Martha Wash

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Martha Wash (born December 28, 1953, in San Francisco, California, USA) is an R&B, soul, house, and club/dance singer/songwriter.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Solo career 3 Singles 4 Albums 5 Recent times 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] 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 fire-power behind several of the late singer's earliest releases — often their voices were mixed where Sylvester was actually the background singer and Wash and Rhodes voices were upfront. When the two plus-sized singers left to pursue a career on their own, they struck pay dirt with a handful of successful disco-oriented tracks, culminating with the 1982 release of "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 also wound up reaching the top ten in numerous other countries. "It's Raining Men" still 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 a few moderate, lesser-known hits with "Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man for Christmas)" and "No One Can Love You More Than Me" in 1985.

[edit] Solo career

Later, when the Weather Girls disbanded, Wash continued to lend her vocals to various dance and house music tracks. Several of them became massive pop, R&B and dance hits. She sang lead vocals on all three of Black Box's U.S. top-forty hits, including the top-ten smashes "Everybody Everybody" and "Strike It Up", as well as "I Don't Know Anybody Else", (which charted at #23 in the U.S.). All three of these hit singles continue to receive regular club-play and mainstream radio airplay to this day. In addition, Wash sang lead vocals on the lesser-known Black Box tracks, "Fantasy" (#5, UK), "Open Your Eyes", and "Hold On". All six of these songs appear on the Black Box album Dreamland. Also, she performed the lead vocals on Seduction's "You're My One and Only (True Love)", and The C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)", which hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991.

With the Milli Vanilli scandal still fresh in the minds of the music industry, Wash, also perturbed by the fact that her image had been labeled "unmarketable" because of her physical size, successfully sued to receive proper credit and royalties as the vocalist on all of these songs. Wash's courtroom efforts spurred legislation making vocal credits mandatory on CD's and music videos. It also awarded her a recording contract with RCA Records, which led to her debut, self-titled solo album in 1993. The album scored three top ten club/dance hits including "Carry On", "Give It to You", and "Runaround." The first two hit number one.

In 1996, Wash recorded a cover version of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" for the movie The First Wives Club.

[edit] Singles

Here is a list of the artist's Number One singles (group, solo, credited and uncredited) as determined by Billboard magazine as well as significant entries. Peak chart position for non-number ones shown in (parentheses). Billboard Hot 100 Positions and Australian ARIA Chart positions are depicted in designated parenthesis as well.

[edit] Albums

• Martha Wash 1993 RCA Records

[edit] Recent times

Wash, a notable star within the gay community, continues to record new music into the 21st century such as her first new single in over 5 years, "You Lift Me Up" - a fusion of Gospel and House, which is the first song produced on her own label, Purple Rose Records - 2005. Martha Wash performed in the opening ceremony of the World's first OutGames in Montreal in July 2006. She has also performed at numerous Human Rights Campaign events in the U.S.

The gay-themed podcast Gay Pimpin' with Jonny McGovern recently dedicated an episode to Martha Wash and she obliged them with an extended telephone interview.

In 2006 Wash appeared as a guest on GSN's I've Got a Secret, and performed "It's Raining Men" for the all-gay panel.

Wash is scheduled to appear on Broadway (along with Sarah Dash of Labelle) in "Gals Too Big for Broadway." The show was supposed to run in late 2006, but has been temporarily postponed.

Due for release in July 2007 is DJ Tony Moran's compilation CD The Event featuring a brand new single featuing Martha entitled "Keep Your Body Working".

"Keep Your Body Working", Martha's single with Tony Moran, hit #1 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Club Play chart for the week ending December 22, 2007.

Martha was a performer at the 2008 annual Big Gay Day in Brisbane, Australia on Sunday 9th of March, 2008.

[edit] See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart

[edit] External links

• The Queen of Clubland - Martha's Official Website
• Martha's Official Myspace

v • d • e C+C Music Factory Robert Clivillés · David Cole · Freedom Williams · Martha Wash · Zelma Davis · Deborah Cooper Trilogy  · Paul Pesco · Q-Unique Albums Gonna Make You Sweat · Anything Goes! · C+C Music Factory Singles "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" · "Here We Go (Let's Rock & Roll)" · "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" · "Just a Touch of Love" · "Keep it Comin' (Dance Till You Can't Dance No More)" · "Do You Wanna Get Funky" · "Take a Toke" · "I'll Always Be Around" Related articles Columbia Records · MCA Records · The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. · "Black or White" · "Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)"