Remember Milli Vanilli?
Milli Vanilli was a pop and rap music group formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988, fronted by the duo of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group’s debut album, Girl You Know It’s True, achieved high sales internationally which earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990. The group went on to sell more than 30 million singles, 14 million albums and become one of the most popular pop groups in the late 80′s and early 90′s.
Then it happened. A skipping record at a concert, combined with demands to actually sing on their next album, eventually led to the demise of Milli Vanilli. The man who took them from a couple of homeless brothers, and handcuffed them to a fraudulent contract, decided to save his butt and place all the blame on Fab and Rob. They were immediately black-balled from the entire entertainment industry, and as a result Rob went into a deep depression and eventually died of a mixture of drugs and alcohol in 1998.
It’s an extremely sad story, and one that has perplexed me since I played that album on repeat for a straight year. Who in the world cares who sang and/or produced that album? If it was so off the hook, why couldn’t the real people behind the magic produce more? Are we so into looks and image that it just couldn’t work with some nerds with great voices? Did we have to have great looking front men that can dance great to make it a hit? If that’s the case, we live in a really sad world.
I for one still love this album. Enjoy this little diddy—once my all time favorite song. Gotta love that bass drop there in the beginning!
Blame It On The Rain — Milli Vanilli
Read more about their story here, here, and here.
Filed under: 80's, Image, Marketing, Milli Vanilli, Music
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