Girl You Know It's...Not True: the Milli Vanilli story

The name Milli Vanilli is now synonmous with a hoax –– but at one time, their heavily-accented pop stardom fooled the whole world. That is, until the truth won out, and when it did it wrecked their money-making illusion. But who were Milli Vanilli, which one was Milli and which one was Vanilli, why did they think they could con the world with well-produced pop songs, and why can't Zaron do a French accent? Learn the answers to all these questions and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Elizabeth Dutton.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey Saren, it's so good to see you. You too
showing up today?

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Yeah, well you know I had time thought it.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Make it me too.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I missed you, so I got a question for you
now that I've seen you. Do you know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yes? I do.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Do you want to share?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, it's not that this person is ridiculous. This person
is a font of ridiculousness.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh so Devo new so.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It is a listener of ours. I think it's Ali
Wilkins double O seven Ali Wilkins double O seven on Instagram.
This was all passed along to me today.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
This person has provided us with a number of ridiculous
things that are just making it to me today. Ali
in particular, Alie, this person gave us. Apparently Adidas Mexico
had Panadai issues that look like conscios, which, like that
makes sense. Then there's Pasta Garoffalo did a mash up

(01:00):
of PlayStation It's like Pasta Garoff is like one of
the oldest pasta brands.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
I thought it was like a riff on Jimmy Pasta Company.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
There you go, their shape like the little does like
shapes on the controller, the square and the ex whatever.
It's clever. Good for them. But here's the one that
that kind of jumped out today. They linked to a
post from Interstellar Underscore Isabella who had news of a

(01:30):
scandal at the Minnesota seed Art competition.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
A scandalo scandalo.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay, so one of the most popular seeds used in
the seed art competition. Which are you familiar with this?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I believe that's in you like glue seeds to paper.
Basically art with seeds. Yeah, it's like kids arts and
crafts totally.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
But like at a high level, thirty thousand.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Feet ends up looking like mosaic.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yes, exactly. And one of like the primo supplies for
that are yellow mustard seeds because they're really easy to die,
and they were like a perfect round shape and the
perfect size, and everyone is just like, oh my god.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
I poppy seeds are also big, You're too.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Tiny, but I'm sure they use them for yeah whatever.
So here's the thing though, for the Minnesota seed Art
competition that you have to use crops grown in Minnesota,
and someone rated out that yellow mustard seeds are not
grown as a big crop in Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
So they are now banned from after the I guess
people have been working their fingers to the bone on
these things, and so after this year's like which is
happening end of August. So it has happened now that
I'm realizing, we're already in September. So yeah, okay, so it's.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Flip the calendar.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh so they're not going to be able to do
them anymore. And so you know, you can use black
or white mustard seeds, of course, but those just aren't
as great as yellow seeds. Ron Kelsey's apparently the superintendent
of farm Crops with what I don't know, he has

(03:09):
asked the Minnesota Farmers Association for yellow mustard to be
grown as a we need it for the art in
order to support the seed art competition, which is ridiculous
and I love it. Thank you Ali Wilkins. God, I
hope it's Sally and not a Ley or whatever. Wilkins
double O seven Brava. You've done it again. Yeah, goofball.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
That is ridiculous. Thank you, Ali, Thanks for dude. Way
to go Minnesota, keeping it Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
God bless it.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
If you got a second, I got one for you.
I do all right, I know you've heard of this band.
I'm gonna tell you a story of today. Well, this
group not really a band, but I bet you could
pick up and sing one of their hits if I
just started singing or humming it right now. Okay, I
mean I won't do that, but I bet you could,
right Because this group was once everywhere. They were once
of the world's most iconic up and coming act they were.

