At the moment when Milli Vanilli burst onto the musical Olympus, “artificial” musical groups had already existed for many years, but this particular project reached unimaginable heights, albeit for a short period of time.
In the late 1980s, German music producer Frank Farian (Franz Reuter), known for his rather successful Boney M. and Eruption projects in Europe, dreamed of conquering the American music market. For a new project with an experimental sound Frank hired in 1987 former American servicemen (seemingly from the Rammstein base in Germany): vocalists 45-year-old Brad Howell (already worked with Chilly, Supermax), John Davis and young rapper Charles Shaw, as well as sisters Jody and Linda Rocco as backing vocalists, so to speak for an “American” sound. Frank Farian came up with an easy-to-remember name for the new project - Milli Vanilli. Milli was the name Frank called his girlfriend Ingrid Segit at that time, and the word Vanilli was taken by analogy with the name of the British band Scritti Politti (according to some information the word was taken from an advertising slogan Frank saw in Turkey).
At that time, the song Girl You Know It's True (1987) by the American band Numarx was very popular in Germany. The song went unnoticed in the USA, but became a real hit in Germany.
Frank liked the song and decided to release his own version with a harder, faster electronic sound. The recording of the song took place at night to keep the secret of who the vocalists of the band really were. Frank already realized that with good voices, but without attractive appearance of vocalists, “other faces” were needed, people of model appearance at concerts, as well as when recording video clips. He had to apply an old scheme that worked smoothly. He instructed his managers to look for appropriate people through modeling agencies. In the meantime, Frank's attention was drawn to Empire Bizarre, a little-known band from Munich, consisting of two dark-skinned guys who had previously moonlighted as models and dancers. He saw them performing at a Fasching (carnival) in Bavaria and decided that this was the perfect choice for a visual effect.
These guys were 23-year-old Robert Pilatus, whose parents were an African-American serviceman and a German stripper (he spent four years in an orphanage before being adopted by a family from Munich), and 22-year-old Fabrice Morvan, born in Paris to a family that had moved from Guadeloupe (a French overseas territory). They met in Munich and decided to form a band, but they did not achieve much success in the musical field. Rob and Fab came to the studio, where Farian showed them a demo recording of the song Girl You Know It's True. The young musicians immediately agreed to Farian's proposal, a contract was signed, due to their age they did not go into legal details. They even performed it in the studio, but for Farian it was “just for show”.
They received 4,000 dollars each as an advance payment and, excited by the expectation of a wonderful future, left the studio before Farian's call. With the money they received, the musicians bought new stylish clothes and did their hair. When they arrived at the studio Frank told them that the vocals for the song were recorded, and they only needed to “move their lips” and dance in the video clip and promotions (in later interviews Farian said he wanted to use them only as dancers, but it seems he was lying). Rob and Fab strongly disagreed with this decision, but legal illiteracy in signing a three-album contract, poverty and a spent advance forced them to agree.
On June 25, 1988, the debut single from Girl You Know It's True was finally released on Hansa Records.
The single was a big success that Frank Farian never dreamed of. Top 3 in most European charts, 3rd place in UK Singles Chart. But it wasn't all smooth sailing. So rapper Charles Shaw, who received only 6 000 dollars for the song, was very indignant and started to threaten Farian. In the end, the producer simply removed him from the project, and his functions were performed by John Davis. Farian also reminded that the real members should not meet with the “faces of the group”, as it is written in the contracts. But Charles Shaw will still remind of himself.
Already in November 1988 the debut album of the project All Or Nothing was released. Most of the compositions in it were written by Frank Farian, and the dance duo was just a pretty picture, who received only a small slice of the gigantic royalties pie. Nevertheless, Frank recalled in interviews that the huge popularity literally “turned their heads”, they became arrogant, arrogant, did not say hello to anyone, walked around in dark glasses and demanded that he let them sing with his voice. At that point, Robert Pilatus' drug addiction became increasingly apparent.
The next single Baby Don't Forget My Number, released in December 1988, had a more modest popularity in Europe, but later was very popular in the U.S. - #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and gold certification.
The band was noticed by Arista Records, which, like Hansa, was part of the BMG label. By agreement of the parties the album was reworked for the American market, some songs were excluded and it was released on March 7, 1989 under the name of the main hit of the band - Girl You Know It's True.
