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Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Blame It on the Feign, Part 1
00:54:08
Deceitful as they were, Milli Vanill’s blend of rap and dance-pop topped the charts and made a lasting impression.
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- [00:00]
Rob Pilatus
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:04]
Chris Melanfi
Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. You can try it for a month for just $1, and it supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com/hit parade. Plus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus hit the Bridge our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode.
- [00:58]
Rob Pilatus
Foreign.
- [01:04]
Chris Melanfi
Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number one Series on today's show? Do you recognize this funk instrumental I'm playing? This is the Soul Searchers, led by Washington D.C. go Go music pioneer Chuck Brown with their 1974 jam Ashley's Roach Clip. Don't feel bad if it's not ringing a bell yet. It wasn't a big chart hit, but part of this song was a hit, part of many, many hits. In just a few seconds, we're going to hear a drum break that should be instantly familiar if you listened to hip hop about 30 to 35 years ago. Here it comes. The Ashley's Roach Clip Drum break is a formative beat in rap history, sampled on dozens of tracks. It's the beat that powered hip hop classics by golden age rappers T. LaRocque, Eric B and Rakim, Slick Rick Chill, Rob G, the Ghetto Boys, Tupac and Ice Cube, among many others. And it also anchored several big hits by, well, these guys who, I guess you could say, do rap. This is Girl youl Know It's True, the debut global smash by Milli Vanilli. Nominally, that's the name of the dance pop duo Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, a pair of model, gorgeous men who danced energetically, almost manically, running in place in biker shorts, flailing their dreadlocks, even taking running leaps into each other, smashing their chests together. On mtv, in concert and even at the Grammy Awards, Rob and Fab presented themselves as Milli Vanilli. But of course, as is now infamous Pilatus And Morvan weren't singing or rapping on any of the hits credited to Milli Vanilli, a name that is now equated in the public's mind with musical fraud. This despite the fact that whether we all want to admit it or not, those of us who were alive in 1989, we're listening to a whole lot of Milli Vanilla. No act on the charts that year, not Bon Jovi, Bobby Brown, Janet Jackson or Madonna, had more number one hits than Milli Vanilli. Whoever was actually vocalizing on the records that this German musical project succeeded beyond anyone's imaginings, including the man who dreamed the whole thing up, a guy who'd already tasted fame more than a decade earlier.
- [04:34]
Rob Pilatus
She's Crazy Like Fool Daddy Cool.
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Chris Melanfi
Producer, musician and pop impresario Frank Ferrier had scored a string of hits in the 70s with his Euro disco act Boney M. But none of their singles became big US hits, which is what made Farian's success in America with his 80s group so stunning. We bought more Milli Vanilli recordings than any country in the world. Milli Vanilli caught lightning in a bottle. Showing up when the charts were undergoing a rap driven metamorphosis. Some of the hit acts rapping in the late 80s sounded authentic to the streets.
- [05:27]
Rob Pilatus
I wanna rock right now I'm Robbins and I came to get down.
- [05:31]
Chris Melanfi
While others dabbled in rap in songs that were really more pop.
- [05:36]
Rob Pilatus
Too hot to handle, too cold to hold. They called it Nosebusters at the end Control.
- [05:41]
Chris Melanfi
The team behind Milli Vanilli took the full advantage of this early crossover moment. They pilfered from everywhere. From the music of the 60s.
- [05:52]
Rob Pilatus
Spinning Wheel got to go around to.
- [05:57]
Chris Melanfi
The underground hip hop and club music of the 80s. Yes, the story of Milli Vanilli is one of both theft and fraud. But it was a fraud the whole country and much of the world embraced until it all got just a little out of control. And the winner is what?
- [06:27]
Rob Pilatus
Milli Vanilli.
- [06:29]
Chris Melanfi
Even if many of us would prefer to bury the music of Milli Vanilli in some deep memory hole, its popularity does explain something about where the sound of pop was headed at the turn of the 1990s. It's easy now to forget that at the time, legitimate media outlets, industry executives and even songwriters took this group somewhat seriously. Seriously enough that a certain hit generating Oscar nominated songwriter would give Milli Vanilli their most enduring single.
- [07:06]
Rob Pilatus
Blame it on the Rain Falling.
