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Frank Farian
(82), songwriter, vocalist and one of the most successful producers of all time.
Frank Farian was born Franz Reuther in Kirn, Germany on July 18, 1941, his father having been killed in battle six weeks before his birth. Leaving school at 18, Frank trained as a chef before forming his first band Frankie Boys Schatten five years later. They recorded a single "Shouting Ghost" which failed to chart, followed by more successful cover versions of such US hits as "Yakety Yak" (1964) and "Under the Boardwalk" (1965). Two years later, Frankie himself scored with a solo version of the Otis Redding song "Mr. Pitiful" and over the next ten years, released a number of successful German singles including "Gipsy" (1968), "Dana My Love" (1968), "Speedy Jack" (1970), "Gold in Acapulco" (1972), "Atlantica" (1975) and "My Decision" (1975). His biggest hit, which sold more than a million copies, was a cover of the Austin Roberts 1976 US hit "Rocky".
That same year, Farian recorded the Prince Buster 1964 hit "Al Capone" re-titled as "Baby Do You Wanna Bump", but decided instead to put it out under the group name Boney M, "featuring Bobby Farrell". In fact Farrell did not sing on this, or indeed any of the bands subsequent releases, but instead lip-synced on stage to Farian's pre-recorded vocals. Boney M went on to have a string of hits worldwide including "Daddy Cool", "Ma Baker", "Belfast", "Sunny", "Rasputin", "Brown Girl in the Ring", "Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord", "Little Drummer Boy", and "Rivers of Babylon", all featuring Farian's lead vocals. After ten years, the band dissolved, although due to the failure of Farian to register the band name in a number of territories, versions of it re-formed from time to time with different line-ups over the next twenty years.
Farian now launched a new "super-group" called Far Corporation (originally christened the Frank Farian Corporation), featuring ex-Toto stars Steve Lukather, David Paich, Bobby Kimball and Simon Phillips along with Irish vocalist Robin McAuley. They went on to score a number of hits including covers of Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion", Free's "Fire and Water" and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" but disbanded following the relative failure of their third album "Solitude".
Meanwhile, Farina had formed a third group, this time to record a cover of "Girl You Know It's True", a song originally recorded by the Maryland-based act Numarx. The recording, featuring session singers Brad Howell, John Davis, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco and Linda Rocco, was then played by Farian to two singer-dancers, Rob Pilatus, a German-born performer of African-American descent, and Fabrice Morvan, a French teenager whose family came from Guadeloupe. Neither was highly educated, and seemingly were under the impression that they would be re-recording the vocals before release. Instead, the single was released without their input, and the duo soon found themselves touring Europe under the band name Milli Vanilli, lip-syncing to Farian's pre-recorded tracks. Efforts by the duo to insist that Farian should allow them to handle the vocals on subsequent releases fell on deaf ears, and the deception continued for close on two years. The act was Farian's most successful venture, going on to earn five gold discs, including three consecutive US #1s, "Baby Don't Forget My Number", "Blame It on the Rain", and "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You". In all, they sold more than ten millions records, while the album from which the tracks were taken, spent 78 weeks on the American charts, seven of them at #1.
In February 1990, Milli Vanilli were named as winners of the Best New Artist award at the 32nd Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
However, by now, suspicions were being raised in the USA, where an MTV executive, having interviewed the duo, had already said that Pilatus and Morvan simply did not possess sufficient English-language skills to have sung on the hits. Weeks later, at a performance in Bristol, Connecticut, the pre-recorded track jammed, causing Pilatus to panic and run off the stage. Meanwhile Charles Shaw, annoyed at the fact that on the American version of the album, Pilatus and Morvan had been named as the lead vocalists, issued a statement, (subsequently withdrawn), that he had been the actual vocalist. Unable to stem the bad publicity, Farian announced that he had fired both Pilatus and Morvan, confirming that they had never performed the vocals either on their recordings, or at any of their public appearances.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences now became involved, demanding that the Grammy Award be returned, Arista Records stopped all Milli Vanilli sales and deleted the album from their catalogue, and the duo found themselves stranded in the USA, facing a storm of abuse from music fans, along with 26 lawsuits alleging fraud.
Farina himself, however, was not sued, going on to release a follow-up Milli Vanilli album titled "The Moment of Truth" which this time pictured the real vocalists on the cover, although this failed to sell. In 1997, apparently upset by his abrupt firing of Pilatus and Morvan, Farian offered to record a third Milli Vanilli album to be titled "Back And In Attack" but with Pilatus and Morvan handling all the lead vocals. However Pilatus was by now suffering from depression and drug addiction, and was found dead in a Frankfurt hotel room a few days before the album could be completed.
Subsequently, Farian went on to found the German-American band La Bouche who scored international hits with "Be My Lover", "Sweet Dreams", "You Won't Forget Me" and "S.O.S". He also formed a second duo Le Click, which topped the charts with "Tonight Is the Night", "Call Me" and "Don't Go", as well as producing an album for Meatloaf.
In 2006, a musical "Daddy Cool", featuring the songs of such Farian acts as Boney M, Milli Vanilli and La Bouche opened on London's West End, running for six months before embarking on a UK tour. It subsequently toured Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Spain.
In later years, having sold more an estimated than 800 million records, Farian retired to live in Miami, Florida. Although still criticised by some in the American music industry, he claimed that he could never quite understand their point of view, pointing out that what he had done was normal industry practice, referencing the numerous star bands (some American) whose members had not always perfomed on their hit recordings.
In Miami, Florida, USA, on January 23, 2024, of undisclosed causes.
© Jim Liddane
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