His songs are classics of pop music and the soundtrack of a generation. Whether “Daddy Cool” or “Rasputin”: music producer Frank Farian created danceable world hits like on an assembly line. The breakthrough amazed him. “The success was a huge surprise. I always thought I wouldn’t make it. It didn’t look like it at the beginning,” he once told the German Press Agency.
Farian has now died at the age of 82 – in his adopted home of Miami, as his family announced via an agency. “Looking at the sun from the studio: that’s what I always wanted,” he once said about his move to the USA.
The pop musician Thomas Anders (60) remembers the hit producer and ex-pop singer as a person who lived for music. “The focus of his life was basically music,” said the ex-Modern Talking singer on Tuesday in an interview with the radio station RPR1. Farian lived and loved music.
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 – 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 track “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” or “Ma Baker” are pop history. Former Boney M. lead singer Liz Mitchell said in a statement after Farian’s death, according to the British news agency PA: “I am so grateful to the God of music that we were able to meet to create Boney M.’s music and to share with the world”. The star under which they united had risen higher than they had dared to dream. She added: “Rest in peace, Frank.”
Scandal um Milli Vanilli
A similar project followed with Milli Vanilli – but it went wrong. It became a scandal in the music business. The disco-pop 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 music world was shocked.
The case is still considered one of the biggest cheating scandals in music history. A film by director Simon Verhoeven tells the story currently in cinemas. “Frank supported our film from the beginning, even though my script was critical of it — and I will always be grateful to him for that,” Verhoeven said, according to the statement.
“Girl You Know It’s True”
Verhoeven called Farian “a talent of the century.” He was “a music maniac” who “worked his way to the top of international pop music with unbridled ambition from the poorest backgrounds in the German provinces.” Just on Friday, “Girl You Know It’s True” was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize in Munich.
Farian worked as a co-producer, but said he had no direct influence and trusted the film company. In his own words, however, he saw the story as not being portrayed correctly – the film was “less than 80 percent” true.
“It’s not my experienced truth. That’s why I’m a bit distant from it,” he told the “Saarbrücker Zeitung” before its publication in December. Singer Robert “Rob” Pilatus, for example, died differently than in the film. However, Farian was enthusiastic about the performance of actor Matthias Schweighöfer, who portrays Farian in the film: “Nobody can look like Frank Farian! But he embodies me excellently,” he said. In the interview, Farian also announced that a new Milli Vanilli album with previously unreleased songs would soon be released; the video for the second single had already been shot.
Former Milli Vanilli star Fabrice Morvan has sent his condolences to Farian’s family. “His music will live on,” said “Fab,” according to a statement from the crew of the film “Girl You Know It’s True.” “We can never deny the happiness and joy she brought into this world.”
Trained chef
Farian was not born with success with bands like Eruption and No Mercy. “I never knew my father; he died in the war before I was born. My mother was my personal rubble woman. She removed all the obstacles and made everything possible for me, even though we had no money.” At the age of 14, young Franz moved to live with relatives in Saarland and learned to be a chef – “because I was always hungry and thought I would always have something to eat.”
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 their first record with his band Die Schatten in a former stable in 1963. “There was a microphone and a tape recorder in the middle.”
From Saarland we went to Hesse, to a recording studio in Rosbach near Frankfurt, and later to Miami – and, for example, to concerts with Boney M. in Moscow. When Farian spoke about it, his voice sounded serious. “I often think about how we danced on Red Square,” he said. “My father died in Russia and I am a celebrated star there. You can’t dream of that.”
“Success cannot be planned”
He 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.
The pop musician Thomas Anders (60) remembers the hit producer as a person who lived for music. “The focus of his life was basically music,” said the ex-Modern Talking singer on Tuesday in an interview with the radio station RPR1. Farian lived and loved music. Former Milli Vanilli star Fabrice Morvan said on Tuesday: “His music will live on,” according to a statement from the film’s crew of “Girl You Know It’s True.”
“Frank supported our film from the beginning, even though my script was critical of it — and I will always be grateful to him for that,” said “Girl You Know It’s True” director and screenwriter Simon Verhoeven, according to the statement. Verhoeven called Farian “a talent of the century.” He was “a music maniac” who “worked his way to the top of international pop music with unbridled ambition from the poorest backgrounds in the German provinces.”
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth praised Farian as one of the most successful producers of all time. “Frank Farian was one of the first to prove that pop music from Germany can also be internationally successful,” said Roth, according to a statement.
