The German producer Frank Farianthe man behind the successes of the disco group Boney M. and the duo Milli Vanilli, died at the age of 82 in his apartment in Miami, United States, his family announced on Tuesday.
Born on July 18, 1941 in the small town of Kirn, in western Germany, he is undoubtedly the German producer with the most international success, with more than 800 million sound recordings sold!
From pans to sunlight
Frank Farian, whose real name was Franz Reuther, started out as a cook before founding, in 1961, the rock group “Frankie und die Schatten” (Frankie and the Shadows, in French), which launched his musical career.
But notoriety only arrived with the success of Boney M.this legendary disco group from the 1970s that he had created from scratch: not only had he written some of the hits, but he had recorded the male vocals himself, leaving the four members of the group to put on the show in glittering costumes.
This is how, its “magic” working, the pieces “ Daddy Cool », “Ma Baker”, “Sunny” and “Rasputin” have become cult titles.
The Milli Vanilli imposture
Frank Farian then achieved another musical “coup” with the duo Milli Vanilli which, carried by the hit “ Girl You Know It’s True », had burst onto the pop landscape in 1988.
But this success took a scandalous turn when at the end of 1990, the producer admitted that the voices of the singers – two mixed race people with good looks – were not those that we heard on the album and that all their concerts were performed in playback.
The deception had earned the two stars of Milli Vanilli, the Frenchman, a real descent into hell. Fab Morvan and the German Rob Pilatus. The duo even had to return their Grammy, the supreme musical award in the United States.
Entitled “Milli Vanilli”, a documentary broadcast on the Paramount + platform, recently deciphered the story of this group, the scapegoat of a music industry ready to do anything to make hits. Frank Farian categorically refused to speak there.