Is Milli Vanilli a fraud?

All the pop crap around today is so heavily engineered that it may as well have been sung by an drunken scottish pensioner with throat cancer.

Last night I dreamed I had sex with an ex-gf. At least it was supposed to be her, except that it didn't look like her, y'know? Anyhow, she was also alive in the dream. She's also alive IRL. Yeah.

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.

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!

That Milli Vanilli "scandal" was the most rockist bollocks ever... I never liked the band, but what difference does it make whether the two muppets who appeared in the video sung on the record or not? Surely the music is all that matters.

that dog ain't gonna hunt DV

because the real rockism is in not just letting the dudes who sang the song appear on the cover & the stage, y'know

now that was a rather post-rockist way of put'in' it

tortoise would've said it like that fer sure

The real singers looked like this

dude on the left actually kinda looks like jermaine "we don't have to take our clothes off" stewart ... if mr. stewart weren't a eunuch.

http://i49.tinypic.com/k3lrx1.gif

I want to know what happened to Brad Howell

ty for dn

DAMMIT I WANTED THAT

these motherfuckers mad that I'm icy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p_ZcG_YQCI

interested persons might also wanna check the uploader's 244 other vids; his username is FRANKFARIANTHEHITMAN

kind of a goldmine tbh, here's a Farian-produced pre-solo Terence Trent D'arby act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGi_Afpj0f4&feature=share&list=UU3IWQ_M-AzO-vlYnpVQGqWQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jIEEyK7yj4&feature=share&list=UU3IWQ_M-AzO-vlYnpVQGqWQ

ok one last one, this is Rob & Fab actually singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtPrlItmpro&feature=share&list=UU3IWQ_M-AzO-vlYnpVQGqWQ

FRANKFARIANTHEHITMAN's playlist is really something else

try'n'b is an amazing name

ok I lied, I know this is a lot of youtubes but this one's really important

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIxo4DBgTcE&feature=share&list=UU3IWQ_M-AzO-vlYnpVQGqWQ

fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIxo4DBgTcE&feature=share&list=UU3IWQ_M-AzO-vlYnpVQGqWQ

That allegedly Fab or Rob vocal on the Empire Bizarre track sounds a lot like Farian himself. Here is the most famous Farian vocal for comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7peS5jw1nIU

well that's not even the one I meant to post but it's crucial too

don't sleep on the Milli-style dance break in this one. or on anything else in this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwPVKSZ1iFk

Have a lotta love for the Milli 'cause "Girl You Know It's True" was co-written by a really friendly gas station attendant in my home town. He worked at the Amoco on Forest Drive.

For real!

MILLI Vanilli, the dreadlocked duo who lip-synced their way to stardom, is doing Carefree gum commercials that poke fun at their fraud.

Kevin Liles is laughing, but not all the way to the bank.

He's one of the five people who are credited with the hit song, "Girl You Know It's True," which propelled Milli Vanilli -- Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan -- to a Grammy Award and international fame. Meanwhile Liles and his band, the Numarks, lingered in anonymity.

"We started everything," said Liles. "Without 'Girl You Know It's True,' there wouldn't have been a Milli Vanilli or anything."

Numarks is a local rap band that made the first recording of "Girl, You Know It's True." Some of the original members have left Numark, which now consists of Liles and Wayne Mallory, a disc jockey.

Numarks lives on, though. Liles and Mallory are in the recording studio, finishing songs for a new album. The first single, already playing on the radio, is dedicated to the Baltimore street that is home to Odell's, the nightclub where band members got their start, Liles said. The song is called "North Avenue . . . Drop Down."

As for the other members of the original Numarks, they're still involved in music. Bill Pettaway, who wrote the music and produced the song, works at the same job he's held for 10 years, at a gas station in Annapolis.

"The Milli Vanilli thing has not tarnished my life in any way," he said. "Kevin and everybody else involved, we made a hit song. I'm happy, I'm proud."

He's currently working with a young Washington woman on a possible singing career.

Ky Ademo of Columbia composes music regularly and is the father of twins. Rodney Holloman of Baltimore has embarked on a solo career. And the others, Darryl Mims and Sean Spencer, "they're still making music," Liles said.

that's incredible, Numarks are legendary in Baltimore but somehow I knew nothing about the "Girl You Know It's True" origins w/ them. Kevin Liles obv went on to be a big deal and VP at Def Jam and later Warner Bros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_53Szv3PGg

Bill Pettaway is also a production associate of Timbaland's and the discoverer of Toni Braxton. But I met him at the gas station.

That's so fresh. I've definitely spent some time talking to dudes at gas stations. None of them wrote Girl U Know It's True though.

Did you grow up in Hillsmere, by any chance?

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!