(03:53):
Not only did they win the Hearts of the People, Elizabeth,
they also won a Grammy for the Best New Recording Art.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, they were young, famous pop stars. They had it all.
But then, Elizabeth, Oh but then today, I want to
tell you the story of Milli Vanilli. Oh no, this

(04:32):
is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
and cons. It's all ninety verd of free and ridiculous. Okay,
Elizabeth seven, have I got a wild one for you today.
I've already told you what it's about, but this is
also a very touching one. So get ready for a
roller coaster of emotion, a bumper car ride of feelings.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh I love it. We're at the carnival today, baby, I'm.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Telling you Milli Vanilla. You remember them right, said they want.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Best New Artist. Isn't that like sort of a cursed category?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Are you going to talk about that? I just cut you.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
No, no, no, no, you can please. I actually did
not prepare to talk about the history of the Best
New Recording Artists for the Grammys, but you're.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Usually prepared to talk about just money.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
A lot of there's been a lot of bad winners
over there. Yeah, yeah, it is kind of known as
it's kind of like the Madden cover for sports.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I don't know what you mean by that, but.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yes, exactly. Now, did you have the single?

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I don't think I did.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Did you have the cassette tape the album? Did you
have the CD?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't think I did.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Did you not like Million?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I really wasn't. It wasn't a fan, but like I can't.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Really imagine you would be.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
But you, my brother and I were very young.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
And most of us start out that way.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
They had like some songs that we could like kill
for each other by putting kind of weird.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Aling okay, totally messing the lyrics, like his thing girl.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
You know it's true, I smell pooh and like that's
all I ever hear anyone never says it, and so
Traviy destroyed it, which is good.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Way to go, TRAVI. You know what, whenever I think
of Milli Vanilly, I always just think of my boy Langston.
What I'm blank this cat, right, he had dreads and
I had dreads. We were both, you know, as you
much like you and your brother. We were young at
the time, were a little bit older, and we were
all much older actually. But anyway, when we'd roll out together,
sometimes some smart ass would pop off. They'd be like, hey,
which one of you is milling? Which you later this

(06:28):
was like in college years, right, they'd be like, oh, damn,
I thought Millie Vanilly broke up, right. It's tough when
you're like in like a rhyming circle, you're that a
freestyle and someone's like, girl, you know it's true. Oh oh,
and that's like all they.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Do, bad brains and punch them in the face.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Hus on. Yeah. No, So that's what I hear when
I hear the words Millie Vanilla, I think of my
boy lank and but the duo, right, the associations are
numerous for everybody. Now, let's just get our party sorted.
Who were Milly and who were Vanilla Million.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Captain Milly and then Admiral Vanilli and yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
And and to nearly the 's it's such a fun
word to say. I'm gonna be saying that a lot.
So it's a perfect name.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
You're gonna say it so much, it's gonna lose meaning totally.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's hard to sound like nonsense. Yeah, I mean it rhymes,
it has this rhythmic consonance to it, and you gets
got that good.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Illy at the end.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Totally sounds like nonsense because of that, but also expensive
nonsense like oh it's Millie Vanilli. It's like sounds like
some overpriced gelato you bought in Brooklyn, Like, oh, this
is Milli Vanilly. So anyway, so the real deal Millie Vanilly,
the o G Millie Vanilli. The two guys two brothers,
but not brothers with a hard R, brothers with an A. Right,
they were exotic brothers, right with a dropped French R. Now,

(07:46):
this first came before them was this other guy who
I do think you know, Terrence Trent Darby. Oh yeah,
remember him, wishing well?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Wishing well? Yeah, right for him?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
He had them high cheekbones, the dread black of white
music video, We're looking so pretty like you know. Now,
he set the stage for Americans because at the time,
you have to understand, in the early eighties, both most
of us, you know, brothers and everybody else, we're all
like pretty much high on Michael Jackson and Prince at
the time they were like a black pop star. And
then all on comes nineteen eighty seven. Suddenly there's this

(08:17):
high voice black dude singing all pretty and emo like
before emo was a big right. So this cat with
a dredge, he's got a British accent. We're like, who
is this guy? He exotic, right, so that makes him
all special. And being Americans, we are still susceptible to
the questionable charms of the British accent. So even the brothers,
we're still like, man, that dude's saying real nice, right.
So anyway, the whole world, the whole pop music world,

