Milli Vanilli is Having A(nother) Weird Moment

Girl, you know it’s true: the notorious duo's music is back, thanks to another notorious duo.

Milli Vanilli, the late Rob Pilatus (left) and Fabrice Morvan. My thesis is that these two were totally taken advantage of by a big-shot producer and scapegoated for the ensuing scandal. Drawing by me.

Milli Vanilli, the pop duo from the late 1980s, is back in the spotlight, thanks (if that’s the right sentiment) to their music being featured in Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. To understand why this is weird, and why this isn’t the first time Milli Vanilli have had a weird moment, we have to go all swirly and flash back to…

A dance seminar in Munich, Germany, in 1988, when Fabrice Morvan met Rob Pilatus. The two bonded over their love of dance and their similar experiences in Europe: “Maybe it’s because we’re both Black people who grew up in foreign cities that don’t have too many Blacks,” Pilatus later recalled. The two recorded an album, didn’t make it big, and lived the way musicians do, broke and hopeful.

Blame It On Farian

Enter Frank Farian, big-time European producer. He had some songs, he had connections, and he did not have a cool duo who could sing and dance and get action on MTV. That missing piece came together when he met the very cool looking, dance-ready Rob and Fab. They recorded “Girl You Know It’s True,” and the next thing you know, Milli Vanilli were singing and dancing their way to the top of the charts!

All was amazing, except for one small detail: Rob and Fab didn’t actually sing their mega-hit song. Apparently, Frank Farian was far more impressed with the duo’s looks and dancing than their singing, so he had a bunch of other vocalists record “Girl You Know It’s True” and promised Rob and Fab they’d sing other tracks on the album. Except he didn’t. The album, All Or Nothing, went on to sell millions of copies and won tons of awards, including a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990. Milli Vanilli was famous all over the world, and Rob and Fab, who’d signed a contract, had to play along.

All Or Nothing

The house started burning down during a Club MTV tour, when a vocal track began skipping while the guys were “singing.” Next, the liner notes for the American release of the album credited Rob and Fab as being vocalists, causing one of the actual singers, Charles Shaw, to take umbrage and publicly decry the duo as fakers. Farian tried to do damage control, but it was too late. Once the truth was out, Arista Records dropped Milli Vanilli from their label and deleted the album from their catalog, the Grammy was taken back, and Rob and Fab were publicly mocked and humiliated¹ (gee, how times don’t change).

Back then, Rob and Fab were vilified as frauds, even though it was pretty clear that these were two broke dudes who’d been given an incredible opportunity, and then taken advantage of by a bigshot producer with $$$$ in his eyes. (For the rest of the story, there’s the documentary Milli Vanilli, and a biopic, Girl You Know It’s True, both of which have been praised for allowing Rob and Fab to tell their side of the story.)

The two made subsequent albums on which they actually sang, but Rob and Fab could never shake the scandal. Sadly, Rob Pilatus battled addiction and died of an accidental overdose in 1998. Fab Morvan is a performer, and he speaks publicly about what he and Rob went through as a cautionary tale for people getting involved in the music business.

Milli Vanilli was such a moment. The music was pretty slick, but it was joyful, insanely danceable, and Rob and Fab made it all work. The dancing, their style—they were, as producer Frank Farian recognized, the perfect element to make Milli Vanilli the total package. Finding out that Rob and Fab didn’t actually sing on their album didn’t change anything for me. I think I was too busy dancing to “All or Nothing.” I still have Milli Vanilli songs on my iTunes ‘80s playlist.

Girl I’m Gonna Miss You

Now we get all swirly again and come back to the present, when Milli Vanilli is having another weird moment. Monsters is Netflix and producer Ryan Murphy’s take on the Menendez brothers, who made headlines in 1989 when their parents were brutally murdered in what the brothers claimed was a Mafia hit. So, a duo carrying out a deception to the soundtrack of a duo who carried out a deception. Apparently, this isn’t Murphy being clever; Lyle Menendez really did play “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You,” a song about a breakup, at his parents’ funeral, dedicating it to his mother. (The brothers were convicted of the murders and are currently serving life sentences.)

The series, like the true story it’s based on, is disturbing, and it’s been weird to feel that happy nostalgia you get when you hear songs from an amazing time in your life—only you’re hearing them because they’re the soundtrack to a story about abuse and murder. Um. Hmm. Yeah. *awkward discomfort moment*

Would the fact that Rob and Fab didn’t sing on the album mean as much today? Did you care back then? Do you still love the music, even when it’s set to this really scary story? Let me know in the comments below this musical flashback!

1. Thanks, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli