Biography
Frank Farian was responsible for launching Boney M and Milli Vanilli, two pop acts that achieved extraordinary worldwide sales. His father died during World War II, leaving the young Farian to absorb American and British pop sounds throughout the 1950s. He began his career fronting a band called the Shadows, yet by the middle of the following decade his focus had turned entirely to soul, guiding an ensemble that specialized in replicating American chart material. Early in the 1970s he moved to ballad performance on the Hansa-Ariola roster, scoring notable releases with the 1972 single “Dana My Love” and the 1976 track “Rocky,” the latter reaching the top position on the German charts. That same year he embraced the rising disco movement, enlisting session vocalists to write and produce “Baby Do Ya Wanna Bump?,” a recording whose popularity in the Netherlands prompted him to assemble the live and studio ensemble Boney M; the group accumulated more than a dozen hits across Europe and the United Kingdom over the ensuing half-decade. In the latter half of the 1970s he also oversaw a cover of Ann Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain” together with additional successes for the disco act Eruption.
Although Boney M found limited traction in the United States, Farian’s subsequent venture proved far more lucrative there. Working in his Munich-area studio in 1987, he created material under the Milli Vanilli name and brought in Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan solely to handle stage appearances. Their first three American singles all reached number one in 1989, and the project yielded two high-selling albums. The enterprise collapsed abruptly once Farian disclosed that Pilatus and Morvan had contributed no vocals to the released recordings. In 1991 he revived the project as the Real Milli Vanilli, restoring Brad Howell, Johnny Davis, and Charles Shaw—the vocalists who had performed on the original sessions—to the lineup. Frank Farian died on January 23, 2024, at the age of 82.
Although Boney M found limited traction in the United States, Farian’s subsequent venture proved far more lucrative there. Working in his Munich-area studio in 1987, he created material under the Milli Vanilli name and brought in Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan solely to handle stage appearances. Their first three American singles all reached number one in 1989, and the project yielded two high-selling albums. The enterprise collapsed abruptly once Farian disclosed that Pilatus and Morvan had contributed no vocals to the released recordings. In 1991 he revived the project as the Real Milli Vanilli, restoring Brad Howell, Johnny Davis, and Charles Shaw—the vocalists who had performed on the original sessions—to the lineup. Frank Farian died on January 23, 2024, at the age of 82.