Frank Farian passed away yesterday at the age of 82. If the name sounds vaguely familiar, you are a fan of esoteric Euro-based pop music. Frank Farian turned the dials for several dance groups, as well as a couple of major artists with worldwide chart hits. He was also the architect behind one of the craziest controversies in pop music – one of his award-winning bands were nothing more than a lip-sync fraud.
But let’s start with his earlier hits.
DO YOU WANNA BUMP
Credited under the studio name “Boney M.”, Frank Farian took the melody of an old Prince Buster hit, and sang the lyrics in his weird, gravelly baritone voice. But for public performances, he hired several dancers to sing along and pretend that Farian’s voice was coming out of their mouths.
RASPUTIN
After a while, the Boney M. group settled into a routine of dancy disco tracks with a hint of weird historic lyrics. This was one of their biggest hits, “Rasputin,” and yes, Farian is still singing the vocals while dancer Bobby Farrell pretended that those vocals were his.
RIVERS OF BABYLON
I’m sorry, but no matter how much I enjoy this song, all I can think of is that it took the melody from the old drinking song “How Dry I Am.” That, and it’s Boney M.’s only American Top 40 single.
I CAN’T STAND THE RAIN
This was another Farian creation, the group “Eruption,” with lead vocals by Precious Wilson. All I can say about this song is … it’s okay. And at least Frank Farian isn’t singing on it. At least not that I can tell.
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
This was a one-off where several members of the band Toto, along with some other studio musicians, recorded a Top 40 version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Someone should have tossed this bustle back in the hedgerow. Ecch.
Okay, I’ve avoided doing this. But if I’m going to do a recap of Frank Farian’s catalogue … I have to play this.
GIRL YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE
This was the three-man vocal band Milli Vanilli, featuring vocals by John Davis, Brad Howell and Charles Shaw. The song hit #1 all over the world, and was the drive force in getting Milli Vanilli the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Yes, you saw what I did there. Those vocals are from Davis, Howell and Shaw. It’s not from those two dreadlock-wearing “Rob and Fab” dancers.
DON’T FORGET MY NUMBER
See, if music videos weren’t the standard in 1989, we probably wouldn’t have cared what Milli Vanilli looked like, and we could have just focused on the song itself and the great vocals. But no, Frank Farian created Milli Vanilli as … well … phony baloney.
BE MY LOVER
After Frank Farian escaped mostly unscathed from the Milli Vanilli scandal, he returned to producing various European dance tracks, including this one by the group La Bouche. And if you don’t want to get La Bouche mixed up with another group, Le Click, I can tell you that Le Click is responsible for this –
TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT
Frank Farian was 82 when he passed away earlier this week. And you can’t deny he had an impact on pop music.
Probably not the impact most people would want, but hey, your mileage may vary.
Chuck The Writer 
Unscathed? As you said, Chuck, Farian went back to Europe, and outside of La Bouche, not much came from his camp onto the US charts post-Milli Vanilli.
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