Frank Farian
Encyclopedia
Frank Farian is a German
record producer
and songwriter
. He started out as a trained cook before moving into the music industry. His musical productions have won more than 800 gold and platinum records.
or lead vocalist in place or, in tandem with, the male performers in the groups that he produces. Starting out, Farian wanted to become a solo artist, but was unable to attain success. He wanted to write, produce and sing R&B styled music. When his song "Baby Do You Wanna Bump
" (a remake of Prince Buster
's song Al Capone from 1967), published under the pseudonym Boney M., became successful, Farian hired performers to 'front' for performances on television
. The lead vocals for songs on Boney M. albums were sung by Farian, Marcia Barrett
and Liz Mitchell
, who quickly became synonymous with the group. Boney M.'s frontman, Bobby Farrell
, was only allowed to record vocals in the 1980s (although all four members of the group did sing live for all their concert tours). Bobby Farrell was fired from the group in 1981.
Farian also started the supergroup Far Corporation
(named after the first syllable of his last name), which featured Steve Lukather
, David Paich
, Bobby Kimball
, Simon Phillips
and Robin McAuley
, many of Toto
fame. Far Corporation is notable for being the first act to chart
with a cover version
of Led Zeppelin
's "Stairway to Heaven
", barely making the charts in the US
, but becoming a Top 10 hit
in the UK
, reaching number 8 in October 1985.
In 1986, Farian produced and mixed the Meat Loaf
album, Blind Before I Stop
. He also sang backing vocals on the first single from the album, "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries
", which was credited to Meat Loaf featuring John Parr
.
In 1990, he admitted orchestrating the events which led to the Milli Vanilli
scandal, a musical equivalent of ghostwriting
. As a producer, he had assembled a group from German session musician
s, fronting it with two visually attractive dancers. The story broke when Farian confirmed to the press that someone else had sung on the records
.
Some other groups that Farian has been involved with are Eruption
(he became a manager in 1977) and No Mercy
. Following the Milli Vanilli controversy, Farian went on to develop similar Eurodance
groups La Bouche
and Le Click
.
On the 15 August 2006, the musical
Daddy Cool
opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre
in London's West End
. The line-up included Michelle Collins
, Michael Harvey, Javine Hylton
and singer/songwriter Darvina Plante. The £3 million show was produced by Farian and Robert Mackintosh. The story, written by Stephen Plaice with Amani Naphtali, is predominantly based on the songs of Boney M., but also features songs by Milli Vanilli and No Mercy. A second show opened on 23 April 2007 in Berlin, Germany. Tour in Holland and Belgium (September 2011 - January 2012).
Also in 2006, Farian was credited as co-writing a new song, entitled "Doin' Fine", with British producers, Nathan Thomas
and Carl M. Cox. (Other writers involved in this song were, Chris Rudall, Baz Qureshi, Peter Wilson, Chris Richards and George Reyam). Described as paying tribute to the 'sound' of Boney M., the song was essentially a brand new composition, which featured the string arrangement
from Boney M.'s 1976 Number 1 hit, "Daddy Cool". The song was recorded by Australian pop singer, Peter Wilson. It was initially released in the UK in its extended format, entitled "Daddy's Cool 12" Mix", on 16 April 2007 on the album, Mad About the Boy, where it charted at Number 1 on Euro Dance Hits, EuroNRG Top 40 in May 2007. The original version of "Doin' Fine" featured on Peter Wilson's debut album, Follow Me, which was released in the UK on 8 October 2007. The song was also recorded in 2008 by Amanda Lear
.
Other projects: Les Falcons, Benny
, Gilla
, La Mama
, Precious Wilson
, Chilli, Gift
, Daniel Lopes
, Daddy Cool Kids, Norissa, ZZ Queen etc.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. He started out as a trained cook before moving into the music industry. His musical productions have won more than 800 gold and platinum records.
Biography
His trademark is that he commonly inserts himself as a backingBacking vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
or lead vocalist in place or, in tandem with, the male performers in the groups that he produces. Starting out, Farian wanted to become a solo artist, but was unable to attain success. He wanted to write, produce and sing R&B styled music. When his song "Baby Do You Wanna Bump
Baby Do You Wanna Bump
"Baby Do You Wanna Bump" is a song recorded by German record producer Frank Farian under the name Boney M. and included on the 1976 album Take The Heat Off Me. It was the first Boney M. single and a minor hit in the Netherlands and Belgium, which prompted Farian to create a proper group to promote...
" (a remake of Prince Buster
Prince Buster
Cecil Bustamente Campbell, O.D. , better known as Prince Buster, and also known by his Muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music...
's song Al Capone from 1967), published under the pseudonym Boney M., became successful, Farian hired performers to 'front' for performances on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. The lead vocals for songs on Boney M. albums were sung by Farian, Marcia Barrett
Marcia Barrett
Marcia Barrett , is one of the original singers with the vocal group, Boney M.-The early years:...
and Liz Mitchell
Liz Mitchell
Liz Mitchell is a singer, best known as the former lead singer of the 1970s disco/pop band, Boney M.-Early life:...
, who quickly became synonymous with the group. Boney M.'s frontman, Bobby Farrell
Bobby Farrell
Roberto "Bobby" Alfonso Farrell was an Aruban dancer and performer, best known as the male member of the successful 1970s pop and disco group Boney M.-Early years:...
, was only allowed to record vocals in the 1980s (although all four members of the group did sing live for all their concert tours). Bobby Farrell was fired from the group in 1981.
Farian also started the supergroup Far Corporation
Far Corporation
Far Corporation is a band created by record producer Frank Farian, who created the bands Boney M. and Milli Vanilli. The name was shortened from "Frank Farian Corporation", which was originally put together to record a cover of the Paul Simon piece "Mother and Child Reunion" as a charity record and...
(named after the first syllable of his last name), which featured Steve Lukather
Steve Lukather
Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...
, David Paich
David Paich
David Frank Paich is a session musician, keyboard player, recording producer, arranger, vocalist and main composer of the Los Angeles-based rock/pop band Toto. David is the son of the late jazz composer, musician, and arranger Marty Paich...
, Bobby Kimball
Bobby Kimball
Robert Troy "Bobby" Kimball is an American singer, best known as the longtime frontman of the rock band Toto.- Early life:...
, Simon Phillips
Simon Phillips
Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.-Career:Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...
and Robin McAuley
Robin McAuley
Robin McAuley is an Irish rock vocalist known mostly for his work in McAuley Schenker Group and before that Grand Prix recording 2 albums...
, many of Toto
Toto (band)
Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
fame. Far Corporation is notable for being the first act to chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
with a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's "Stairway to Heaven
Stairway to Heaven
"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band's untitled fourth studio album . The song, running eight minutes and two seconds, is composed of several sections, which...
", barely making the charts in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but becoming a Top 10 hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
in the UK
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, reaching number 8 in October 1985.
In 1986, Farian produced and mixed the Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
album, Blind Before I Stop
Blind Before I Stop
Blind Before I Stop is a 1986 album by Meat Loaf. The album was produced in Germany by Frank Farian and was the first to fully embrace the 80's sound. Critics were concerned about the album missing the characteristic Steinman-influenced sound by incorporating synth chords and samples...
. He also sang backing vocals on the first single from the album, "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries
Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries
"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" is a single by Meat Loaf and John Parr released in 1986. It is from the album Blind Before I Stop.- Charts :...
", which was credited to Meat Loaf featuring John Parr
John Parr
John Parr is an English musician, best known for his 1985 US #1 hit single "St. Elmo's Fire". Parr has sold 10 million albums worldwide.-Biography:...
.
In 1990, he admitted orchestrating the events which led to the Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli was a pop/dance music project formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988, visually fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group's debut album achieved international success and earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on Feb. 21, 1990. Milli Vanilli became one of the most...
scandal, a musical equivalent of ghostwriting
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
. As a producer, he had assembled a group from German session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s, fronting it with two visually attractive dancers. The story broke when Farian confirmed to the press that someone else had sung on the records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
.
Some other groups that Farian has been involved with are Eruption
Eruption (band)
Eruption was a popular disco / R&B / Soul band in the 1970s and 1980s.-History:Silent Eruption was formed in 1974 in Britain. In 1975 they won the RCA Soul Search Contest, whilst their first single "Let Me Take You Back in Time" was released in 1976...
(he became a manager in 1977) and No Mercy
No Mercy (band)
No Mercy is an American pop and dance music group formed by Frank Farian in Florida in 1995, consisting of Marty Cintron , and twin brothers, Ariel and Gabriel Hernández , from Miami, Florida.-Career:In 1996, No Mercy released their debut album titled No Mercy, later re-released in Europe retitled My...
