| It's Raining Men | |
| Cover: | It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls 1982 US vinyl 12-inch.jpeg |
| Caption: | 1982 US 12-inch vinyl picture sleeve (also used for some original overseas releases) |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | The Weather Girls |
| Album: | Success |
| Released: | September 10, 1982 |
| Recorded: | 1982 |
| Length: |
|
| Prev Title: | Never Like This |
| Prev Year: | 1981 |
| Next Title: | Success |
| Next Year: | 1983 |
"It's Raining Men" is a song by the American musical duo The Weather Girls from their third studio album, Success (1983). It was released as the album's lead single on September 10, 1982, through Columbia Records and CBS Records International. Paul Jabara wrote the song in collaboration with Paul Shaffer, and produced the song in collaboration with Bob Esty. "It's Raining Men" incorporates elements of R&B, soul, and 1970s-style electronic dance music.[1] Its lyrics describe an excitement and enjoyment of many different types of men.
"It's Raining Men" was a number-one dance hit in the United States, and reached the top ten in various other countries worldwide. VH1 listed the song as one of the Greatest Songs of the 1980s as well as one of the Greatest Songs of the 2000s decade. At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards (1983), "It's Raining Men" received a nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer wrote the song over the course of one afternoon in 1979, intending it for Donna Summer, who had scored a hit with "Last Dance" (1978).[2] [3] [4] However, as Shaffer later recalled, Summer had recently become a born-again Christian and rejected the song as "blasphemous".[4] [5] The song was then offered to Diana Ross, Cher, and Barbra Streisand, all of whom declined it.[5]
In 1982, the song was offered to The Weather Girls (then known as the Two Tons and formerly known as Two Tons O' Fun). Martha Wash and Izora Armstead of the Two Tons also dismissed the song. Wash recounted "We thought it was a crazy song — in fact, too crazy to record. I kept saying, 'It's raining men? Really? Are you kidding me?'... I just did not think people would buy it... That's why I kept saying no."[5] The duo eventually recorded the song in ninety minutes after Jabara persistently pleaded with them to record the song.[4] The Waters Sisters (Julia Waters-Tillman and Maxine Waters-Willard), Stephanie Spruill, and Zenobia Conkerite performed background vocals on the chorus of the song.
According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Music Publishing, "It's Raining Men" is composed in the key of F minor.[6] It incorporates R&B, soul, and 1970s-style electronic dance music.[1] The song's tempo is a moderate beats per minute, in common time.[6] Wash sang the lead vocals in the song. Wash's vocal range spans around two octaves in the song, from the low note of F3 to the high note of F5.[6] "It's Raining Men" uses one minor chord, F minor, with the rest of the notes in major chords.[6]
"It's Raining Men" was first released to dance club DJs in the United States in mid-1982. The single was then released for 7" single and 12" single in the United States on September 10, 1982. Shortly after the release of the single, the Two Tons changed their name to the Weather Girls after much confusion by press and fans due to the duo introducing themselves as "the weather girls" in the introduction of the song. In 1993, a then-newly recorded version of "It's Raining Men" was released by the Weather Girls, now composed of Armstead and her daughter Dynelle Rhodes, on their sixth album Double Tons of Fun (1993).
In 2005, a live version of the song was released on the Weather Girls' ninth album Totally Wild! This version features vocals by Dynelle Rhodes and then-newly added member Ingrid Arthur. In 2012, the same lineup of the Weather Girls released "It's Raining Men - 2012" (stylized as "It's Raining Men 2K12"). The song is based in the house music genre produced by Sebo Reed.[7]
VH1 ranked the song at number 35 on their list of the "100 Greatest Dance Songs" in 2000,[8] and also at number 35 in their "100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 1980s" ranking in 2009.[9] Paste magazine ranked the song number 12 in their list of the "60 Best Dancefloor Classics" in February 2017.[10] Rolling Stone listed it number 90 on their ranking of "The 100 Greatest Debut Singles of All Time" in 2020[11] and number 88 on their list of the "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in 2022.[12]
"It's Raining Men" has often been perceived as a gay anthem.[4] [13] A campaign was launched on Facebook on January 19, 2014, to get the song to UK number one in response to a UKIP councillor blaming recent UK floods and adverse weather on divine retribution for the British government's introduction of gay marriage.[14] The campaign was reported widely by some press, and the Weather Girls' version reached number 21 on the first day of the chart week.[15] The song re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2014 at number 31.[16] In 2017, Rolling Stone included the song on their "25 Essential LGBTQ Pride Songs" list.[17] In 2018, Billboard ranked the song at number 47 on their "50 Best Gay Anthems of All Time" list.[18] The Gay UK ranked the song at number two on their "Top 40 Gay Anthems for Pride" list.[19] Time Out ranked it number 19 on their list of "The 50 Best Gay Songs to Celebrate Pride All Year Long" in 2022.[20]
In 1983, "It's Raining Men" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.[21] In June 2017, "It's Raining Men" entered on the Spotify Rewind charts and peaked at number one.[22] In 2024, comedian Remy Munasifi released a cover of the song to describe men falling out of poorly-manufactured Boeing airplanes.[23]
"It's Raining Men" was a commercial success in the United States. The song spent a total of eleven weeks on Billboards Hot 100, ultimately peaking at forty-six on March 5, 1983.[24] Although it had not yet been released to retail stores, the single gained much attention based on heavy rotation alone. On the chart dated December 24, 1982, "It's Raining Men" reached number one on the Billboard Dance chart and held the top position for a total of two weeks.[25] The song spent a total of twenty-two weeks on the Dance chart.[25] After eighteen weeks on the R&B charts, "It’s Raining Men" peaked at number thirty-four.[26] The song was also a huge success in the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart,[27] and became certified platinum for sales and streaming figures exceeding 600,000 units in the United Kingdom.
The music video for "It's Raining Men", released in the winter of 1982, was directed by Gary Keys and filmed in an abandoned building in New York City.[28] Due to limited support from Columbia Records, "It's Raining Men" was a low-budget video. Wash described the video's conception: "God, that was a cheesy video! We filmed it in an abandoned building [in NYC] in the dead of winter. There was no heat and everybody was wearing [winter] coats. That part in the video where we fall out of the sky, well, we landed on these mattresses and found out [the next day] they were infested with bugs. For days afterwards Izora and I were scratching [ourselves]! It was awful!"[28]
The opening sequence of the video features the Weather Girls in a news station. The duo give a forecast prediction that it will rain men from the sky. After looking out of the station window to see the sky raining men, the Weather Girls leap out of the window with their umbrellas to join the men. Several dancers are seen in the music video performing choreography. Another scene features the Weather Girls wearing lingerie on a heart-shaped bed surrounded by and being adored by men. The closing scene shows the duo performing with the male dancers and extras in the music video.
| Chart (1982–1984) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[29] | 16 |
| France (IFOP)[30] | 54 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 46 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles (Billboard) | 34 |
| US Hot Dance Club Play (Billboard)[31] | 1 |
| It's Raining Men... The Sequel | |
| Cover: | Martha_Wash-It's_Raining_Men..._The_Sequel.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Martha Wash featuring RuPaul |
| Album: | The Collection and RuPaul's Go-Go Box Classics |
| Recorded: | 1997 |
| Genre: | Eurodance |
| Length: | 3:45 |
| Producer: | Gary Haase |
| Chronology: | Martha Wash |
| Prev Title: | Something Goin' On |
| Prev Year: | 1997 |
| Next Title: | Catch the Light |
| Next Year: | 1998 |
"It's Raining Men" was covered by Weather Girls' member Martha Wash and American drag queen and singer RuPaul in 1997. The song was retitled "It's Raining Men... The Sequel", and released as the lead single for Wash's compilation album The Collection (1998). The song was also released on RuPaul's Go-Go Box Classics (1998).
Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that Wash "sounds like she's having a blast as she revisits a hit from her heyday as half of the Weather Girls." He noted that "the novel hook of this new recording is the appearance of RuPaul, whose freewheeling vamps are saucy good fun." He also added that Producer Gary "Headman" Haas "doesn't deviate far from the original recording's disco sound, leaving a posse of remixers to investigate a variety of more trendy ideas."[33]
The opening sequence of the accompanying music video for "It's Raining Men... The Sequel" features Wash and RuPaul as the news anchors of the Weather Center. The duo give a forecast prediction that it will rain men from the sky, with several field reporters also reporting similar information. Wash, as a meteorologist and weatherwoman, performs the song in front of a digital map. Several people from around the world start to feel the effects of the forecast and some women are even shown collecting men that fall from the sky into baskets. Several men also appear in the music video, dancing to the song.
"It's Raining Men... The Sequel"
| Chart (1998) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[34] | 64 | |
| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[35] | 46 | |
| Scotland (OCC)[36] | 16 | |
| US Dance Single Sales (Billboard)[37] | 1 | |
| US Hot Dance Club Play (Billboard) | 22 | |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard) | 105 |
| It's Raining Men | |
| Cover: | Itsrainingmen-ukcd1.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Geri Halliwell |
| Album: | Scream If You Wanna Go Faster Bridget Jones's Diary: Music from the Motion Picture |
| B-Side: |
|
| Genre: | Dance-pop |
| Length: |
|
| Label: | EMI |
| Producer: | Stephen Lipson |
| Prev Title: | Bag It Up |
| Prev Year: | 2000 |
| Next Title: | Scream If You Wanna Go Faster |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
"It's Raining Men" was released on April 30, 2001, as the first single from British singer Geri Halliwell's second solo album, Scream if You Wanna Go Faster (2001). It was also featured as the lead single internationally to the soundtrack of the 2001 film Bridget Jones's Diary. The single became Halliwell's fourth consecutive number-one hit single on the UK Singles Chart and became her most successful solo single to date.
Halliwell commented: "It was really odd because I was all ready to go with my new album. I had the single, I had the video idea all ready and then the producers of the movie said to me, 'do you want to record It's Raining Men for the soundtrack?' I thought it would be fun and I love Bridget Jones cos I've read both books and so I just did it really quickly. They all loved it and wanted it to be a single and I thought it was a bit of a gift, so I released it".[38]
Halliwell's version received positive reviews by music critics, experienced international success and hit the top ten in over two dozen countries around the world, going to number one in several of them. In the United Kingdom, "It's Raining Men" debuted at number-one on the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for two weeks. It became Halliwell's fourth consecutive number-one single in the UK, selling 155,000 units in its first week and 80,000 in its second week. Halliwell became the first solo British female artist to have four number-one singles in the United Kingdom, a record she held until 2014.[39] Overall the single went on to sell 449,000 copies in Britain alone,[40] becoming the 13th-best-seller of 2001 and Halliwell's most successful single worldwide.[41]
The song was successful outside the United Kingdom. In Flemish Belgium, the song stayed at number one for four weeks and was the best-selling single of 2001.[42] The single reached number one in France for five weeks, receiving a Diamond certification from the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP). With this song, Halliwell won the International Song of the Year award at the 2002 NRJ Music Awards in France. The cover was also a major success in Walloon Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland.
A remix of the song, The Almighty Mix from the Toshiba-EMI series Dance Mania, volume 20, was also featured in the 2002 Japanese video games, DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution 7thMix and Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. This version of the song was used as the theme song in the advertisements for New Talent Singing Awards Vancouver Audition 2003. In July 2006, the song entered at number 79 on the Mexican Digital Sales Chart, spending two weeks inside the Top 100.
Halliwell was inspired by the 1980 film Fame and by the 1983 film Flashdance for the video.[43]
To promote the single, Halliwell performed the song on Top of the Pops, Comet Awards 2001, Musica Sí, Big Brother Germany, Party in the Park, Live & Kicking, Loft Story, Pepsi Chart Russia, and Tickled Pink. Halliwell also performed the song on The Return of the Spice Girls world tour as her solo number.[44]
| Chart (2001–2003) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[50] | 11 | |
| Canada CHR (Nielsen BDS)[51] | 19 | |
| Croatia (HRT)[52] | 7 | |
| Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)[53] | 2 | |
| Greece (IFPI)[54] | 3 | |
| Hungary (Mahasz)[55] | 4 | |
| Poland (Music & Media)[56] | 13 | |
| Poland (ZPAV)[57] | 1 | |
| scope=row | Portugal (AFP)[58] | 4 |
| Romania (Romanian Top 100)[59] | 2 | |
| Chart (2001) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[61] | 34 | |
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[62] | 37 | |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders) | 1 | |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[63] | 8 | |
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[64] | 73 | |
| Europe (European Hot 100)[65] | 4 | |
| France (SNEP)[66] | 6 | |
| Germany (Official German Charts)[67] | 27 | |
| Ireland (IRMA)[68] | 6 | |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[69] | 39 | |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[70] | 25 | |
| Romania (Romanian Top 100) | 35 | |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[71] | 31 | |
| Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[72] | 14 | |
| UK Singles (OCC) | 13 |
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | April 30, 2001 | EMI | [73] [74] | |
| Australia | May 28, 2001 | CD | [75] |