Song of the Day 10/29: Milli Vanilli, “Girl You Know It’s True”

You can tell the ’90s are having their day in the nostalgia-industrial complex – there’s a new documentary out about Milli Vanilli, the dance-pop duo who had to give up their Grammy Award when it was revealed that they were lip-synching and dancing to vocals recorded by other singers.

I remember seeing the act at the Delaware State Fair in July 1990, when the scandal was still at the rumor stage, and I have to admit they were good at what they did. I was watching for any sign of subterfuge but saw nothing amiss. Four months later their manager, German impressario Frank Farian, revealed the fraud. Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan had to give back their Grammy. Farian kept his profits.

I haven’t seen the doc, but it’s clear Farian is the villain of the piece. Milli Vanilli wasn’t the first or last time he pulled the trick of hiring dancers to front a musical act by lip-synching. He concocted the formula in the disco era, after his own music career failed to launch, with a single he credited to Boney M. When it became a hit in Europe and needed a band to present it live, he hired a bunch of Caribbean islanders. Boney M had several dance hits in Europe before Farian abandoned the project in 1986.

Though Farian wrote most of Boney M’s music, Milli Vanilli’s breakthrough hit was actually a cover. A Maryland band hip hop group called Numarx hooked up with a local guitarist and producer to record the tune in 1989. It was a modest success in the Baltimore-D.C. area but became a favorite in some European dance clubs, where Farian heard it. Milli Vanilli, and a No. 2 Billboard hit, was the result. Farian couldn’t reproduce the vocals himself, so he hired an American Army vet named Charles Shaw for the job. Shaw went on to perform for a while as “the real Milli Vanilli.”

As you can hear from the original, Farian added polish but didn’t change much about the tune. Several members of Numarx went on to long careers in the music business. Farian, now 82, lives in Miami and has a net worth of more than $40 million.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRBrC_4CCGI