Frank Farian

Franz Reuther (18 July 1941 – 23 January 2024), known professionally as Frank Farian, was a German record producer and singer who founded the 1970s disco-pop group Boney M., and the pop bands No Mercy and Milli Vanilli. He frequently created vocal groups in which the publicised members merely lip-synced to songs sung by session performers. Farian owned the record label MCI and several subsidiaries.

Farian was born in Kirn, Germany, on 18 July 1941. He and two siblings were raised by his mother, because his father was killed in World War II before his birth. He trained as a cook before discovering rock and roll, renaming himself Frank Farian, and forming a band called Frankie Boys Schatten. In 1964, they released their first single, "Shouting Ghost", which was a failure.

In April 1967, Farian released a cover of Otis Redding's "Mr. Pitiful" under the name 'Frankie Farian'. After signing a recording contract as a solo performer, he moved into pop and appeared on the TV programme Hitparade. In 1976, Farian's German-language cover of Dickey Lee's "Rocky" stayed at No. 1 in the German charts for four weeks. His 1973 single "Was kann schöner sein?", a German language cover of the Lynsey de Paul/Ron Roker song "When You've Gotta Go", was listed as one of the Top 100 all time "Schlagerlieder" by German magazine Popkultur.

Working with composers Hans-Ulrich Weigel, Stefan Klinkhammer, and Roland Kaiser, he co-wrote and produced the song "Skateboard" for Copains which was released in 1977. It was a hit in both Germany and Sweden where it peaked at no. 38 and no. 17 respectively. It was also a hit for German singer Benny who got the song to no. 40 in the German charts. It was covered by Norwegian band Kjell Vidars. Years later it would be covered by German skate-punk band, Disaster Area.

In late 1974, he recorded "Baby Do You Wanna Bump" (a remake of Prince Buster's song "Al Capone" from 1967), first released in 1975 as a single and on the 1976 album Take the Heat off Me under the pseudonym Boney M. He recruited a line-up which included vocalists Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett along with a front-man, Bobby Farrell, and a female dancer, Maizie Williams. Under the name Boney M., he achieved his biggest success in Europe as well as world-wide with songs including "Daddy Cool", "Rivers of Babylon", "Rasputin" and a remake of "Mary's Boy Child". As later with Milli Vanilli, Farrell did not actually sing; he lip-synced to Farian's own vocals.

Farian also started the supergroup Far Corporation (named after the first syllable of his last name), which featured Steve Lukather, David Paich, Bobby Kimball, Simon Phillips (all from Toto fame), and Robin McAuley. Far Corporation were the first act to chart with a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"; their cover was a top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 8 in October 1985.

In 1986, Farian produced and mixed the Meat Loaf album Blind Before I Stop. He also sang backing vocals on the album's lead single, "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries", which was credited to Meat Loaf featuring John Parr.

In 1988, Farian began producing Milli Vanilli. He assembled a group of session musicians and fronted it with physically attractive dancers Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan. During a 1989 performance a backing track error first revealed the singers had been lip-syncing. On 14 November 1990, Farian confirmed that others had sung on the albums. Milli Vanilli's 1990 Grammy Award for Best New Artist was revoked, and at least 26 lawsuits were filed in the United States under U.S. consumer fraud protection laws.