Is Milli Vanilli a fraud?

I personally think that in art (or entertainment), any effort to make what you are presenting more appealing is valid. The idea that "the artist" should be doing everything is absurd.

I went to a Milli Vanilli / Paula Abdul concert at a local amusement park at the height of "Girl You Know It's True" / "Blame it on the Rain" mania. I felt in no way defrauded. I distinctly remember thinking at the time that Paula Abdul was lip-synching but that MV were the real deal. When the whole scandal unfolded I was quite angered and annoyed at all of the people who returned their CDs (mine must still linger somewhere at my parent's house). I was quite confused why those songs which were so ubiquitous and catchy at the time were simply discarded overnight. I fully expected the actual songwriters and performers to suddenly become famous but I guess the proper American response was to drive the poor dancing frontmen to suicide.

By now it's well-known that Roger McGuinn was the only Byrd to actually play anything on the early Byrds hits and that band is in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. It's moderately well-known that Kiss albums were loaded with uncredited session musicians playing even the most basic parts and that their hyped reunion album only featured all four guys on, like, two songs. And that's not even mentioning Kiss's notoriously doctored live albums (and aren't most of the classic rock live albums overdubbed and doctored all over?). But those bands are past their prime so it's not an issue that's gonna make the news.

Wayans: "So get a friend, 'cause it takes two jerks to be Milli Vanilli. And remember..."

(Both running in place): "Don't Forget Our Number!"

C & C and Black Box shared an uncredited singer, Martha Wash (of The Weather Girls "It's Raining Men" fame), on their albums. Wash sang on C&C's "Gonna Make You Sweat" single and on all of the Black Box tracks (which were lip-synced in video and onstage by a model named Katrin Quinol).

However, Zelma Davis (who lip-synched Wash's lines in the "Sweat" video) did
sing on the rest of the C&C Music Factory album. She was, by all accounts, a capable singer.

I think what ultimately did Milli Vanilli in was the limitless ego they projected in interviews (quoted upthread) given the year before the scandal broke.

It has later come out that Farrel didn't sing on the Boney M records, hasn't it?

Yep, it was really Frank Farian singing.

shortlecocks!

ok, bedtime for me!

I saw them in concert,too w/ Young MC, and Seduction when I was 7. I liked the songs regardless of who was singing and I had a good time.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

John Davis and Brad Howell

scary

BTW, the C+C video fakery did cause a bit of a stink, as did the use of "Felly" lip synching Ya Kid K's lines in Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam" vid.

Beat on the brat with a baseball bat! Oh yeah, oh yeah oh oh

I remember hearing about that. The same year, he beat a man up with a lamp.

What's worse, after being roundly ridiculed for these absurd statements, Pilatus denied it in the LA Times, which I worked for at the time, saying, "I was in shock when I read it, I am a fan of Mick Jagger and the Stones. I mean I knew I wasn't singing, so why would I ever criticize the Beatles. All I said was that Elvis was a big idol in his time and we were big in ours." However, the Time magazine interview is on tape, the quotes were as they were presented, and he sounds very sincere. The reporter even gave him a chance to explain or retract his statement by asking him what he meant and he continued, saying he was more creative than all the artists he previously mentioned and that,"It's more difficult to sing a song like Milli Vanilli than a Beatles song." As if he would know.

Well, that's pretty much true isn't it? I mean the Beatles songs were simple enough that the same guys could write, record, and play them live. With MV, the task of recording those hits was so grueling that new guys had to be brought in to do the dancing, photo shoots, interviews, etc. The MV beast was a complex and well-oiled machine. At least until the wheels came off.

While I do like some of those hits and I don't understand why they were nearly universally reviled by critics, I doubt that it took considerable effort to record them. More than anything, the producer hired the duo because he felt that the real singers didn't have the looks or the moves for pop stardom.

Yeah, it was a joke.

Frank Farian re-launched the group in 1991 as the Real Milli Vanilli, using the singers from the original studio sessions but their LP "The Moment Of Truth" flopped.

HAHA. I saw them in concert too. They brought a girl out of the front row and sat her between them and cuddled her throughout a ballad. Thinking back, I wondered why they did that since the girl would have known that they were not singing. I guess they had a lot of habits like this that led to their being exposed.

I used to love those guys when I was little. I still like some of "their" songs but they were the cheesiest band ever. The shoulder pads, the blazers and spandex, and thigh high boots, the moves, the HORROR! And I would love to find a clip of their famous "girl you know it's girl you know its..." screwup. I've searched google and kazaa, to no avail.

-- Leelee (Alicia_Sla...), November 25th, 2004.

i wish more artists these days had that lack of humility!

Nope. Out General's Highway, near Rudy's.

guys

did you watch the get down beethoven video

Yes. And as a former Annapolitan and present-day resident of the Vienna 'burbs, I shake my head disapprovingly on behalf of Pettaway and Falco. (But my faithless toe is tapping.)

“Girl You Know It’s True” is a legit fucking jam

girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-girl you know it-

i always preferred "blame it on the rain"

remember this scandal happening as a kid and then thinking, "ya but the c+c music factory lady in the video isn't the singer either, i don't get the big deal???"

neanderthal, i've rewatched that clip so many times and i just can't even imagine what was going through their heads. the one dude starts doing the running man to the skipping beat! it's amazing.

Mixed feelings today, but a piece I wrote 30+ years ago for Throat Culture mathematically proving--proving--that Milli Vanilli were better than Bob Dylan.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/milli.html

3) Bob Dylan Albums That Are Not As Good As Girl You Know It's True:

The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Self Portrait (1970), Pat Garret & Billy the
Kid (1973), Dylan (1973), Planet Waves (1974), Hard Rain (1976), Street-Legal (1978),
Bob Dylan at Budokan (1979), Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), Shot of Love
(1981), Real Live (1984), Empire Burlesque (1985), Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Down in
the Groove (1987), Dylan & the Dead (1988), Oh Mercy (1989), Under the Red Sky (1990),
Good As I Been to You (1992)

it got funnier the more i read the list.

delightful piece, ty for sharing!

"Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" is back in the UK Top 40 after the Menendez brothers Netflix show featured it. Interestingly, the track is simply called "I'm Gonna Miss You" and the Official UK Charts are considering it as a separate single from "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" due to the naming discrepancy. I wonder if we will see more of this in the streaming and digital age - old songs get revived, and the way they've been added to Spotify et al affecting how they are considered.

LOVE IS STRONGER
THAN
THUNDAH

Something bewitching about Girl I'm Gonna Miss You, such a simple arrangement but so delicately produced, it feels like it's haunted.

This is not a MILLI VANILLA THREAD.
― Brian MacDonald, Saturday, 20 April 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

No way no way!

roffles at Lyle playing that at his parents’ memorial service, if that indeed happened.

'Blame It On The Rain' is at 47 in the UK singles chart.

old songs get revived, and the way they've been added to Spotify et al affecting how they are considered.

Can't wait for Brujeria's 'Don Quijote Marijuana' to chart and be mis-attributed to The Beatles due to filename labelling on early 00s P2P file sharing networks.