two sang on four Sylvester albums, including the hit songs "Dance (Disco Heat)" and "(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real."

The two went solo in 1979 under the name Two Tons o' Fun, a play on their Rubenesque physiques. They issued one album under that name before rechristening themselves the Weather Girls for "Success." They recorded two more albums before disbanding in the late 80's.

After the Weather Girls, Ms. Wash sang, often anonymously, for C and C Music Factory, Black Box and other groups, and Ms. Armstead moved to Germany to found a new Weather Girls group with her daughter Dynell Rhodes, who survives Ms. Armstead, along with six other children and several grandchildren.

[middlesexnj]

Well... I never thought I'd see the words "Rodgers and Hammerstein" on this board.

[phillyidol]

You know, I never liked that song at all! It made no sense! Its raining men? Can it actually rain men? I have never seen it happen. But wait, come to think of it they did say for the first time in history...its gonna start rainin meeeeeeeeen.Its rainin me