- [07:12]
Chris Melanfi
And that's where your hit parade marches today. The week ending November 25, 1989 when blame it on the Rain by Milli vanilli reached number one on the Hot 100, it was the third straight chart topper by the duo Group Project and the fourth of their five Top five hits, affirming that Milli Vanilli was one of the top pop acts of the year. It was also the second consecutive number one by a celebrated songwriter who's still generating hits today. And that's just one of many interesting footnotes in the story of this massive pop swindle, one with a bit more of a legacy than you might imagine. How exactly were we all seduced by Milli Vanilli?
- [08:23]
Rob Pilatus
There lived a certain man in Russia long ago he was big and strong in his eyes of creamy go now.
- [08:31]
Chris Melanfi
This song might sound familiar if you've been on TikTok lately, or maybe if you're a video game player who enjoys the music game Just Dance 2. It's a 1978 single that's reappeared on several Billboard charts just this year, even though it was never a hit in America in its heyday, Rasputin, or perhaps I should say Rah Rah Rasputin, given the way the word is sung, was a hit across Europe back in 1978, including number one in Germany and Austria and number two in the UK. The song is named after the 19th century Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin, and it tells mythical, likely apocryphal stories of his healing powers and romantic power prowess, including romancing the Russian Tsarina. Its tempo suggests a Russian prizyadka or squat dance cadence. If you've danced to it on Just Dance 2, all the moves you were imitating were watered down Slavic folk dances and its rhythm guitar hook is even played on balalaikas. This despite the fact that no actual Russians were invited involved in its creation. Credited to the Eurodisco group Bony M, Rasputin was written by two Germans and an Austrian and its co lead vocals are by a pair of Jamaican British women. In short, virtually everything about this song is kind of phony and pretty irresistible, which makes Rasputin a metaphor for the entire career of its creator, German singer, songwriter, producer and trickster Frank Farian, the hitmaker who like a cat, seems to have nine lives. So does this song. Although Rasputin never cracked the Hot 100, just this year it was the subject of a TikTok challenge both in America and globally, and a 2021 remix by British DJ Majestic made the top 10 of Billboard's Dance & Electronic Songs chart and its global ex US chart. So that's more royalties flowing in the direction of Frank Farian even into the 2000 and twenties. If you've ever heard some version of the milli Vanilli story, for example, infamously they were the subject of the first ever episode of VH1's Tell all biography series behind the Music way back in 1997. You might think the mastermind behind pop music's most famous fraud would have been run out of the music business, tarred and feathered. Quite the contrary. Frank Farian kept producing and co writing with dance pop acts for decades. If you put on a radio station right now that plays older dance pop from a couple of decades ago like New York's WKTU or pull up a vintage dance music mix on Spotify, there's a pretty good chance you will eventually hear a Frank Farian.
- [12:06]
Rob Pilatus
Production. La la la la la la la la la.
- [12:13]
Chris Melanfi
La. In his day, Farion was like the title character of what Makes Sammy Run, an irrepressible hustler on the make. And what made Frankie run was a hunger for hits by any means necessary, which made him a fit for.
- [12:32]
Rob Pilatus
Business. Don't Call Me.
- [12:37]
Chris Melanfi
Scarface. This is essentially the first song Frank Farian poached and turned into a hit for himself. It wouldn't be the last Al capone is a 1964 single from Jamaican ska and rocksteady pioneer cecil Bustamante Campbell, aka Prince.
- [13:01]
Rob Pilatus
Buster. Al.
