December 18, 1990: The album Gonna Make You Sweat is released by C+C Music Factory. The title track would hit Number 1 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 on February 9, 1991.
And most listeners didn't know who the lead singer was. As it turned out, the lead singer was not the woman appearing to be the lead singer on the video.
Martha Elaine Wash was born on December 28, 1953 in San Francisco. You may not know her name or her face, but you know her voice. She and Izora Armstead were the Two Tons O' Fun, the backing singers for disco singer Sylvester. They changed their name to The Weather Girls, and had a hit with "It's Raining Men" in 1982.
In 1990, the group Black Box had Top 10 hits with "Everybody Everybody" and "Strike It Up." In 1991, the group C+C Music Factory had a Number 1 hit with "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)." Martha sang lead on each of those songs. Not only was she not credited on any of them, but, in the videos, there was a much younger, much thinner woman lip-synching to her vocals.
Black Box were a "house music" group from Italy, made up of Daniele Davoli, Mirko Limoni and Valerio Semplici, all white men. Katrin Quinol, a black French model, a woman considerably thinner and 14 years younger than Wash, was shown on the record jacket and in the video, and was credited as the album's singer, over Wash.
C+C Music Factory were black American music producers David Cole and Robert Clivillés. Along with 2 other New Yorkers, they were part of a group named "2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican." In addition to fronting C+C, they also wrote and produced hits for Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, Lisa Lisa and Mariah Carey.
"Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" was basically a duet between Wash and rapper Frederick "Freedom" Williams. But in the video, the "singer" was Zelma Davis, who was born in the African nation of Liberia but grew up in the U.S.
Wash sued, and the case was settled in 1994, with the result that Sony added her name in the credits for the videos. For all subsequent C+C work, including a Coca-Cola commercial, Zelma Davis not only appeared to sing, but actually did.
Sylvester died in 1988, at the age of 41, one of the earliest music performers to die from the effects of AIDS. David Cole died in 1995, at 32, and while the cause has been given as spinal meningitis, it has been speculated that he also fell victim to AIDS. Izora Armstead died in 2004, at 62.
As of December 18, 2022, Martha Wash is still alive and performing, and, like Billy Joel, Debbie Gibson, and the Weiss sisters of The Shangri-Las, lives on New York’s Long Island. All 3 members of Black Box are still alive. So are Katrin Quinol, Zelma Davis, Freedom Williams and Robert Clivillés.
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December 18, 1990 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 10 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 100-97 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 110-99 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Charlotte Hornets, 105-100 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat, 112-103 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 39 points.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons, 106-101 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Jay Humphries scored 36 in defeat for the Bucks.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Dallas Mavericks, 114-95 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Houston Rockets, 96-95 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena was converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, the "megachurch" of televangelist Joel Osteen.)
* The Sacramento Kings beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 108-99 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 122-94 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Orlando Magic, 122-105 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
And there were 8 games in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Boston Bruins, 8-3 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. The Meadowlands Marauders pulled off a rare feat, of goals by 8 different players: Patrick Sundström, Alexei Kasatanov, Allan Stewart, Peter Peter Šťastný, Doug Brown, Viacheslav Fetisov, John MacLean and Jon Morris. That's 2 Americans 2 Canadians, 2 Russians, a Swede and a Slovak.
* The New York Islanders and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 2-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The Quebec Nordiques beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 6-5 at the Colisée de Québec.
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena). Dave Andreychuk scored the winning goal with 3:53 left in overtime.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Winnipeg Jets, 9-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Paul Stanton was the only Penguin with 2 goals.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
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