Frank Farian

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Frank Farian (2008)

Frank Farian (* 18th July 1941 as Franz Reuther in Kirn ) is a German music producer , composer and singer . His productions have received more than 800 gold and platinum awards . He owns three studios in Brussels , Miami and on the island of Ibiza .

Life

Farian grew up in Saarbrücken - Altenkessel after the Second World War . He initially worked as a cook and spent his early musical years in Elversberg . He had a small studio in the attic of his apartment.

Farian has been a pop music producer since the mid-1970s . He founded globally successful groups such as Boney M. and Milli Vanilli . Milli Vanilli's first records were already recorded before the band was put together. When this became known in late 1990, it caused a scandal and the two alleged singers were stripped of the Grammy . With Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, only two of the four group members were involved in the recordings at Boney M. the male voice came from Farian himself.

Farian's productive time as a composer and music producer began with the duo Les Copains and reached its zenith with Boney M. He opened the Rendezvous discotheque in St. Ingbert , Saarland , after he had previously managed Hoch Trepp with his wife Brigitte . Here his bands and titles were tested in public beforehand. After Farian had produced some songs, including with Boney M., in Offenbach-Bieber , he later bought a property with residential buildings, swimming pools and a studio in Rosbach vor der Höhe , which he still uses.

Musical creation

Singer

From 1961 Farian appeared in Elversberg as a rock singer with his own band under the name "Frankie Farian and the Shadows". He produced his first record Shouting Ghost in 1963 and distributed it himself. As a pop singer , he sang titles such as Dana My Love (1969), So muss Liebe sein (1973), a version of the standard Smoke Gets in Your Eyes , and Rocky (1976) by Austin Roberts . He then lent his voice to the group he produced, Boney M. , but never appeared as a member. When performing on stage, Bobby Farrell , the group's dancer, moved his lips to Farian's song from the tape .

Composer and producer

Farian had his greatest successes as a producer with the single Rivers of Babylon (a cover of the Jamaican band The Melodians , who in turn edited Psalm 19 and Psalm 137 in the song ) and with the album Nightflight to Venus by Boney M. (1978). Boney M. was not only successful in the western nations, but also on the entire African continent and in the Caribbean . Some of the pieces are written in Swahili .

With the Far Corporation project , in which Bobby Kimball , David Paich and Steve Lukather from the US band Toto and drummers Curt Cress and Leslie Mandoki were involved, Farian mainly played rock classics such as Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin and Sebastian von Cockney Rebel and Mother and Child Reunion by Paul Simon . Stairway to Heaven was the greatest success with eighth place in the British charts (1985).

After around 30 years of cooperation, the contractual relationship between Farian and Hansa (Ariola-Sony BMG) ended in 2004 . Two years later he signed a new contract with Sony BMG Germany.

In September 2006 the musical Daddy Cool premiered in London , in which Farian not only processed many hits by Boney M., but also those by Milli Vanilli and Eruption . In spring 2007, Daddy Cool also came to Berlin. The premiere was on April 26, 2007. After that, Farian worked on the Daddy Cool Kids project , in which his daughter also sang.

Discography

Studio albums

year Title
music label 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1971 Such a day at
Hansa Musik Produktion 		- - - - -
First published: 1971
1973 This is how love must be
Hansa Musik Produktion 		- - - - -
First published: 1973
1976 Rocky
Hansa music production 		- - - - -
First published: February 1976
1985 Division One
Ariola / IMP 		- - - - -
First published: 1985
as FAR Corporation
1994 Solitude
MCI 		- - - - -
First published October 31, 1994
as FAR Corporation

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Author participations and productions (selection)

Awards

Works

  • Frank Farian, Reginald Rudorf , Dieter Kaltwasser: Stupid These planks. The truth and nothing but the truth about the pop con man. Franks Kleiner Buchverlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-9809531-0-6 .

Web links

Commons : Frank Farian  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chuck Philipps: Milli Vanilli's Grammy Rescinded by Academy . LA Times, November 20, 1990 (English)
  2. ↑ Chuck Philips: It's True: Milli Vanilli Didn't Sing: Pop music: The duo could be stripped of its Grammy after admitting it lip-synced the best-selling 'Girl You Know It's True'. In: Los Angeles Times . November 16, 1990, accessed May 21, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Self-presentation ( memento of the original from June 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Farian's website @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frankfarian.com
  4. ^ Echo 1997 German Music Prize: The Prize Winners ( Memento from October 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ RSH Gold Award 1990
  6. ↑ RSH Gold Award 1998
personal data
SURNAME Farian, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reuther, Franz (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music producer, composer and singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Kirn , Rhineland-Palatinate