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Chris Melanfi
Capone By 1967 Al Capone was a hit in England and it was heard by a young German fan of British and American pop. The man, born Franz Reuter in Kogn, Germany, had already changed his name to Frankie Farian. The then 25 year old had quit his job as a cook and was trying to release records under that name, including covers of US and UK hits. But nothing clicked for Frankie Farian until the mid-70s when he interpolated Prince Buster's hit into this song. This single was called Baby do youo Wanna Bump and this time for an artist name, Frankie Farian decided to hide the behind a made up group that he called Boney M. Now this might seem like Farian's first act of chicanery, but to be fair, rock and pop history is littered with examples of made up groups having to become real groups after a hit record. For example, in 1962 LA based trumpeter and future A and M label boss Herb Alpert, who by the way has no Latin heritage whatsoever, scored a left field top 10 hit with the Lonely Bull. He recorded the song by himself overdubbing his trumpet to resemble a full group of mariachis, and he credited the single to the authentic sounding but totally made up Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It wasn't until Alpert and his group scored multiple hits that he formed an actual Tijuana Brass, which went on to score five number one albums. Or consider this bubblegum classic. We talked about the Archies, a fictional garage rock combo based upon the famed comic book characters and their 60s Saturday morning cartoon in our Credence Clearwater Revival episode of Hit Parade. Their smash, Sugar Sugar was one of the many singles that prevented John Fogarty's band from getting past number two on the Hot 100. As a band, the Archies was composed of real life session musicians and they scored real hits on the actual Billboard charts. After Sugar Sugar became the top selling single of 1969, the Archies became a regular combo, recording several more albums and scoring a handful of additional hits. One more example, also from 1969. When songwriter and producer Paul Laka recorded Na Na hey hey, Kiss him goodbye in 1969 with a pair of his singer friends, he intended it as a throwaway B side, but the label wanted him to put it out as and A side, so Laika gave it the made up group name Steam. When Kiss Him Goodbye wound up a number one smash by the end of that year, Laika had to recruit an actual band from Bridgeport, Connecticut and rename them Steam just so they could record and tour. So yeah, releasing singles under a phony band name that later becomes an actual band was a well established if slightly shady tactic by the mid-70s when Frank Farian recorded Baby do youo Wanna Bump. After the single was a hit in Holland and Belgium, Farian turned Boney M into a real group. He recruited a troupe of West Indian vocalists, all people of color, three British women, Liz Mitchell, Marcia Barrett and Maisie Williams and Bobby Farrell, originally from Aruba. That wasn't the fishy part. What was more slippery was only two of these members, Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, actually sang on Boney M Recordings alongside Farian himself, who never appeared on stage. Farian's very Teutonic German accented vocals were were mimed by frontman Bobby Farrell and Maisie Williams, a former model, also lip synced on stage. Improbable as this Euro British Caribbean formula sounded on paper, this version of Boney M really took.
- [18:19]
Rob Pilatus
Off. I'm crazy like a fool why my Daddy.
- [18:25]
Chris Melanfi
Cool Daddy cool, the group's second single, became a hit across Europe in 1976 with 2020 hindsight if you watch Farrell in Boney M's early TV appearances Disco Dancing, maniacally encouraged by Farian to flail his limbs all about you can see the seeds of what Milli Vanilli would become More than a decade later, Daddy Cool kicked off a remarkable streak of hits for Boney M. In addition to Frank Farian's native Germany, where the group unsurprisingly scored a string of number one hits, and across continental Europe, Boney M were amazingly popular. In the United Kingdom, Frank Farian's brainchild scored nine straight UK top 10 hits, a special delight for a German man who who grew up idolizing the British charts. This epic streak included a Eurodisco cover of Bobby Hebb's soul jazz standard Sunny, which became the first Boney M single to crack the UK top three. Ma Baker, whose Mama Ma Mama hook was decades later borrowed by Lady Gaga for her hit Poker Face. Rivers of Babylon, which sold over 2 million copies in England alone and still ranks as one of the UK's seven best selling singles of all.
- [20:12]
Rob Pilatus
Time. There We Sat.
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Chris Melanfi
Down and Mary's Boy Child, which we played in our UK Christmas Number one's edition of Hit Parade. Boney M's cover of the calypso Christmas classic made famous in the 50s by Harry Belafonte, was Britain's official Christmas number one of.
- [20:39]
Rob Pilatus
1978. Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ was born on Christmas.
- [20:48]
Chris Melanfi
Day. In fact, during that UK holiday season, Mary's Boy Child sold 1.6 million copies in just four weeks. It still ranks among the three best selling holiday hits in British history, alongside Band Aid's do they Know It's Christmas and Whams Last Christmas. Yes, seriously, Boney M. They were that popular? At least they were on that side of the Atlantic. Boney M might have been just a little too exotic for US tastes. They cracked the American top 40 only once. Casey Kasem counted it.
- [21:29]
Rob Pilatus
Down. The countdown continues now with Boney M. Their first hit song was a.
- [21:33]
Chris Melanfi
Former number one song in England at.
- [21:35]
Rob Pilatus
Number 30, Rivers of.
- [21:36]
Chris Melanfi
Babylon. That first hit was also their last in the us. This American disinterest would prove ironic in retrospect when Frank Farian's other musical project took off a dozen years later. As for Boney M's British and European hit streak, it finally began to tail off as disco fizzled on the charts when Gotta Go Home just missed the top 10 in England in late 1979. Boney M's days as hitmakers were largely over. Farian did continue to produce albums and singles under the Boney M name well into the 1980s. He even let Bobby Farrell vocalize for real on a track or two. On a 1984 Boney M comeback single called Happy Song, Farrell performed an ungainly rap break which again tonally foreshadowed the sound of Milli.
- [22:56]
Rob Pilatus
Vanilli. Come on boys, we need to dance we all have a good, good chance Lay your problems on the floor Clap your hands and sing once more.
- [23:05]
Chris Melanfi
Happy Song was not a major revival for Boney M. It was only a top 10 hit in Germany. But by then Farian had already diversified his clientele. Hell, after making the acquaintance of Several members of 80s American hitmakers Toto, Varian hired three players from Toto to record with some others he borrowed from a couple of UK bands to form a short lived super group group named after himself, Frank Farian Corporation, which was shortened to Far Corporation on the LP sleeve. Far Corporation are an odd footnote in chart history. The only act ever to crack the Hot 100 with a version of the classic rock song Stairway to Heaven. Led Zeppelin famously did not issue the track and as a retail single in 1971. In 1986, FAR Corporation's version of Stairway reached a lowly number 89 on the US chart. Although it was briefly a top 10 hit in England, also a first for that song in the uk, the band only lasted one album. Around the same time Farian was also producing American singer Meatloaf. Yes, that meatloaf you will recall from our prior hit Parade episode about songwriter Jim Steinman. That Meat spent the 80s professionally estranged from his mentor. And by the way, while I am mentioning Jim Steinman, rest in peace, Jim. Meat Loaf's project with Frank Farian did nothing to reverse his fortunes during the Steinman less wilderness years. The Farian produced 1986 LP Blind Before I Stop sold poorly. It generated one single, a histrionic duet with John Parr of St. Elmo's man in Motion fame that just missed the UK top 30 and didn't make the Hot 100 at all. For fairing. Even as the 80s was a fallow period hit wise, these experiments with new collaborators did eventually point him in the direction of his next breakthrough. It all started with a pair of remakes. First a cover of this old 70s British hit. And next the poaching of this mid-80s American club record, which might sound very familiar. In 1985 Boney M, still limping along with much smaller hits, recorded a remake of Dreadlock Holiday, a 1978 cod reggae hit by the white British rock band 10cc. Boney M's remake sounded like a product of its time, very 80s, and it was pretty much a flop. Because Frank Ferrari Farian would never give up on an idea. By 1987 he arranged a remix of the Dreadlock Remake and he brought in a new vocalist to add a rap to the song, Charles Shaw. One was an African American former military man who was stationed in Germany and took up session work there as a vocalist. He did the rap on the Dreadlock Holiday remix, and Frank Farian liked the sound of the American's voice. Around this time, a pair of German DJs, professional acquaintances of Frank's, who would tip him off to hot club records, passed Farian a copy of this American import 12 inch single. To Farian, it sounded like a smash in the making. Newmarks was a Baltimore DJ crew who had written Girl youl Know It's True in 1986. The single was only a minor club hit for Newmarks, but it was doing relatively well in Europe, by the way. Another fun footnote among the members of Newmarks was future Def Jam label executive Kevin Lyles, the same Kevin Lyles who in the late 90s, would sign rapper DMX to Def Jam and generate all of X's big hits. And by the way, rest in peace, dmx. This is not the last time our story of Milli Vanilli, that goofy group of Eurodance pop hit purveyors, will cross paths with more legit American rap indeed. And I realize this assertion might get me in trouble with hardcore hip hop heads. Milli Vanilli played an undeniable role, however dubious, in mainstreaming rap for pop fans in the late 80s. Of course, by the time Frank Farian heard that Newmark's track rap had broken through on the charts both in the US and across Europe, thanks to Run DMC's smash 1986 remake of Aerosmith's Walk this.
- [29:57]
Rob Pilatus
Way. It wasn't me she was foolish she knew what she was doing when she told me how to walk.
- [30:01]
Chris Melanfi
This. Moreover, by 1987 and 88, hip hop sampling and turntableism were infiltrating the clubs and in turn the pop charts, as on the seminal smash by Mars. Pump up the.
- [30:22]
Rob Pilatus
Volume. Up the volume Pump up the volume Pump up the volume. Death.
