Eldergays - Tell Us About Milli Vanilli

Loved their music! The whole lawsuit and ultimate “refund” were ridiculous.

I recall you had to send in part of the cassette or record cover art and you’d get $3 back, I think.

Now with everyone auto-tuning, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

They were straight, but very feminine. Regardless of who the actual singers were on those songs, they were great pop songs for 1989/1990. My favorites were Blame It On The Rain, Don't Forget My Number, and Take It As It Comes.

I was only like 3 when they were around but I remember Blame It On The Rain and Girl You Know It’s True still to this day.

I feel bad for them. Their album was great.

They sucked. They sucked before everyone found out that they didn't sing on their records. They said they were more talented than Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger. They were popular, even though they sucked, but this was a time when Stock, Aitken, and Waterman creations ruled the charts.

They prevented Neneh Cherry winning Best New Artist, when really they were just German Models, admittedly who were manipulated by a producer, but the music, regardless of who actually sang it, really fucking sucked.

R4 First of all, their music wasn't produced by Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. Second, their music was Mozart compared to the horseshit that's released to day.

R2 The vote is not in as to them actually being straight. One of them, sadly enough, committed suicide.

R5 I didn't say it was produced by SAW

,,,,

I hated them. The music was shit. I never got why they were even popular. Then when the whole thing came out I was like OHHHHH.

Oh my goodness !!! I remember the scandal those colored twins caused !!!!

R8 "In Living Color" made fun of EVERYONE - Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cher, Sally Struthers - the list goes on.

R4, Neneh Cherry had a grand total of one hit song. Milli Vanilli had 4 or 5. They deserved the Best New Artist Grammy

The category is Best New Artist, not New Artist With the Most Hits. Hits can come off an assembly line. Neneh Cherry was actually talented.

R13 Ask people if they remember Milli Vanilli and then ask if they remember Neneh Cherry, and I would guess that the majority of the people would remember Milli Vanilli but would say "Who?" about Neneh.

They were great. They were just plain fun.

Rob Pilatus, the guy on the right, committed suicide in 1998, he was 33 years old. German music tycoon Frank Farian destroyed these guys.

Struggle In the years following the downfall of Milli Vanilli, Pilatus struggled with substance abuse and suicide attempts as a result of not being able to cope with the negative media attention that followed and the impact this also had on his adoptive family. After the duo attempted a comeback, Morvan and Pilatus spent time apart. In 1996, Pilatus derailed and served three months in prison for assault, vandalism and attempted robbery. Farian paid for Pilatus to spend six months in drug rehabilitation, before returning to Germany from the United States.

Death On 3 April 1998, on the eve of a promotional tour for a new completed Milli Vanilli album entitled Back and in Attack featuring Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan on lead vocals, Pilatus was found dead at the age of 32 from a suspected alcohol and prescription pill overdose in "Kent's Cube" in Friedrichsdorf, near Frankfurt. Rob Pilatus' sudden death, although suspicious, was ruled accidental, and the final Milli Vanilli album, featuring their own vocals (which may have led to a possible public redemption), has never been released.

He was survived by his son John[21] and his sister Carmen.

Pilatus is buried in the Waldfriedhof in Munich.

Most pop fans liked their songs. They had 4 major Top 10 hits in a row.

Each hit got tons of radio airplay, and the hits never seemed to get stale so they were played constantly. They'd pop up on the Tonight Show, Arsenio, or Soul Train every few weeks singing their latest. But they would never (or rarely) sit down for an interview or give press.

"Blame it on the Rain" (written by Diane Warren) was my favorite.

Frank Farian, the producer and driving force to use the Milli Vanilli models for the stage while others sang their songs, was also the producer and the male singer of Boney M (not the black guy they used for the stage).

There was something homoerotic about them. Also, there was the whiff of incest or sex between first cousins (because they were styled alike and looked possibly related).

"Blame It on the Rain" and "Girl You Know It’s True" were huge hits (and I liked those songs a lot).

The singing is so obviously by native American English speakers. How was anyone ever fooled? Milli and Vanilli were German and French, respectively, and in the beginning only spoke broken English.

Sorry, their “music” sucked. They were totally fake.

What R2 said. Their album "All or Nothing", was actually a really good slice of dance pop in 1989. In retrospect, the whole controversy was a nothingburger.

Boney M. never suffered such public condemnation. But I don't think they ever won a Grammy either.

They were part of a very peculiar interstitial era of pop music between New Wave and Grunge. We had a thread about this once; also one about a similar era, that of the Carter administration—maybe one-term presidents generate dead-end music eras. Milli Vanilli, let it be said, was at the low end of their era's offerings (even assuming they were the vocalists) along with MC Hammer and I for one was glad to see them go.

