"It's Rainin' Tears" for 'Weather Girl' Izora Rhodes

Cafe Society
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From today’s 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. “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.

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Damn, she couldn’t have been very old, could she?

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I’m guessing 50-ish . . . But both the Weather Girls were hugely overweight, which could have lead to heart failure at that age.

Love “It’s Raining Men.” Going to have it running through my head all day, now—appropropriate, as it’s pouring out.

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I reckon you’re getting the remains of Jeanne, like we did last night.

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Well, better than actually raining men, a concept which is more enchanting in the abstract than in (and on) the concrete.

(Would storm chasers following this storm be called Jeanne Eagels?)

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It is Rain, after all… :wink:

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Izora M. Armstead was 62 years old. (C’mon Times fact checkers, that took me all of three minutes to find!)

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Before they renamed themselves the Weather Girls, Rhodes and Wash were known as Two Tons of Fun. They went to the big time(pun unintended) after being the backup singers for Sylvester, the first openly gay disco singer, who had hits with You Make Me Feel Mighty Real and Do Ya Wanna Funk?

It’s Raining Men was written by Paul Jabara(who also wrote Last Dance for Donna Summer among other hits) and Paul Shaffer(yes, David Letterman’s bitch… I mean bandleader). Jabara died in the mid 80s from HIV complications, so I’m thinking that just from the ongoing money from this one song, Shaffer has probably been comfortable fiscally for awhile.

I have the 12" of It’s Raining Men which is backed with their cover of I’m Gonna Wash That Man Out Of My Hair.

The video is early 80s badness, shot on video rather than film, with a bunch of very delectable men dancing around in underwear so tight that with quick use of the pause button can allow one to know who’s a gentile and who isn’t.

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When one of the songwriters dies, that doesn’t mean the other one gets his royalties.

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By the way, Walloon, King of All That is Genealogical, would you be willing to give me some assistance on my Vernon & Irene Castle book . . . ?

E me?

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I didn’t say that was how it worked, but I can see how you could have thought that was what I meant.