It is no surprise that I am writing about this amazing song! In celebration of Valentine’s Day I change my ringtone to this song:

This song was written by Paul Jabara who was a songwriter who wrote such hits for Donna Summer. He wrote an Oscar winning song for her called “Last Dance” from a movie called “Thank God It’s Friday (1978).” Directed by Robert Klane.

Paul Jabara collaborated with Paul Shaffer on it’s Raining Men ( you may remember him as being the band leader on “Late Night with David Letterman.” (1993-2015)):

Paul Jabara originally wrote the song for Donna Summer but she had no interest in singing the song because of the lyrics and her religious beliefs. She was so put off that the song was sent her way that she sent Paul Jabara a bible. The song then went through other singers like Diana Rosse, and Cher all of whom passed over the song.

Finally in 1982 the song was brought to a group called “The Two Tons (aka the Weather Girls) but not without their own reservations about the lyrics as well. The duo also thought that the lyrics were to out there and actually turned down in doing the recording of the song. However with constant begging from Paul Jabara for the singing group to do the song they finally agree to do it.

The song was released on September 10, 1982 on the Weather Girls third album called “Sucess”:

The song reached the #1 status on the dance charts in 1982 and received a Grammy Award nomination for “Best R&B performance by a duo or group with Vocals.”

Of being the 80’s and being the premiere MTV decade there was a music video made. It was directed by Gary Keys who also did producing and an amazing documentary on Duke Ellington called “Reminiscing in Tempo (2006):

The music video had a super super low budget because the record label (Columbia Records) didn’t provide them with hardly any money for it. So with the little resources they had they found an abandoned building for the music’s video in the middle of the freezing New York City winter. The Weather Girls also didn’t have a memorable memory of the making of the video. They acknowledge the cheese factor of the synopsis of the music video. Also how freezing it was and that also why they kept their coats on in the music video. Also there is one section in the music video were the duo is coming out of the sky on mattresses. They found out later on the day they shot that section they the crew just found those mattresses and fail to check them. The mattresses were actually infested with bugs and the Weather girls were filled with bug bites and very scratching for days!

Fun fact about this song: In 1998 the song was covered by Rupaul and Martha Wash called “It’s Raining Men…The Sequel.”

In 2001 Geri Halliwell did her own cover of this song on her second album called “Scream if You Want to Go”:

Geri Halliwell’s version of the song was also featured on “Bridget Jones’s Diary” soundtrack (2001).

Until Next time!

Source: Wikipedia, youtube