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.
― Poisoned, Saturday, 27 November 2004 06:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Leelee, Saturday, 27 November 2004 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link
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!"
― Marcus, Saturday, 27 November 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 27 November 2004 19:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcus, Saturday, 27 November 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pekka Halonen, Saturday, 27 November 2004 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link
It has later come out that Farrel didn't sing on the Boney M records, hasn't it?
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 November 2004 01:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Yep, it was really Frank Farian singing.
― Leelee (Leelee), Sunday, 28 November 2004 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sammy, Sunday, 28 November 2004 07:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 28 November 2004 07:22 (nineteen years ago) link
shortlecocks!
ok, bedtime for me!
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 28 November 2004 07:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble (bimble), Sunday, 28 November 2004 07:34 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Alicia (Leelee), Sunday, 28 November 2004 07:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― cowhide boy, Sunday, 28 November 2004 08:20 (nineteen years ago) link
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
― Haywood Jublome, Sunday, 28 November 2004 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 28 November 2004 22:41 (nineteen years ago) link
John Davis and Brad Howell
― Lil Bit, Monday, 29 November 2004 00:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lil Bit, Monday, 29 November 2004 00:47 (nineteen years ago) link
scary
― Haywood Jublome, Monday, 29 November 2004 01:07 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 29 November 2004 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stacy, Monday, 29 November 2004 02:00 (nineteen years ago) link
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat! Oh yeah, oh yeah oh oh
― Uncle Billy Bo Bob, Monday, 29 November 2004 05:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lil Bit, Monday, 29 November 2004 19:55 (nineteen years ago) link
I remember hearing about that. The same year, he beat a man up with a lamp.
― Ramonesfan, Monday, 29 November 2004 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― BettyBoop, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 03:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Leelee, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 04:40 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Hotpants, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:59 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:16 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Hotpants, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sabrina, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, it was a joke.
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 03:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hotpants, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 05:31 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Alicia (Leelee), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:31 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Alicia (Leelee), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 16:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sabrina, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:08 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― MelMel, Monday, 27 December 2004 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Zorene, Sunday, 10 July 2005 17:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zorene, Sunday, 10 July 2005 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link
-- Leelee (Alicia_Sla...), November 25th, 2004.
i wish more artists these days had that lack of humility!
― latebloomer: the Clonus Horror (latebloomer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zorene, Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 10 July 2005 19:28 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Saturday, 13 October 2007 17:53 (sixteen years ago) link
that dog ain't gonna hunt DV
― J0hn D., Saturday, 13 October 2007 18:32 (sixteen years ago) link
because the real rockism is in not just letting the dudes who sang the song appear on the cover & the stage, y'know
― J0hn D., Saturday, 13 October 2007 18:33 (sixteen years ago) link
now that was a rather post-rockist way of put'in' it
― t**t, Saturday, 13 October 2007 18:53 (sixteen years ago) link
tortoise would've said it like that fer sure
― latebloomer, Saturday, 13 October 2007 22:08 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Eisbaer, Monday, 10 December 2007 04:56 (sixteen years ago) link
http://i49.tinypic.com/k3lrx1.gif
― crüt, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 07:15 (eleven years ago) link
I want to know what happened to Brad Howell
― crüt, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 07:17 (eleven years ago) link
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.)
― Three Word Username, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 14:35 (eleven years ago) link
“Girl You Know It’s True” is a legit fucking jam
― thewufs, Tuesday, 11 January 2022 23:57 (two years ago) link
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-
― they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 00:01 (two years ago) link
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.
― get shrunk by this funk. (Austin), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 00:20 (two years ago) link
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
― clemenza, Wednesday, 12 January 2022 00:28 (two years ago) link
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 theKid (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 inthe Groove (1987), Dylan & the Dead (1988), Oh Mercy (1989), Under the Red Sky (1990),Good As I Been to You (1992)
The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Self Portrait (1970), Pat Garret & Billy theKid (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 inthe 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!
― get shrunk by this funk. (Austin), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 02:48 (two years ago) link