Milli Vanilli “Girl You Know It’s True” 1988. Hansa Records. German 12″ single, another Berlin acquisition from the same truly bizarre record shop as a lot of our other Germany finds – I think the weird owner was mildly impressed that I knew Milli Vanilli was a German “group” put together by producer Frank Farian (also responsible for the most excellent Boney M). This is also a sort-of Fab Morvan appreciation post (he’s the surviving member of the Malli Vanilli duo) for NOT performing at this week’s national performance farce: he backed out about a month ago along with most of the other booked artists; we have very few records of the other artists who were invited and who backed out, but if I find more I’ll get to those too in the next week or so.

“Girl You Know It’s True” was first written and performed by the US group Numarx in 1987. I’m fairly certain it didn’t chart but the track gained some popularity in the European dance club scene and came to the attention of Frank Farian. Milli Vanilli “recorded” their version and it went to #1 in Germany and to #2 in the US, #3 in the UK. I bet you are singing it now, it was that popular and infectious…and infamous. The track appeared on their 1988 debut German LP All or Nothing and then again on the US 1989 release Girl You Know It’s True. Farian was notorious for putting together bands that didn’t actually perform the material – they would lip synch and dance (which is HARD and I give the performers props for doing it) – but this was not admitted either on the record credits or in “live” performances. According to Wiki “The duo [Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus] served as the public faces for singers Charles Shaw, John Davis, and Brad Howell [all American musicians], who Farian thought were talented musicians but lacked a marketable image.” In July 1989 the backing track for “Girl You Know It’s True” skipped and looped at a live MTV performance and Milli Vanilli fled the stage. Then in early 1990 their  LP won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1990 but the award was revoked later that year when Farian finally admitted that Morvan and Pilatus didn’t sing a single note on the LP. To this date it is the only time a Grammy award has been taken away; their label Artista dropped them from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalogue, also making Girl You Know It’s True the largest-selling album to ever be deleted plus a court ruling allowed any American who bought the album to get a partial refund. (wiki). I admit to disparaging the band back then but I have much much greater sympathy for them now, after understanding the individuals’ background, their situation and the industry as a whole (in a nutshell: it’s pretty slimy, underhanded, greedy and dishonest). Along with the single version of “Girl You Know It’s True,” there is also a “Super Club Mix” and the track “Magic Touch.”