There was a time when disco was a dirty word. In fact there was a time when people were saying “Disco stinks,” but in a less polite way.
Former Weather Girls singer Martha Wash has heard it all. “That’s what they said but disco never went anywhere. It’s morphed into what you hear nowadays, which is EDM and that kind of music. I never did much of that, but to me that music is all from the disco era. I grew up singing gospel music and depending on which church you went to, the music was kind of fast tempo. So it was never that far from dance music.”
Wash is now the prime mover of the “First Ladies of Disco” tour which hits the Regent in Arlington March 16. It’s an elaborate show with a live band, three featured singers and guests at different stops. Along with Wash, the core singers are former Chic vocalist Norma Jean Wright and Linda Clifford, who did the unlikely disco version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Guests in Arlington will be Anita Ward of “Ring My Bell” fame, and comedian Marsha Warfield.
“We’re still very relevant artists, you just don’t hear us on the radio anymore,” she says. “We’ve all known each other from doing shows together over the years. The show is actually based on a book about the women of disco, my manager and I came up with the idea of expanding that, making it an interchangeable show with different artists. We’re getting a new generation of fans, they come with their parents. It’s a fun trip down memory lane.”
Wash was part of disco from the very beginning, singing backup for Sylvester of “Mighty Real” fame, a pioneer of gay identity in disco. It was Sylvester who gave Wash and her singing partner the unflattering name Two Tons o’ Fun. “That’s how we were perceived anyway. He was trying to break some ground, you didn’t often see a gay man with two large ladies singing backup for him. But it was nothing compared to the way groups name themselves today.”
They changed their name to the Weather Girls for the big hit “It’s Raining Men,” a big hit at the tail end of the disco era. Cowritten by future TV star Paul Shaffer, they only got the song after Donna Summer, Diana Ross and Cher passed on it. “We didn’t want to record the song, (Cowriter) Paul Jabara literally begged us to record it. Paul said that the song would be history and yeah, it was. It’s a classic that’s stood the test of time.”
Wash made some headlines a few decades ago when she sued to get credited on a couple of hits she sang on, including C&C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat” where the lead vocal was hers. “I used them because they used my voice but not my likeness, my appearance, my picture. So I sued because it was deceptive. And I won both suits, so then I could move on.”
