Girl You Know It's True: The Music Industry Lies To You
Dear Gen Xer,
I feel bad for Milli Vanilli.
Don’t get me wrong. Their music still blows. I’ve hated the duo since they burst on the scene. I used to mock their jerky dance moves; flip my imaginary dreads around and make my friends at school piss their pants. But I watched a documentary called Milli Vanilli recently and realized that I’d had it all wrong. Milli Vanilli weren’t just hacks. Milli Vanilli were hacks who were used by the always shameless record industry.
Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan met at a party in Munich. They found they had a lot in common. Both were broke. Both had survived abusive backgrounds. Both were dancers and entertainers. Both were hungry for success.
Rob and Fab bonded into brothers. They rose to the top of Munich’s dance scene by hosting parties and performing routines in the city’s most popular clubs. It’s at these parties where they developed their iconic look and dance moves. A few months later, they were approached by a man who represented Frank Farian.
Frank Farian was a producer and songwriter. He began his career in the 1960’s as a vocalist for the German rock band Frankie Boys Schatten. Never heard of them? Neither has anyone else. Though you may have heard of Farian’s next project: a dance pop group called Boney M.
Boney M’s mega-hits include Sunny, Daddy Cool, and Rasputin. You know these songs. You’ve heard them a million times. But did you know that Farian wrote those songs? Did you know that Farian provided the male vocals?
Turns out Boney M’s singer, Bobby Farrell, wasn’t a singer at all. Farrell was a dancer; an entertainer. Farian thought that Farrell would provide the perfect face for a band.
Rob and Fab paid a visit to Farian’s compound in Frankfurt. This was FAR Studios – one of the most advanced music studios in Germany at the time. Massive rooms were filled with instruments. Countless gold records hung from the walls. Rob and Fab were impressed.
Farian played them the track he’d been working on: a track that had been originally written, performed, and recorded by Baltimore-based rap group Numarx. Farian heard their song in a Munich nightclub and thought that he could improve it.
The song was called Girl You Know It’s True and Rob and Fab loved it. They wanted to get started right away. That’s when Farian broke the news. You’re not going to be singing, he explained. You will be the face.
Rob and Fab knew they were handsome. The attention they received from women was palpable. But they weren’t interested in being models.
An argument ensued but Farian wouldn’t budge. Rob’s Bavarian accent and Fab’s French accent were far too thick to consider recording. Farian offered them a contract on the spot and 1,500 Deutsche Marks each. Rob and Fab knew that offers from legends don’t come every day. The hungry young duo accepted.
It wasn’t supposed to be a hit. Not beyond Germany, anyway. But Girl You Know It’s True was an instant smash. It was a Top 5 hit in 23 countries, and went gold, silver or platinum in 8 of them.
Rob and Fab figured they’d take the money and run. They’d act in a video as Milli Vanilli, then move on with their lives and careers. But that became impossible after the song exploded. The pull of hype and celebrity, along with the love they’d never found in the projects and orphanages where they’d grown up, proved too much to resist. Rob and Fab embraced the lie.
What in the world’s better than one smash hit? Why, two smash hits, of course!
So Milli Vanilli signs with Arista. They release an album that’s also called Girl You Know It’s True. It results in three more #1 hits: I’m Gonna Miss You, Baby Don’t Forget My Number, and Blame It on the Rain. The album winds up selling 10 million copies.
But where the hell is Milli Vanilli? Why aren’t they touring? Don’t they know they have millions of fans with disposable income to spend? Arista wants a tour. So do Rob and Fab. Farian, however, is against the idea. What if something goes wrong? What if their secret spills out?
Milli Vanilli go on tour despite Frank Farian’s concerns. They partner up with MTV: 8 months, 107 cities, and god knows how much hair product.
Things start well for the dynamic duo, though there are a few awkward moments when they’re interviewed on MTV, when their heavy accents and lack of English make Schwarzenegger sound like Anthony Hopkins.
On July 21, 1989, the tour pulls into Bristol, Connecticut. The day is sweltering. So hot, in fact, that your fingers are in danger of slipping off your instrument. Rob and Fab’s vocals may be plugged into a box, but the band behind them always plays live.
Downtown Julie Brown introduces the band. She’s been on tour with Rob and Fab and has gotten to like the boys. She amps the crowd up and leaves the stage and retires to her trailer to chill. She’s surprised soon after to hear what sounds like a crowd that’s turning ugly.
The crowd had been lively, screaming over every dance move, when all of a sudden:
Girl you know it’s
Girl you know it’s
Girl you know it’s
Girl you know it’s
The vocals in a box began repeating. It didn’t take long before the audience realized what was going on. They started to boo. Rob and Fab fled.
Arista execs scrambled. A scandal like this could hamper their profits. Everybody knew Milli Vanilli’s secret, including Clive Davis - hall of fame producer and record executive who ran Arista at the time. In the end they took advantage of a pre-internet society. They sat on the story, hoping it would pass.
Milli Vanilli kept on touring. Ticket and record sales continued to soar. So much so that the duo’s manager, Todd Headlee, a motivated man who had no idea of his client’s secret, decided to submit Milli Vanilli for a Grammy nomination. Some time later, Milli Vanilli was nominated for Best New Artist.
Manager Todd Headlee was ecstatic. Until he received an angry call from his boss Sandy Gallin. Gallin handled high-tier clients like Michael Jackson and Dolly Parton. He’d just heard about the nomination from Arista chief Clive Davis. Davis was furious because everybody has to perform live on the Grammys. How was Milli Vanilli supposed to do that?
