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He was the “Daddy Cool” of pop music: The German pop music producer and former pop singer Frank Farian has died at the age of 82.
Frank Farian was the founder and producer of bands like Milli Vanilli and Boney M. and experienced the ups and downs of the music industry first hand. He has now died at the age of 82 at home in his adopted home of Miami. This was announced by the Allendorf Media agency, citing his family.
Farian created danceable world hits like on an assembly line – and has been producing pop hits like “Daddy Cool” and “Rasputin” since the 1970s. The success surprised him, as he once said in an interview: “I always thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. It didn’t look like it at first.”
The man in the background
He was born as Franz Reuther on July 18, 1941 in Kirn an der Nahe. As Frank Farian, his name was synonymous with international success in the music business. Since he made teenagers cry with his sad hit “Rocky” in the mid-1970s, he hardly ever performed himself – that was “over at some point”.
His mega success began as a man in the background, as a producer. For example with the group Boney M. Farian sang the first song “Baby Do You Wanna Bump” (1975) himself.
Because he couldn’t perform the polyphonic song solo on stage, he looked for a band to present the song. Two members sang live, two more moved their lips. With success: hits like “Rivers of Babylon” and “Ma Baker” are pop history.
Scandal mit Milli Vanilli
A similar project followed with Milli Vanilli – but it became a scandal in the music business. The disco hit “Girl You Know It’s True” by childhood friends Robert “Rob” Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan sold more than 30 million copies worldwide at the end of the 1980s.
The first Milli Vanilli album was certified six times platinum in the USA in 1989, and the Munich duo won a Grammy for best new artist.
It later became known that the two had not actually sung themselves, but had moved their lips to the voices of professional singers. The case is still considered one of the biggest fraud scandals in music history. A film by director Simon Verhoeven tells the story currently in cinemas.
He started out as a chef
Farian was not born with success with bands like Eruption and No Mercy. He never knew his father; he died in the war before he was born. «My mother was my personal rubbish woman. She cleared all the obstacles and made everything possible for me, even though we had no money.”
Legend: Frank Farian (middle) with members of the band Boney M. at a performance in Dortmund in 1985. Keystone/AP/Karl-Heinz Kreifelts
At 14, young Franz moved to live with relatives in Saarland and learned to be a chef. The musical beginnings were humble. At a family evening, the priest gave him a penny because he had sung “The Moon Has Risen” so beautifully – “my first fee”.
Farian recorded his first record with his band “Die Schatten” in 1963 in a former stable. “There was a microphone and a tape recorder in the middle.”
From Saarland to Miami
He later moved to Miami – and with Boney M. to concerts around the world. Farian won gold records and celebrated chart successes – but Farian once emphasized that he was unable to decipher the secret of his great success.
When he mixed a song, he thought about his time as a chef. «It’s always about the ingredients. You can say you become a musician, but a lot of it is luck. Success cannot be planned.”