C+C Music Factory Still Sweating It Out

“Gonna Make You Sweat” may have been the title of C+C Music Factory’s breakthrough hit last year, but it also could be the battle cry of Martha Wash, the singer whose spine-chilling exhortation everybody dance now was a key reason for the record’s success.

Wash was paid for the recording session, but didn’t receive credit or royalties for the performance. When the video for the song came out showing C+C member Zelma Davis lip-syncing to the words, Wash sued the group, claiming it took her small recorded part and turned it into a major element in the song.

The controversy, with its overtones of Milli Vanilli manipulation, has even shadowed the group to the eve of the Grammy Awards. Normally, C+C Music Factory, whose debut album has sold 4 million copies, would be a strong favorite in the best new artist category at Tuesday’s ceremonies in New York.

But the issue was thrust back into the spotlight recently when Wash was reported to be petitioning the recording academy to receive an award if the group wins. (Wash’s attorney claims the report was erroneous and that Wash never raised the Grammy issue.)

For producer-songwriters David Cole and Robert Clivilles, who came out of New York’s dance-club scene to preside over the budding C+C empire, the controversy has marred a time when they feel they should be basking in hard-earned success. It has an especially personal sting for Cole, who worked with Wash for nine years, including a role as musical director for her former group the Weather Girls.

“I haven’t spoken to Martha in almost two years,” he said recently, sitting with Clivilles in a conference room at a West Hollywood hotel.

“I wanted to just talk to her and find out if it was really her that was going through all of these changes. I looked at her like a good friend, like a big sister. . . . I mean we were close.”

The “Sweat” case, and an earlier suit filed by Wash over a similar incident with the Cole and Clivilles’ group Seduction, are both nearing settlement, according to Wash’s attorney Steven Ames Brown. The singer’s own solo album is expected to be out in June.

But the Wash uproar isn’t the only question mark surrounding C+C Music Factory, which Cole and Clivilles envision as a showcase for their songs and production, executed by a growing roster of singers.

The team is trying to establish longevity in dance music, a field where trendy sounds and one-hit wonders are the rule.

“It depends on whether or not you grow with the music,” said Cole, 29. “Staying on top of it. Staying out, knowing what’s about to happen and not what just happened.”

Cole and Clivilles are also trying to negotiate the tricky dual role of producers and stars.

“In the beginning we were very concerned that it would be too much information for the public to try to grab,” said Cole.

“Even in the videos we tried to stay in the background, and we found out that all that was doing was separating us more and making people say, ‘Who are those guys? Oh, those are the producers and not part of the group.’ ”

Added Clivilles, 27: “Just because nobody else has done it doesn’t mean we can’t.”

Despite the draining aspects of the Wash controversy, the team appears undaunted as it prepares to attack a full slate of projects.

In April they start an album by a three-man group called Trilogy, and they plan to re-form Seduction. There’s an album by new C+C Music Factory member Deborah Cooper (who’s featured on the just-released album of Cole and Clivilles remixes), and they plan to have the next C+C Music Factory album out in the summer.