The Weather Girls

Vocalists Martha Wash and Izora Armstead took a winding road to landing an iconic hit as The Weather Girls, but with 'It's Raining Men' they achieved dance-floor immortality.

The pair knew each other from an early age, with both performing in San Francisco choirs and eventually landing in the gospel group NOW 'News of the World). When Wash auditioned for singer-songwriter Sylvester and his manager she impressed them and, being picked up as a backing singer, brought Armstead with her. They became Two Tons O' Fun, performing backing vocals for Sylvester for several years and appearing on a couple of his albums before striking out on their own.

As Two Tons o' Fun and then The Two Tons the pair had a couple of albums with three charting singles between them for the Fantasy-affiliated label Honey. It was when they changed their name to The Weather Girls and began recording for Columbia, however, that they hit their peak. 'It's Raining Men', released in 1982, topped Billboard's club chart and made it over to the Top 100 to reach number 46 as well as reaching number two on the UK singles chart. Their third album, 'Success', failed to capitalise on the momentum of 'It's Raining Men', however, and after a couple more LPs the original lineup called it a day following their self-titled fifth album.

In 1991 Armstead reformed the group with her daughter Dynelle Rhodes replacing Wash. They performed and recorded through the 1990s and into the early 2000s. When Armstead died in 2004 Rhodes continued to use the Weather Girls name, bringing in singer Ingrid Arthur in place of her mother.