. Following the Milli Vanilli controversy, Farian went on to develop similar Eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
groups La Bouche
La Bouche
La Bouche was a Eurodance/Dance-pop duo formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1994, originally consisting of Melanie Thornton and Lane McCray, scoring two major worldwide hits in the mid-1990s with "Be My Lover" and "Sweet Dreams"....
and Le Click
Le Click
Le Click was a Eurodance duo created in Germany by the record producer, Frank Farian. Le Click consisted of Swedish singer Kayo Shekoni and rapper/singer Robert Haynes. In the UK, Le Click are considered to be one-hit wonders.-Career:Le Click's U.S...
.
On the 15 August 2006, the musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Daddy Cool
Daddy Cool (musical)
Daddy Cool is a musical based upon the works of Boney M and other Frank Farian produced artists. It premiered in the West End in 2006, followed by UK and international tours.The musical tells the story of Sunny, a young man who lives for his music...
opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
in London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. The line-up included Michelle Collins
Michelle Collins
Michelle Danielle Collins is a British actress best known for her roles on television in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, as Cindy Beale, Coronation Street as Stella Price, and BBC dramas Sunburn and Two Thousand Acres of Sky...
, Michael Harvey, Javine Hylton
Javine Hylton
Javine Dionne Hylton , often known simply as Javine, is an English singer. She is most notable for representing the UK at Eurovision Song Contest 2005; beating competition favourite, model Katie Price, for the ticket to Kiev...
and singer/songwriter Darvina Plante. The £3 million show was produced by Farian and Robert Mackintosh. The story, written by Stephen Plaice with Amani Naphtali, is predominantly based on the songs of Boney M., but also features songs by Milli Vanilli and No Mercy. A second show opened on 23 April 2007 in Berlin, Germany. Tour in Holland and Belgium (September 2011 - January 2012).
Also in 2006, Farian was credited as co-writing a new song, entitled "Doin' Fine", with British producers, Nathan Thomas
Nathan Thomas
Nathan Thomas is a Welsh international rugby union footballer who plays in the back row.Thomas has played for various clubs during his career, including Bridgend, Bath, Cardiff Blues, Leeds Tykes, the Scarlets and Neath.In November 2009 he joined Gloucester on a short term loan deal, but he did...
and Carl M. Cox. (Other writers involved in this song were, Chris Rudall, Baz Qureshi, Peter Wilson, Chris Richards and George Reyam). Described as paying tribute to the 'sound' of Boney M., the song was essentially a brand new composition, which featured the string arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
from Boney M.'s 1976 Number 1 hit, "Daddy Cool". The song was recorded by Australian pop singer, Peter Wilson. It was initially released in the UK in its extended format, entitled "Daddy's Cool 12" Mix", on 16 April 2007 on the album, Mad About the Boy, where it charted at Number 1 on Euro Dance Hits, EuroNRG Top 40 in May 2007. The original version of "Doin' Fine" featured on Peter Wilson's debut album, Follow Me, which was released in the UK on 8 October 2007. The song was also recorded in 2008 by Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist....
.
Other projects: Les Falcons, Benny
Benny Benassi
Marco Benassi , better known as Benny Benassi, is a Grammy Award winning Italian disc jockey and record producer of electro house music. He is best known for his 2002 summer club hit "Satisfaction"...
, Gilla
Gilla
Gilla is an Austrian singer from the late 1970s disco era.-History:Gilla was discovered by German producer Frank Farian who got her signed to Hansa Records in 1974...
, La Mama
La Mama (band)
La Mama is a German pop and disco trio who worked in Frank Farian's studios in the first half of the 1980s. Adapting their name from New York theatre La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, they released three singles and two albums and worked as backing singers on a number of recordings for other...
, Precious Wilson
Precious Wilson
Precious Wilson is a soul singer.-Background:Wilson started out as a backing singer for the all-male group Eruption. The group enjoyed a minor hit when they won a talent competition in 1975 with the song "Let Me Take You Back in Time"...
, Chilli, Gift
Gift
A gift or a present is the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may contribute to...
, Daniel Lopes
Daniel Lopes
Daniel Lopes was a contestant on the first season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar. Lopes was born in Brazil and adopted by his German stepfather. During the show, he dated fellow contestant Juliette Schoppmann. They have since broken up.Lopes was eliminated on 11 January 2003, and ended 7th on...
, Daddy Cool Kids, Norissa, ZZ Queen etc.