Finally Girl You Know It's True conquered the American market - 2nd place in Billboard Hot 100 and platinum certification in the USA (2 million copies). The single from Don't Forget My Number, which we wrote about earlier, also conquered the American charts, reaching number 1 in July 1989. On the wave of such frenzied popularity Farian was approached by the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson himself, as Milli Vanilli's songs broke the record of his album Thriller (1984). But Farian declined the offer, in which case he would hardly have been the main man in the process.
To promote the band went on tour to the USA, where their poor knowledge of English and strong accent put a cross on the further career of the musicians. At the same time, Rob and Fab, along with their managers, left on their own, in defiance of Farian's ban. On July 21, 1989, the band performed as part of MTV in Bristol, Connecticut. At one point the music equipment just “jammed”, just repeating the phrase “Girl, you know it's...Girl, you know it's...Girl, you know it's...Girl, you know it's”. The pseudo-singers initially just ran off stage, but then the MTV host brought them back on stage to finish the song. If the crowd of fans may not have noticed the incident, but not the journalists. The fact that two Europeans, who speak English badly and with a strong accent, yet sing in perfect English, aroused more and more suspicions.
In August 1989, the band released their third single with the song Girl, I'm going to miss you, which also topped the main American chart. It is worth noting that the opening lyrics of the song became prophetic: It's a tragedy for me to see the dream is over.
The U.S. album also included the Diane Warren song Blame It On The Rain, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It was released as a single in September 1989.
Now let's remember the very same rapper Charles Shaw from the current lineup of the group, who was unhappy with the amount of the fee. In December 1989, in an interview with New York Newsday, he said that Rob and Fab had nothing to do with the work of Milli Vanilli, and he was one of the performers. But very quickly afterward, he stated that it was just a publicity stunt to promote his solo career. According to some sources, Farian paid him $155,000 for his silence.
Against this grand backdrop, the band receives a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990, as well as 3 awards from the American Music Awards. Already in 1991, the band's American album Girl You Know It's True was awarded 10x platinum certification in Canada, Frank Farian received diamond certification. On April 21, 1990, the American sketch comedy series “In Living Color” aired a video series that played out the set needed for such popularity as Milli Vanilli. Increasingly, the public was overcome by doubts about the voices of the performers.
The confrontation between the producer and the duo of dancers reached a boiling point and Farian flew to Los Angeles in November 1990, where he gave a press conference where he said that Rob and Fab never sang and fired them from the project. By his admission their voices were “bad”, so it was never an issue for him, while noting that at that point he did everything right with them, they got up to 2 million dollars, good money was also given to the real performers, but Robert Pilatus was not enough. At the same time he regretted not letting them sing or making them just dancers in front of the real performers. “The Faces of the Band” eventually won back a Grammy, Arista Records canceled their contract with them and withdrew the album from sales. Rob and Fab responded by organizing a press conference too, where they sang lines from the main hit and asked that the Grammys be given to the real singers. A huge number of lawsuits were filed against the band, and almost all the money earned in two years was spent on legal fees. In 1991, Farian released a record, The Real Milli Vanilli, featuring vocals by Brad Howell and John Davis, as well as Ray Horton and Gina Mohammed.
Two years later, Rob and Fab released an album with the simple title Rob & Fab (1992), where they sing with their voices. Just over 2000 copies were made, as the studio that contracted them was small and later went bankrupt. Both were drug addicts at the time, but while Fab came out of it later, Rob could not.
In 1997, Robert Pilatus went to jail for vandalism and asked Farian for help. He posted $120,000 bail and sent him to an expensive clinic for treatment. After his release from the clinic, Frank Farian attempted a reincarnation of Milli Vanilli already with the voices of the same duo, he received the approval of the BMG label. The album was recorded, although Robert attempted suicide in the process. On the eve of the album's promotional tour on April 3, 1998, 32-year-old Robert was found dead in his apartment in Frankfurt am Main, having taken antidepressants with alcohol. An album was never released, but Fab released his solo album Love Revolution in 2003. He also recorded the song Look Here in memory of his colleague.
As for Frank Farian, he had many more successful projects in the 1990s ...