- [30:26]
Chris Melanfi
Death. Additionally, some RB stars, like former New Edition member Bobby Brown, were sprinkling their new jack swing jams with frequent rap breaks. And even the harder edged, more street savvy rap was moving toward dance.
- [30:54]
Rob Pilatus
Music. So I start my mission Leave my residence thinking How Could I.
- [30:59]
Chris Melanfi
Get Paid in Full was the title track of the seminal 1987 debut album by Eric B and Rakim, the latter still considered one of the greatest MCs in rap history. Paid in Full already had an irresistible tongue tripping flow in its original version, but the track really went global when British DJ duo Cold Cut remixed Paid In Full in a now legendary 7 Minutes of Madness mix. Cold Cut's version added film dialogue as well as needle drops of James Brown, Israeli singer Ofra Haza and other cuts by Eric B and Rakim themselves. But one thing Cold Cut didn't mess with, if anything, they pumped it up was Paid In Full's irresistible beat, the legendary sample of the Soul Searchers, Ashley's Roach Clip. Cold Cut's version of Paid in Full reached number three on Billboard's Club Play chart, the biggest hit Eric B and Rakim would ever have on any Billboard chart that wasn't the Rap Songs chart. By the way, the duo's DJ Eric B reportedly hated the Cold Cut remix. Rakim, the mc, loved it. In addition to its hit status in US clubs, the Cold Cut remix of Paid in Full was also a chart smash in England, Germany and about a dozen other countries. So it wasn't a big leap for Frank Farian to hear that Newmarks club track I'm In Love Girl. And for him to go into the studio with an array of his favorite session musicians, throw the Ashley's Roach Clip beat on top of it and turn it into this. Farian had transformed Girl youl Know it's True, from catchy to catnip. But the crew he'd assembled to record the ditty, including rapper Charles Shaw and session singers John Davis and Brad Howe, all of them approaching middle age, didn't strike Farian as hip enough to be the image of his new rap pop project. That's when Farian decided he could do with this track what he'd already done with Boney M and Bobby Farrell more than a decade before he had the song. It was recorded and already in the can. He just needed the faces. And Farian had just met two young guys with pretty faces who could be his new Bobby Ferrells. He said, look, we have a problem here. We spent money on the single already, you.
- [34:09]
Rob Pilatus
Know. So basically he said he needed an act. Since I'm an actor, an entertainer, a model, he needed an act who poses as a.
- [34:20]
Chris Melanfi
Singer. German born Robert Pilatus and French born Fabrice Morvan AKA Rob and Fabric, were models and dancers who had met in Munich in 1988 and bonded over their shared status as people of color in the German club scene and their desire for fame. That eagerness led Rob and Fab to sign what they later called a devil's pact with Frank Farian to be the faces of Milli Vanilli. Now the story of Rob and Fapper both the hilarity and the tragedy has been told and retold. Most versions of the Milli Vanilli story focus on this Rob and Fab's naive entry into a deal with Frank Farian and the toll Milli Vanilli's boom and bust took on them. This indeed is why Milli Vanilli was the topic of that first behind the Music, a classic tale about the price of fame and including elements of sex and drugs. This is all very compelling, I'm not going to pretend it's not, but I won't focus much on these aspects of the story. We'll link on the show page to the BTM episode, which does an exhaustive, frankly exhausting job telling Rob and Fab's story. We at Hit Parade have our own behind the Music story to tell, not only about the music itself, but but about how it became such a massive hit, even despite Frank Farian's subterfuge and Rob and Fab's play acting. However scant. Rob and Fab did have some musical experience. Both had tried session work and Pilatus had even backed up a song that in one very high profile arena had been a massive success. Germany's 1987 entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, a track by the band Wind called Forgive my terrible German, Las de son in dein Hertz or Let the sun into your heart. You can even see Rob Pilatus singing in at least one version of the Wind performance video. The song placed second in Eurovision 87, making Germany that year's runner up behind Ireland. Maybe Rob was hired by Wind for the same reason Frank Farian later hired him his good looks. It probably wasn't his singing voice. Most accounts of Milli Vanilli claim that between the two young men, Fabrice Morvan had the greater musical talent and virtually all accounts agree, neither Rob nor Fabric had much musical skill when they auditioned for Farian. But like Bobby Farrell Miming Farian's Bony M vocals back in 