(08:39):
they all fall in love with Terence Trent Derby and
his huge hit as you know, wishing Well. Right, fast
forward one year, we skip over to the continent. Now, right,
the year is now nineteen eighty eight. There is a
dance seminar held at a dance club in Munich, Germany.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Waited a German dance seminar.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yes, di imagine that, and we are going to count
on the tools and of false So now history is
about to be made in this Munich dance club, right,
but of course no one there knows it. But there's
one man there. His name is Robert Pilattis. He meets
another man named Maxim Sylvanian Morvan right, and both men
are dancers, but they're also singers, Elizabeth. They share the

(09:16):
same dream of pop stardom, a life on the stage
in the footlight. They they could be a backup dancer
or the main act, but they know their future is
on the board.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
They just have to dance.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yes, they're born for it in the boards. By the way,
that's what we show folk called the planks of wood
that comprise the stage. So I'm just gonna let you
behind two by fours anyway. Millie meets Vanilli right, So actually,
in all honesty, rob Mett Fobb.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Because Vanilla Vanilli met Manilli Relly, I can't say, can
you say it backwards?

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Vanilli Milli Vanilli Milli? Tough way?

Speaker 2 (09:53):
It's really hard for me.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
For a second, You're like, where did the sells go,
so Vanilli icye, No, right, Milli Vanilli Robert polattis right.
So they go and they realize after the whole Terrence
Darby fame, they're like, we could have this too. I mean, yes,
we are Germans, but why not us exactly? So let's

(10:18):
meet Milly and Vanilly. Robert polattis born nineteen sixty five
in Munich in the summer June eighth. If you're into
the details at all, No, we should have though that name.
I mean, dang, he really missed his shot anyway, rob
He started his life out in a Bavarian orphanage. Yeah,
he spent his first four years there until he won
the orphan lottery and he was adopted out to a family.

(10:40):
But it wasn't quite the wind he'd hoped for because
in his new home, at school and on the playground,
he was often bullied. The German kids would, of course
pick on his ethnicity. They called him Kuntakinte as in
Alex Haley's The Roots the character Yes. So luckily for
him he had music. He had a love of music.
So he leaves his adoptive home behind he goes out
on his own as a teenager. He soon find steady work,

(11:00):
quick money as a model. The guy's really striking to
look at. He even has talents though beyond just skin deep.
He's a great breakdancer, which pays well. Later, he gets
hired as a backup singer for a German entry for
the nineteen eighty seven Eurovision song Context. Yeah. The group
is called Wind. They were a German Schlager music group.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Elizabeth, sounds like, do you have Wind?

Speaker 4 (11:24):
No?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
What did you hear?

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Who told you?

Speaker 4 (11:27):
That?

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Was a host?

Speaker 2 (11:29):
So I don't smell anything.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
You may be wondering, is there and what is German
schlager music?

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Great question, your music, Elizabeth.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
I'm so glad you asked me. Anyway, Schlager music very
German music phenomenon. The word schlogen it means to hit,
like as in to punch, right, and you'll find this
word in many languages. It's it's the same borrowed word
or its cognates, and it's punch literally means musical hit.
In most of the languages. German means to strike or
to hit, but in most times he means a musical hit. Yeah,

(11:56):
so you have basically the same word in Estoni and Russian, Derbian, Turkish, Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, Latvia, Norwegian, Danish.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
And Hebrew hit music.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm telling you, they all used to punch, punching lag yeah,
schlag or they're a cognate in their language, right, So
this is the word schlagen in terms of German music.
What does it refer to? It refers to pop music, right.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I thought it was like the Bronx, like I want
to punch people music.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Oh no, yeah, no, not like that. So in the
nineteen twenties and thirties there's this renaissance of schlagra music, right,
which then of course falls away because there's a little
interruption between that and the second revival in the post
war period. World War Two got in the way of
the two revivals, right, So in the fifties and sixties,
post hitler schlagra music becomes this rather harmless way to

(12:41):
express the collective German identity. Okay, right, so they're like,
they get into it. They could do it to a beat, right,
So the folk music pretty much it reaches its popularity
peak in the sixties in Germany Austria. But once again
you're asking Saren what is Schlago music?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Popularity music?