[quote] They were part of a very peculiar interstitial era of pop music between New Wave

Newsflash: New Wave was over by 1982. The music scene of the late 80s, at least in North America, was a mishmash of a lot of different things: MOR, adult contemporary, dance pop, Jam & Lewis-type RnB, hair metal, an occasional odd infatuation with random UK imports, but New Wave wasn't a part of that equation.

Who was the group that actually sang the music? What happened to them?

Brad Howell and John Davis. They released an album under the name "The Real Milli Vanilli" in Europe in 1991, but in the States, the same album was planned for release in the following year with a different singer under his own name since Farian didn't want any association with the name Milli Vanilli there. I think nothing came out of that.

R16 Rob had a 21 year old son when he died at 32???

Wasn't huge on the songs, they haven't aged well either... but 'Blame It On The Rain' is still catchy and I love the styling of the group. Box braids bring back so much nostalgia.

Frank Farian was evil for a lot of other reasons, so it's hard for me not to blame him too for this incident.

I actually feel bad for the duo themselves. They were two young club kids.. misguided, barely spoke any English, and quickly became in over their heads. Stuck in their iron-clad contracts and forced to keep up the charade even though it was clearly slipping. There was really only one way it could all go. Sadly it went downhill with a bang rather than a whimper. Rob's suicide was directly related to the public mutiny they were on the receiving end of.

The music industry has chewed up and spat out much more talented and business-savvy artists (and left them penniless), so I don't think of them as a guilty party in all of this.

Terence Trent D'Arby ("Sign Your Name," Wishing Well") came before Milli Vanilli (I think). Milli Vanilli (the look, at least) seems heavily influenced by TTD.

Nowadays they'd have been auto-tuned and probably win their Grammy all over again. Sad that Rob is no longer with us.

Everyone in the industry knew they were fake - I heard about it in Chicago from a record producer friend of mine probably at least 10 months before the Grammys - which goes to show how cynical awards bodies are. It was all known. I couldn’t believe anyone cared when it finally cane out - goes to show how dumb people are.

The great Neneh Cherry still makes and records music and is an amazing artist and performer - highly recommend if you ever get a chance to see one of her gigs. She is very much in the moment. Probably doesn’t get airplay in the States but plays very well to the rest of the world.

I was a teen when Girl You Know It's True came out and I loved it. I even bought the vinyl single. I didn't take them too seriously, they were like a male version of Mel & Kim. It was just fun pop music.

[quote]There was something homoerotic about them. Also, there was the whiff of incest or sex between first cousins (because they were styled alike and looked possibly related).

That's quite a stretch you make there about them looking like cousins. I did find the guy who killed himself super pretty but the other one didn't look like him at all. Now the homoeroticism was there partly because they wore totally ridiculous jackets with huge shoulder pads, and obviously the dreads looked more like a fashion piece than real dreads. That said I never thought they were gay because most male pop acts in the 80s seemed to use more makeup than women. Milli Vanilli actually seemed kinda butch when compared to them.

[quote]They prevented Neneh Cherry winning Best New Artist

I loved Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi and listened to it like 500 times more than I ever did to Milli Vanilli. And I totally realized her music was something more than the simple pop muzak bands like Milli Vanilli were churning out. Neneh's career going down the toilet wasn't Milli Vanilli's fault, and no one would even remember she lost some newcomer prize to them. It took her three years to release a second album and people had basically forgotten who she even is. I vaguely remember her having a kid at the time and taking a break from the industry.

When her second album was released I'd lost all interest, especially because it didn't have any hit songs. I took a look at the track listing and didn't recognize any of the names. The third album Man has her probably biggest hit ever Seven Seconds with Youssou N'Dour, and Woman which I know mostly because it played at the end of Long Kiss Goodnight. I don't remember hearing anything else from her since but apparently she's released two more albums.

I'm a huge fan of Neneh Cherry, I saw her just last year on her tour and have listened to all her albums. I always thought Manchild was even better than Buffalo Stance. But I actually don't think it was her who was 'robbed' by Milli Vanilli that year. In that category, Soul II Soul were nominated, and they had TWO huge hits that year, and unlike the other nominees there (Tone Loc, Indigo Girls, Neneh) they actually went home with other Grammys that year, not just one but two. So I think if it didn't go to MV it would have gone to them.

By the way, Neneh has since won two Grammys, including one for her jazz album, and one in 2019!! Best Electronica Album for Broken Politics. It's a great album and was raved upon release. She still does lots of high profile gigs, and the collaboration with Youssou N'dor will make her money for years to come. It still gets a tonne of radio play. Her daughter is now becoming a pop/R&B sensation in the UK.