1976, Rob and Fab looked convincing and striking. Did they look like rappers or even R and B singers? Hardly. But they were the right combination of pretty, athletic, exotic and and energetic to carry off Milli Vanilli and speaking of energetic that name. There are multiple stories about where Milli Vanilli came from. The most repeated story originally claimed in the act's publicity materials was that Mili Vanilli means positive energy in Turkish. Total hogwash. But there have been so many other folk etymologies for Milli Vanilli. A defunct disco in Berlin, a riff on the pop band Screedy Politi, a nickname Frank Farian gave his office assistant. I tend to think that last one might be the right one. Wherever the name came from, it was catchy and didn't pretend to be hard edged. Milli Vanilla Millie was going to be a pure delivery system for hip hop era musical hooks. In the video that catapulted Milli Vanilli to fame, Rob and Fab, dressed in big jackets, biker shorts and boots, play their parts expertly, striking poses, running in place and swinging their dreadlocks, a move that looked really cool in slow mo. A band mimes along behind them, including a drummer just barely approximating the Ashley's roach clip sample. Fab takes the harder vocal part, lip dubbing Charles Shaw's rapid fire rap, and Rob sings the Davis and Howe melodies when he's not leaping, kicking or executing a split. Probably most important, the duo give meaningful stares to the camera when singing I love you. It was silly, but not much sillier than most of what was on MTV at the time, Given Frank Farian's track record in Europe and the minor success of the original Newmark's 12 inch in European clubs. Milli Vanilli's version of Girl youl Know It's True broke in Europe first in 1988. It was number one in Germany for six weeks in August and September of that year. The track was slower to break in England, where Boney M did so well in the 70s, but before the end of the year, Girl had risen to number three on the UK charts. A full Milli Vanilli album titled all or Nothing was released in November on the German label Hansa. In the uk, an acid house label Cool Tempo picked up the album for distribution. All Or Nothing was filled with tracks that emulated the sound of the smash first single. This is around when America started to take notice. Clive Davis was having a good late 80s. Arista Records, the label Davis had founded in the mid-70s, was commanding the American hit parade with a spate of danceable diva pop from the likes of Taylor, Dane, Expose and of course Clive's flagship artist, Whitney Houston. The line on Clive Davis has always been that the man has ears. He can hear hear a hit. And even with his limited knowledge of either rap or Eurodance music, Davis could tell Girl, you Know It's True was a smash. His team signed Frank Farian's project to an American distribution deal. But being the hands on executive he is, Davis insisted the American version of Milli Vanilli's album would swap out some tracks, so long as Davis wouldn't send any of his Arista executives out to Germany to watch Frank Farian work. Frank, desperate to keep his Milli Vanilli secret, readily.
- [42:15]
Rob Pilatus
Agreed. It's your thing, do what you wanna.
- [42:19]
Chris Melanfi
Do. For example, Davis proposed that Milli Vanilli record an R B classic Americans would know well The Isley Brothers 1969 hit it's yous Thing. Farian's team gladly obliged. Davis also passed Team Farion, a song he had been given by Diane Warren, a superstar American songwriter who'd already generated multiple chart topping hits. Warren was herself a on a hot streak, having scored number ones just in the last two years for rebooted 60s band Starship. And rebooted 70s hitmakers.
- [43:16]
Rob Pilatus
Chicago. In my eyes. Look away baby, look.
- [43:25]
Chris Melanfi
Away. The American version of the Milli Vanilli album would be titled after its lead single, Girl, you KNOW It's True. And that single on Arista made its debut on the Hot 100 the first week of January 1989. It was a good time to drop a track that leaned in the general direction of American rap. Rising on the charts at that very moment was west coast rapper Tone Loke with his horny smash Wild Thing, which one month later would peak on the chart at number two. Like Wild Thing, Girl, you KNOW It's True would help make rap palatable to middle America. The Milli Vanilli single opened at number 83 on the Hot 100 and rose steadily for the next two months, cracking the top 10 in its 10th week. The top five a week later. Finally, in early April, Girl youl Know It's True topped out at number two, the same peak Tone Loke had reached two months earlier. And Milli Vanilli might have gone all the way if they hadn't been sandwiched between a chart topping ballad by the Bangles do you feel.
- [44:58]
Rob Pilatus
A.