Speaker 3 (12:56):
A great question, Elizabeth, okay, one I've you to answer.
So what is schlager music exactly? Elizabeth? You have to understand.
Schlager music has been called quote, Germany's most embarrassing musical genre.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh dear.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
In twenty seventeen that I found that the All described
schlager music as quote, the oral equivalent of nuclear war.
It is an ubra that makes Christian rock seem subversive?

Speaker 2 (13:18):
What could this possibly?

Speaker 3 (13:21):
The All also added that schlager music quote contains lyrics
that are maximally chirpy, predictable, simplistic, and very very very
very rhyming. If your average terrible pop song rhymes ten
times in thirty seconds, the Schlager hit rhymes fifty times
in thirty seconds. Like if your golden retriever learned German
and then wrote a song.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Is this like, am I now starting to understand Eurovision?

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yes, you are starting to understand Eurosion understood?

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Like?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Why why these?

Speaker 3 (13:47):
It's like camp folk music?

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, and so that's what Eurovision is.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Slager music has been a big champion in the Eurovision contest.
They've won numerous times. Schlager music has won all of
Europe's like, oh lock is so fun, right, Okay? Anyway,
so one writer for The Guardian they noted that Schlager
music is quote about being on holiday country, living life
on the autobon, living with animals, and living with animals

(14:12):
on the autobon.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Exactly hitting animals on the A.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
I think it's more like they're in the car with you,
but us, but maybe right, I do not know. But
there is this one look out for my shepherd. So
there's this one German woman, right, she's she learned later
in life that she was hard of hearing, right, and
it is likely even in life, Yeah, she didn't realize
she apparently she didn't know right. So she gets tested

(14:37):
and she finds out that her heart of hearing this
dated back to childhood and has been going on undiagnosed.
She just was like how people hurd right. So then
eventually she discovers that, oh no, it's my ears are
not up to stuff compared to most of other people's,
you know, processing Okay boom. The German woman concluded and
I quote that she must have simply tried Waldens is
the womb to develop some sort of self p action

(15:00):
mechanism against the musical tastes of my parents. In other words,
I tried to evolve natural protection against schlagger music. So
that's how bad schlager music is is basically German country music. Specifically,
they compare it to text mechs border music. That's like yeah,
but it's it's like well. Schlager music has also gone

(15:20):
through a German disco revival. There was disco Schlager in
the seventies. So this picture like Rhinestone Laterholzen and umpa
pap music. But the accordion player he kind of looks
like like a leather daddy and he's got like a
giant mustache.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Oh, I'm trying so hard to okay, so.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Excited disco Schlager revival.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Is there a serious XM channel for this time?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Oh, that's a good question. We should look that up.
I do not have an answer for that. I'll get eventually.
There's another revival in the eighties, and this is where
this is blossom of cheesy German folk music. Finds a
young Rob pilattis finding his voice and he joins the
group Win and their version of Schlager Music competes at
the annual Eurovision Song Contest, which I told you up top,
and surprise they do really well. In fact, they win

(16:04):
second place.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Oh well, yeah, this gives.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
You young Rob a taste for the limelight of success
and pop start. I mean he's like I've won small
of this. Now cut over to my man, Fob morvaon
Government named Fabrice Maxim Sylvan Morvan Street named Fob. He
was born on the Caribbean island of Guadalupe in nineteen
sixty six. He was a spring baby born May fourteenth,
son of German mother American soldier father Fabrice. Raised in Paris, right,

