Rahul Sharma (Editor)

It's Raining Men

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Released
  
September 10, 1982

Recorded
  
1982

Format
  
7" single, 12" single

Genre
  
Hi-NRG Disco

B-side
  
"It's Raining Men" (long version)

Length
  
3:31 (7" single) 4:06 (album version) 5:24 (12" single)

"It's Raining Men" is a song written by Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer in 1979, originally recorded by The Weather Girls in 1982. The song had been offered to Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Cher, and Barbra Streisand before being accepted by Martha Wash and Izora Armstead of The Weather Girls, with their version becoming an international hit, selling over 6 million copies worldwide.

Contents

It was covered by Martha Wash (of The Weather Girls) as a duet with RuPaul in 1997, by Geri Halliwell in 2001, and by Young Divas in 2006. The song is hailed as a camp classic and more recently as a dance, gay, and female anthem.

Original and RuPaul versions

The Weather Girls' version went number one on the US Disco chart, debuting in October 1982. It made number 34 on the US R&B chart and number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was released from their album Success. This version also made it to number two on the UK Singles Chart and number two in Australia, as well as number one on the Euro Hot 100.

The Weather Girls' music video was directed by Jim Canty and Jake-Sebastian Wynne, and featured Gene Anthony Ray.

RuPaul and Martha Wash duetted on "It's Raining Men... The Sequel", which was included on the 1998 Rhino Records compilation CD RuPaul's Go-Go Box Classics.

  • 1 "It's Raining Men... The Sequel" by Martha Wash featuring RuPaul

    • Geri Halliwell version

    "It's Raining Men" was released on April 30, 2001 as the first single from Geri Halliwell's second solo album, Scream if You Wanna Go Faster. It was also featured on the soundtrack to the 2001 film Bridget Jones's Diary. The single became Halliwell's fourth consecutive number-one hit single in UK Singles Chart and it became her most successful solo single to date. "Feels Like Sex", another song from the album was originally slated as the lead single, but after "It's Raining Men" was offered to Halliwell, the song was released as the first single, and was added to Scream if You Wanna Go Faster.

    Reception

    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, although it did not fare as well on the American charts. However, 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. Overall the single went on to sell 440,000 copies in Britain alone, becoming the 13th best seller of 2001 and Halliwell's most successful single worldwide.

    The song was a big success in France, it sold over 812,000 copies, it was certified "Diamond" by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP). With this song, Geri Halliwell won the International Song of the Year award at the 2002 NRJ Music Awards in France. 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 seventy-nine on the Mexican Digital Sales Chart, spending two weeks inside the Top 100.

    Music video

    Halliwell was inspired by the 1980 film Fame for the video. She said, "I was just watching Fame on video and I thought what a great excuse". During the video she also does ballet.

    Live performances

    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, CD:UK and Tickled Pink. Halliwell also performed the song on The Return of the Spice Girls world tour as her solo number.

    Formats and track listings

    These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "It's Raining Men" by Geri Halliwell.

    UK & Europe CD1/International CD Maxi (Released April 30, 2001)

    1. "It's Raining Men" – 4:18
    2. "I Was Made That Way" – 4:45
    3. "Brave New World" – 4:10
    4. "It's Raining Men" (enhanced video)

    UK & Europe CD2/Australian CD Maxi (Released April 30, 2001)

    1. "It's Raining Men" – 4:18
    2. "It's Raining Men" (Bold and Beautiful Glamour Mix Edit) – 4:46
    3. "It's Raining Men" (Almighty Mix Edit) – 3:46
    4. "It's Raining Men" (D-Bop Tall and Blonde Mix Edit) – 6:55

    European 2-track CD single (Released April 30, 2001)

    1. "It's Raining Men" – 4:18
    2. "Brave New World" – 4:10

    Italian 12" single (Released July 18, 2001)
    Side A

    1. "It's Raining Men" – 4:18
    2. "It's Raining Men" (Bold And Beautiful Glamour Mix Edit) – 4:46

    Side B

    1. "It's Raining Men" (Almighty Mix Edit) – 3:46
    2. "It's Raining Men" (D-Bop Tall And Blonde Mix Edit) – 6:55

    Official remixes

    1. Radio edit – 3:50
    2. Album version – 4:18
    3. Bold and Beautiful Glamour Mix (radio edit) – 4:46
    4. Bold and Beautiful Glamour Mix (extended) – 7:06
    5. Almighty Mix (radio edit) – 3:46
    6. Almighty Mix (extended) – 8:15
    7. D-Bop Tall and Blonde Mix (short edit) – 6:55
    8. D-Bop Tall and Blonde Mix (long version) – 8:09
    9. Dax Thunderstorm Mix – 7:28
    10. "It's Raining G's" (N.W.A) – 4:13