- [45:02]
Chris Melanfi
Dreaming? And at number three, a a rising hit by Swedish pop duo Roxette, which would leap to number one the following week, blocking Milli Vanilli. So yeah, early 1989 was not the edgiest time on the pop charts. And of course, Girl Union Know It's True wasn't edgy either. But here was the remarkable thing. One month before it peaked, Billboard launched its first ever Hot Rap Singles chart based on sales reports from retailers of their top selling rap singles. And guess what appeared on Hot Rap Singles in its very first week, sandwiched between Kid N Play at number four, Everybody Sing. And rob bass and dj ez rock at number six. Yep, you guessed it, Milli Vanilla. So okay, maybe record retailers weren't sure what to call this dance pop single with rapping on it in March of 1989. But the panel of stores reporting to Billboard's new rap chart included black owned retailers who also contributed to the magazine's R and B chart, where, by the way, Milli Vanilli were also charting that week, peaking at number three between top five hits by Lavert and Anita Baker, Girl you Know It's True was a legit crossover smash. The Girl youl Know It's True album debuted on the charts in late March of 89. Within a month it had soared into the top 20 and gone gold to take it to platinum. Arista Records didn't mess around. They dropped a second single that was a near carbon copy of the first one. Baby Don't Forget My Number used the exact same Ashley's roach clip beat on the chorus as Girl youl Know It's True. It had the same rapped verses and sung chorus formula as the prior hit, and its melody was like girls gone, even poppy. Baby Don't Forget My Number flew into the top 10 on both the R B and pop charts in just two months. With a second hit now all over the radio, the Girl youl Know It's True album rose into the top 10 and went platinum. And for the week ending July 1, Milli Vanilli had their first chart topper in America as Baby Don't Forget My Number went the distance on the Hot 100. Having scored their first number one, Clive Davis team at Aristo wanted to see if Millie Vanilli could survive a sonic change up a ballad. This was a typical move for a pop act, leading off with an uptempo cut or two and then downshifting. The summer of 89 in particular was awash in ballads, with syrupy number ones by everyone from New Kids on the Block. To richard marks. Frank Farian's team had indeed written a Milli Vanilli ballad with the rather obvious title I'm gonna miss you, but they hadn't tried it as a single anywhere in the world yet. The American label went for it and to doubly ensure its success when they issued it as a single. They put Milli Vanilli's favorite word in front of the title. Girl, I'm gonna miss you. Featuring yet another video starring Rob and Fabric, this time shot in black and white in tight muscle T shirts. Brooding at the camera, Girl I'm Gonna Miss you was an easy smash. It was the Hot 100's highest new entry the first week of August and it rose quickly. Milli Vanilli were now a known quantity to radio programmers. By mid September, Milli Vanilli had its second straight number one and third straight top two hit. Something odd had now happened to Milli Vanilli. They were officially more successful in America than anywhere else in the world. Call it the magic touch of Clive Davis promotion machine, but the group hadn't scored a second number one anyplace else. Moreover, the same week, Girl, I'm gonna miss you rose to number one on the Hot 100. The Girl youl Know It's True album also reached number one on the album chart. That was better than the all or Nothing album had done anywhere in Europe. Milli Vanilli started receiving superstar level opportunities before the summer was over. The they had been invited out on the road by mtv, the channel's dance music show. Club MTV was launching its first package tour. Among the acts on the bill were rapper Tone.
- [51:23]
Rob Pilatus
Loke. Before, he was much, much meaner. But now all the foolish runs at my house for the Funky coma.
- [51:29]
Chris Melanfi
Data St. Paul, Minnesota Technopop act information.
- [51:34]
Rob Pilatus
Society. I wanna know what you're feeling Tell me what's on your.
- [51:42]
Chris Melanfi
Mind. And Paula Abdul, one of the biggest new pop acts of the year and the only artist scoring as many number ones that year as Milli.
- [51:52]
Rob Pilatus
Vanilla. He's a cold hearted slave girl look into his eyes he's been telling.
- [52:00]
Chris Melanfi
Lies Rob and Fab had broken into the big time. They loved their superstar status, arriving in limos, partying with scores of women, making fans scream. The Club MTV tour should have been a high point. Unfortunately, it was also the place where this now infamous incident happened. When we come back, the jig is almost up for Rob Pilatus, Fabrice Morvan and Frank Farian's long con. But Milli Vanilli weren't through scoring hits or winning prizes they shouldn't have. Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in less than two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Asha Solution and we also had help from Rosemary Belson, June Thomas is the senior managing producer and Gabriel Roth, the editorial director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening, and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in just a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris.