A very special What's In The Box, In honor of International Women's Day, as we look at "The Queen of Clubland," Martha Wash!
Her powerful voice blasted its' way into the world, as one half of the Two Tons O' Fun, the dup who sang backup for Sylvester on his signature hit "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)". The duo gained their own success when they rebranded themselves as The Weather Girls, and released the top-selling single "It's Raining Men", which gave them to mainstream attention. When the group disbanded, Wash became a house music icon featuring on fifteen number-one songs on the dance charts. She also, however became on of the most robbed singers of her time as her voice was used on multi tracks where her performance was lip-synced by models used to better promote the single.
In 1989, Italian house group Black Box used Wash as a session singer to demo six songs and retained the use of her vocals for the songs on their debut album "Dreamland." The single "I Don't Know Anybody Else," became an international hit and they followed it with "Everybody Everybody", which became an international sensation. Wash was never credited for singing the song and the group used French fashion model Katrin Quinol to lip-sync Wash's vocals during music videos, televised performances, and concert performances. Wash would sued RCA Records and Black Box and settled out-of-court, as the company signed her to an eight-album recording contract, while Black Box re-issued the singles with her sleeve credits, and followed up with the release of the international hit "Strike It Up."
Wash is the reason legislation was created in the early 90s that made vocal credits mandatory on CDs and music videos, after once again she was denied credit and royalties for the multi platinum-selling song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," by C+C Music Factory. Although, the rest of their album was sung by Zelma Davis, who in tunr lip-synched Martha's vocals in the video, Wash attempted to negotiate with the producers for sleeve credits and royalties which was unsuccessful, so Wash once again filed a lawsuit against C+C Music Factory's Robert Clivilles and David Cole, and settled in 1994. Eventually C&C would release later music with both Wash and Davis as part of the group.
Martha would continue with solo work and features, throughout the 90's and 2000's, and finally be recognized for the powerhouse vocalist that she is as Billboard magazine ranked her as the 58th most successful dance artist of all time. She has broken through barriers and fought for singers rights and helped create legislation that protects artists to this day. Without question one of the single greatest singers of all time we celebrate the greatness that is Martha Wash.