Here's a clip of Neneh's 'Buddy X', which was written about Lenny Kravitz cheating on his wife with a young child (Zoe Kravitz) at home. The song was named because he used to check in to hotels under that alias. It was controversial at the time because she pulls her underwear off in the video and throws them at a guy.

Neneh Cherry is great but she works on her own terms and has always put her family life above anything else. She has the career she wants and she's probably quite content with that. Not much more to add to what R34 so aptly stated but her daughter Mabel is also an emerging pop star in the UK.

Interesting about the one who died . He shared the same last name as a well respected business aircraft manufacturer out of Switzerland

Does anyone remember the blind item from a few years ago about a successful female "singer" who had managed to get away with a Milli Vanilli-style fraud for years? Many people suspected Jennifer Lopez. I'm pretty sure it was fake, though. I can't imagine anyone managing to keep it a secret for that long.

Neneh Cherry was too cutting edge at the time to really have a mainstream career. And I doubt she would have even wanted one.

Milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul (who was hit with similar allegations) got a raw deal in hindsight. Ten, fifteen years later it wouldn't have mattered with the low class, hack teen pop stars that were unleashed on the public. Several of whom were also hit with allegations of not really singing on their own records.

Arsenio went to bat for Milli Vanilli by booking them on their show for their second "Can really sing" album. They got positive press, but something happened with the label financially that they were unable to produce more than a couple of thousand albums. So no one was able to go out and get the album if they wanted to. It's a sad story.

[quote]Neneh Cherry was too cutting edge at the time to really have a mainstream career.

Not really. She just lacked good enough material.

They knew what they were signing up for so fuck them, they deserved what they got. And their "music" sucked.

Sony pulled a similar stunt with one of Michael Jackson's posthumous albums.

They needed cash and were forced to make this cruel commercial.

Damn, I fucked up posting that link!

That whole controversy was the rain's faul

I thought their music sounded like shit even before the scandal broke. And their dance moves just looked silly and stupid. I couldn't believe they had so many hit singles. But then, the period of 1988-1990 was a horrible time for pop music, when a lot of truly shitty artists managed to have chart-topping hits.

"He's a Rebel" was credited to the Crystals, even though it was actually sung by the Blossoms.

And here's that commercial.

r45

Yeah it was awful

I was more of a Scritti Politti fan myself. I have no opinion of this group with a ridiculous name.

I was more of an Oingo Boingo guy.

Here's the chart from the week "Blame it On the Rain" hit #1 on Nov 25, 1989.

Radio was filled with this style of dance/pop: Paula Abdul, Janet, New Kids, Technotronic, Jody Watley, Taylor Dayne.

R51 ..and I couldn't get enough of it.

[quote] and I couldn't get enough of it.

What was getting played in gay bars/clubs back then - was everyone dancing to Janet and Madonna? Not sure I can picture gays requesting Milli in the clubs.

From that list all I would have been listening to was B52s, Cher and Jodi Whatley.

by"89 it started moving in to the techno groove beat like Technotronic and Black Box and others. It was peak dance club by early '90's!

The best dance song ever came out in 1990.

I got my first job out of high school at Walt Disney World in the spring of '89, just as Milli Vanilli's first hit, "Girl, You Know It's True" was in the top 10. They were inescapable that year, MTV -- back when they still showed videos -- showed their clips every hour, and the radio stations -- at least in Orlando -- seemingly played them every hour as well.

I remember one time, I was walking through the tunnels under the Magic Kingdom to the men's lockerroom and "Baby, Don't Forget My Number" was playing and a whole bunch of us started singing along. Good memories.

[Quote]Does anyone remember the blind item from a few years ago about a successful female "singer" who had managed to get away with a Milli Vanilli-style fraud for years? Many people suspected Jennifer Lopez.

R37, the rumor is that JLo mixes her vocals with the demo singer's, and that everyone in the industry knows this, but turns a blind eye to it. For example, they say that in "Jenny From The Block," JLo only talk-sings the verses, while leaving the bridge/chorus for the demo singer.

Hahaha r58’s video has Ben Affleck when he was hot. JLo is cheesy, but she still looks damn good. Ben is a fat fuck now.

Milli Vanilli was fun pop. I always think of them doing that side-to-side dance in their combat boots and bike shorts.

What I remember is Merv Griffen, on his talk show, bringing the scandal up, and Jackie Bisset (who I think knows all about Hollywood) saying How about that? How about that? Voices down the corridor.

R58 This video does a pretty thorough job of exposing what a fraud J.Lo is.

R61, that reminds me - in the 2000s, why did J.Lo keep releasing "remixes" that basically had nothing to do with the original songs except for the titles? Just give it a different title and release it its own right!

Why didn't they let Rob and Fab do the speaking part of the songs?

R63 Good point. Part of what gave them away was their distinctive speaking voice accents. It was really doomed from the start.