    Other versions

  • 1995: I.I. Simmons released her version as a Eurodance single on the Cyberspace 2 label.
  • 2002: Kelly Clarkson performed the song on "Top 4" week of season 1 of American Idol
  • 2005: Carol Jiani released her version as a single.
  • 2006: Young Divas included the track on their debut album Young Divas.
  • 2009: The Nolans included this track on their album I'm in the Mood Again
  • 2016: YouTube electronic dance musician The Living Tombstone, along with fellow YouTuber, EileMonty produced a remix version of the song.

    • In film

  • The song is featured in the Rodney Dangerfield hit Easy Money (1983).
  • The song is featured in Eraser (1996).
  • It is a favorite song of Shawn Wayans' character Ray in Scary Movie (2000). He plays the song in Greg's car moments before the group hits the man they ultimately dump off a pier.
  • In the Hindi movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), the song is featured when the character Pooja (played by Kareena Kapoor) is getting ready in the morning. A legal suit was filed against director Karan Johar for using the song without obtaining prior permission.
  • In the Farrelly brothers' comedy film Stuck on You (2003), Walt hits the jukebox when he walks in and sees his brother, but gets embarrassed and hits it again when "It's Raining Men" is the song that starts playing.
  • It is featured in the Danish film After the Wedding (2006). Titled Efter Brylluppet in Danish, it was directed by Susanne Bier.
  • In the movie Vampires Suck (2010) the wolf pack dances to the song before dismembering a vampire.
  • It is featured in the film, Magic Mike (2012), as the background music for the first stripping scene of the film.
  • In the French movie Bowling (2012), by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.

    • In sports

  • During an MLB baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres on August 31, 2010, Diamondbacks first baseman Adam LaRoche had the PA system at Chase Field play the song as walk-up music during teammate Kelly Johnson's first two at-bats.

    • In television

  • Part of the song was performed on America's Got Talent by the group "The Glamazons" for their Top 48 act in 2011.
  • In the 2001 episode of Friends, "The One with Chandler's Dad", part of the song is sung by Kathleen Turner (who plays Chandler's drag queen father) at a club in Las Vegas.
  • It is used as the theme song for the "Men on..." comedy sketches on the television show In Living Color.
  • It was performed on the Late Show with David Letterman (October 1, 2012) by Martha Wash, who popularized the song as a member of The Weather Girls, and coauthor Paul Shaffer, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the song.
  • It was performed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt on his opening monologue of episode #726 of Saturday Night Live.
  • In the animated series The Simpsons, "It's Raining Men" is Homer Simpson's favorite song. In the episode "Fear of Flying", Moe pulls the record out of the jukebox and tosses it onto the street when he banishes Homer from his bar. The record is seen striking, and then being picked up by, a happy Waylon Smithers, a reference to his closeted homosexuality. It appears again in the episode "What to Expect When Bart's Expecting" when Fat Tony's gay horse plays it on a stereo.
  • On an episode of The Game, the Sabers team lip syncs and dances to the song, making fun of a fellow team member rumored to be gay.
  • In the British sitcom Miranda, its series 2 episode "The New Me" featured title character Miranda dancing to the Weather Girls' version of the song on the streets. The song was later heard in the episode's credits.
  • A Soapnet promotional video featured soap stars Kassie DePaiva, Bobbie Eakes and Kathy Brier, a.k.a. the Divas singing the song with several sexy clips from various soaps such as One Life to Live, All My Children and General Hospital.
  • A parody version, "It's Raining Mitt", lampooning Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was sung by Martin Short on Late Show with David Letterman on March 14, 2012.
  • Performed live by Chaka Khan, together with Paul Schaffer, on the David Letterman Show in 2015.
  • The song was featured in a game of charades on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, with Jimmy Fallon acting out the phrase to Drake, on the September 13th, 2013 show.

    • In theater and onstage

  • The song is featured in the Broadway production of the stage musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical, and was performed by the cast, together with Wash and Shaffer, at the 2011 Tony Award ceremony.

    • In videogames

  • The song is listed on Just Dance 2 (2010).
  • Sample of the song appears on Burnout Crash! (2011)

    • 2014 Facebook campaign

    A campaign in Facebook was launched 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. The campaign has been reported widely by some press and The Weather Girls' version reached number 21 on the first day of the chart week. The song re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2014 at number 31.

    References

    It's Raining Men Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA