Martha Wash - Early Career

Early Career

Wash began her music career as a backing singer for Sylvester. With fellow backing singer Izora Rhodes, she was half of Two Tons O' Fun, who would later be renamed The Weather Girls. As such, they were responsible for providing much of the firepower behind several of Sylvester's earliest releases — often their voices were mixed so that Sylvester was actually the background singer and Wash's and Rhodes' voices were upfront. When they left to pursue a career on their own, they achieved success with a handful of disco-oriented tracks, culminating in the 1982 release "It's Raining Men", a worldwide hit that peaked at #2 on the UK singles chart, #1 in Australia, #1 on the Euro Hot 100, #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, #34 on the U.S. R&B chart, and #1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart. It reached the top ten in numerous other countries. "It's Raining Men" receives regular play in dance clubs and R&B radio to this day: it stands as one of the classic songs of the late-disco and Hi-NRG era. The Weather Girls scored moderate, lesser-known hits with "Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man for Christmas)" and "No One Can Love You More Than Me" in 1985.