Easy.
Sandy Gallin paid Michael Green, who was the head of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Milli Vanilli would lip sync as usual. “Make sure you do it right tonight,” Green told Rob and Fab, moments before they went out to perform in front of hundred of millions of viewers.
Milli Vanilli won the Grammy for Best New Artist. It didn’t take long for it to go to Rob’s head.
“Musically, we’re more talented than any Bob Dylan. Musically, we’re more talented that Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger; his lines are not clear.”
“It’s more difficult to sing a song like Milli Vanilli than a Beatles song.”
“I’m the new modern rock ‘n’ roll. I’m the new Elvis.”
With great celebrity comes great demands, and Rob and Fab demanded they sing. Arista said no. Ditto Frank Farian. So Rob and Fab hired a lawyer. That’s when they learned that the contract they’d signed when they first met Farian had them on the hook for multiple albums.
Rob and Fab were hurt, and they decided to hurt Farian. They demanded more money. Farian said no. Slated to perform on German television a few days later, Rob and Fab explained to Farian that if he didn’t give them 150 thousand dollars, they’d tell the producers of the show that they weren’t the singers behind Milli Vanilli.
Farian would up paying the duo. Then he booked a flight to New York City and held himself a press conference.
Farian announced on November 15, 1990 that Milli Vanilli was a fraud. He didn’t use that word, of course. While he acknowledged his deceit (going so far as to reveal the real singers - Brad Howell, John Davis, and Charles Shaw), Farian defended his decision. The look was good. The music was good. Millions of Milli Vanilli fans couldn’t be wrong.
Five days later, Rob and Fab addressed the media. They admitted to not singing on their record and attempted to explain:
“Do you live in the projects? Did you live in the projects? We had no money. We wanted to be stars. We think we’re talented. We love to be on stage. It’s our first aim. It wasn’t money. If we wouldn’t have accept that at the start, we knew we would still be in Munich and would still work at the McDonalds.” – Rob Pilatus
The outraged media tore them a new one. They cast Rob and Fab as money-hungry phonies: con men who gamed the system to get money for nothing and their chicks for free. Nobody mentioned Frank Farian. Nobody mentioned Clive Davis. The entire hoax – a global juggernaut worth hundreds of millions – was clearly masterminded by two young men from the projects in Germany.
Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy. Arista dropped them from their label. Two dozen lawsuits were filed by fans. Late night television feasted.
Here’s the kicker:
Farian had already completed the second Milli Vanilli album. So he called up Brad Powell and John Davis, who’d actually sung on the album, and suggested they move ahead. Farian called the band The Real Milli Vanilli, and he called the album The Moment of Truth. Then he made a video for the album’s first single. Except many of the people in the video weren’t in the actual band. It was almost as big a lie as the original Milli Vanilli. The media, which had been outraged with Rob and Fab, didn’t make a peep.
Meanwhile, Rob and Fab attempted to make a comeback. They released a single called We Can Get it On and a supporting album called Rob & Fab. It sold approximately 2,000 copies.
Fab sunk into obscurity. Rob sank into drugs. He went in and out of rehab 11 times in the next 7 years. One night, Fab stepped out of the Viper Room (yes, that Viper Room) and noticed a man stumbling across the street. The man turned his head and a streetlight illuminated his haggard face. Holy shit, Fab though - it’s Rob! Fab crossed the street and held Rob up. Rob, it’s me. It’s me, Rob; Fab. Rob motioned vaguely in the direction where he was staying. It turned out to be a crack house.
The last time Rob left rehab, he checked into a hotel near Ingrid’s house. Ingrid Segieth was the financial controller of Frank Farian’s company. She and Farian were involved romantically. ‘Milli’ was Ingrid’s pet name. Ingrid is the one who found Rob dead on his hotel floor the following afternoon.
It’s easy to predict what would happen today if Milli Vanilli appeared on the scene. They’d be auto-tuned and make millions of dollars touring the country and lip-synching their songs. Nobody on earth would give a crap because that’s what pop stars do these days. And don’t get me started on AI music.
Frank Farian died recently. Clive Davis is alive and kicking at the age of 92. Neither of them were stripped of Grammys. Neither of them were cancelled. Quite the contrary: they profited the most.
As is usual in these cases, the artists (if you’ll allow the term here) wound up paying the price, while the people who exploited them laughed and skipped all the way to the bank.
Which teaches us, once again, that all of showbiz is bullshit.
That much we know is true.
You’re right. This is a sad story but its elements have been around the music industry for decades. Most people wouldn’t want to know how the sausage was made. I can’t tell you how many albums were made by musicians who then had to teach the band members how to play the song. I’ve even played keyboards on songs that you still hear all the time because I was a lot better than what was in the group and could pick up things quicker, thus cutting studio expenses. I knew the overall story but not the ending. Thanks for filling in details. You’re the man!
I'm excited to watch this doc! I remember when they were stripped of the Grammy and how outraged the public was over their lip-synching, but I do remember the questioning of Boney M after that in the media (I grew up with Boney M albums, and knew the name Frank Farian). And remember when Ashley Simpson was excoriated on SNL when she was caught lip-synching? No one would say boo now, or it would blow over fast - but it ruined her singing career (did she have any other career after that? I do not know).
Excellent article, as always, Sonny!