5 May 2001
Quentin Crisp had a brilliant quip in his autobiography The Naked Civil Servant about the effects of the Wall Street Crash on the London cityscape: “The sky was dark with millionaires throwing themselves out of windows.” Could erstwhile Girl Power idealogue Geri Halliwell have had something similar in mind when choosing ‘It’s Raining Men’? The entire patriarchy falling from a cloudy height to crash face-first into the pavement? No, nothing as witty or subversive as that. The Flashdance and Fame cosplay video, with its many apparently crucial close-ups of Geri’s flat, toned midriff, make clear that this is strictly a straight-up cover version, a Robbie Williams-esque romp, and a movie tie-in to boot. (I haven’t seen the film or read enough of the original columns and book to know if this single is a fair representation of the Bridget Jones universe.)
The original ‘It’s Raining Men’ by The Weather Girls is an undeniable banger and uproarious fun. Geri at least gets to benefit from its humungous chorus and its robustness as a song. Otherwise, though, this is flat and functional stuff; a no-risk run through the motions. Another word that comes to mind is ‘corporate’. Geri Halliwell was the most interesting Spice Girl and the most successful solo Spice, but this is the last of her four UK number ones (then a record for a British solo female act) and in Ireland she won’t even have another top ten hit. Here ends the era of the Spice Girls; not quite a Wall Street Crash, but certainly a drop in fortunes.
