https://ricsize.com/tag/clive-davis/.
Day 7 of 10 on musical illusions I ignored. Here’s a straight-forward music question: Who were the Beatles? Obviously it’s John, Paul, George & Ringo, produced by George Martin. Fast-forward 20 years to an era of MTV & MIDI, and here’s a deceptive & complex question: Who is Milli Vanilli? Back then I didn’t care about Fab Morvan & Rob Pilatus, because I loved the Pixies, so I thought this Munich pop/R&B act was tame.
In the months after Milli Vanilli’s now infamous 1990 Grammy performance, after winning Best New Artist, their lip-syncing scandal broke, and this act was declared a hoax. Fans disowned their Milli Vanilli records when it was reported that all their hits had actually been sung by three no-names: Charles Shaw, Brad Howell & Charles Davis. So who is Milli Vanilli?
This becomes a murky question, so we need more background to answer it. Arista Records CEO Clive Davis, responded to the scandal by dumping the frontmen, Fab & Rob, while deleting Milli Vanilli’s entire album & song catalog, which had been worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Arista even offered fans a refund on their album purchase, with a return, something no one ever heard of– before or since.
This was a conscious attempt by industry mogul Clive Davis at damage control, as pop performers were being criticized, especially by grunge punks, for lip-syncing their “live” performances. Madonna, Janet Jackson & Paula Abdul (to name just a few) all used MIDI backing vocal tracks to boost their live performances, and allow them to dance more. My reaction to all this at the time was, “If their fans are too stupid to not be aware of this, then they deserve to be ripped off.” I still feel the same way.
So who is Milli Vanilla? Frank Farian was a German songwriter & producer, and the brainchild of Milli Vanilli. Farian had done this type of band image manipulation, a decade earlier with “Daddy Cool” by Boney M, an American disco & Euro-pop hit in 1976. It has over 154 million views on YouTube, so it’s not unknown or forgotten. Boney M was presented as a young, black Caribbean soul group; but really it’s fat, white Frank Farian singing & putting it all together in the studio with session players. Then he hired the people you see in this video to act as the band. This technique has been ‘standard practice’ in Euro-pop since its inception in the late 1970’s.
Anyways, Frank Fabian did this with Milli Vanilli from 1987-90. The real tragedy was that two naive kids, who were models & could break dance, but barely spoke English, were manipulated into being frontmen for a huge musical hoax, which made both Frank Fabian & Clive Davis millions. But none of these Milli Vanilli facts or events are documented in Clive Davis: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives (2017). This ‘documentary’ spends about 30 seconds on Milli Vanilli, and interviews none of the principals.
Clive Davis, who is portrayed throughout the film as having the “magic ear” for spotting talent & always doing his homework, claims he didn’t know Milli Vanilli was a lip-synced act. Anyone can now see that this Clive Davis propaganda piece (available on Netflix) was made to get him & Whitney Houston into the R&R HoF, and it worked, as both are 2020 inductees. When magic like this happens to artists under Davis’ wing, they’re supposed to look into the nearest camera, and in a full-throated voice ejaculate, “Thank you, Clive!!” Call it a nod of respect to the Black Hand.
In many ways, Frank Fabian & Clive Davis were Milli Vanilli. They are the version of this act which I despise most. Today, Fab Morvan & Rob Pilatus are rightfully seen as victims of the industry. Rob Pilatus couldn’t handle the shame of it all, and died of an alcohol & prescription pill overdose at age 32 in 1998. Fab Morvan cleaned himself up, learned English, took singing lessons, and figured his way around a music studio & live stage.
I’ve had to do a lot of research for this list, and much of it has been tedious & draining. I’ve dug into the lives of performers & their associates, many of whom I really didn’t have much interest in, all to figure out the truth, as best I could. But there have been moments of joy & rapture. Patrick Bet-David’s Untold Stories of Milli Vanilli is a very revealing interview with Fab Morvan, posted two months ago, which answers a lot of questions that had lingered, so I highly recommend it. Also, see this linked video above from November, 2018, which brought tears to my eyes. Fab Morvan always wanted to be a singer, and he finally proves he can do it. That is the Milli Vanilli I can respect.
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