(16:31):
very international. He also, much like Rob, has a love
of music. For him, it's all about Bob Marley, the
Jackson Five, the Beatles Queen. These are his people, right yeah,
like iconic group, very iconic, Gary anthemic.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
Right.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
So he turns at eighteen, Fob he left Paris behind.
He moves to Germany because that's like where everything is
in the eighties, that's really going on in Europe for
the dance clubs.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Okay, I had no idea the dance club.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Scene, that's the spot, right, So this is where his
musical education begins. Well, his begins at the same place
in German. Noah wes. He listens to Parliament Funkadelic, he
cops some run DMC albums. He listened to Sly in
the family Stone. He gets the brother gets funked up, right,
So then he also gets hip to the Gap band.
So now he's like, I want to become a musician's

(17:14):
like them, and how do they make me feel? I
want to do that for the world. Right, So now
we have these two young Germans and they both bowstring,
pulled back arrow, ready to fly, Elizabeth, both take a
little break, okay, and then when we get back, I
will tell you how they become Milli Vanilly nice. All right, Elizabeth,

(17:51):
we're back, yes, all right, where were we? That's right?
Germany in the eighties scene of disco, like post disco
club music, things are just popping off. Pop music is
just being made. People are They're creating new dances, new fashion.
It is everything a young person wants to be involved with.
It's if you're like a backup dancer, you know, which

(18:13):
is what these guys essentially are models and you know whatever. Anyway,
eventually it just takes a little bit of a matter
of time before their pats cross how did their pass cross, Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
You tell me, well, they met at another dance seminar,
and remember, I don't so what happened when the two
backup dancers and the models finally meet. Did they feel
as spark? Did they immediately know they have a dance
did they have a dance off? Did they resent each other? What?
What was their response?

Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think that they like broke down, they knew, like
we're cool.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
You called it, as Rob said, quote, something clicks between us.
Maybe it's because we're both black people who grew up
in foreign cities that don't have too many blacks. So
he gets right to the heart of it. He's like,
I saw him, he saw me, and boom, we were
like he knows exactly. So they saw past what everyone
else saw, and they saw each other and they unders
stood each other from the jump right. But wait, from

(19:02):
our researcher Andrea, she found that actually they met three
years earlier, in nineteen eighty five in Los Angeles. What Yeah,
apparently they don't remember me for the first time. Anyway.
The im s is Rob Pilatus. He was a breakdancing
boogaaloo badass. Right, He's the breakdancer. Fob is more of
the singer dancer. So Rob is over there breakdancing, and

(19:23):
he's such a limber, limb young dancer. He gets invited
to compete in a breakdance competition in New York in
nineteen eighty four.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Oh, that's like through the center.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yes, I mean, he's like he's going up against crazy legs.
I mean, this is a real legit breakdancing eighty four. Right,
he's popping in lock and head spinning, crab dancing his
way to America and he gets there. Now, while he's
in the US, he pops over to La to see
what's going on in the entertainment capital of the world.
And who was in town, Elizabeth attending a dance seminar?
You guessed it New York Yankees, Great Yogi Berra. No,

(19:55):
I'm kidding, it was fab more Von.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
I just in my head when I think when I
hear seminar, I just see like lines of chairs, like
a hotel conference room.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
There's some kind of like visual presentation, and then me
like next exactly imagine that but with dance. So apparently
they met in La at that dance seminar, but they
wouldn't be until three years later in Munich that they decide,
you know what, we should start a group together. We
obviously so much alike, right, so they decide, yes, it's

(20:28):
a great idea. They started a group. They call it
Empire Bizarre. Empire Empire Bizarre, pretty good band name in
my opinion. I mean, Milli Vanilli is like they it's
just amazing, right, the Empire Bizarre, I mean that's really
they're two for two in my opinion. Okay, they should
getting jobs naming new bands, like forget saying you just
name new bands.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Anyway, Empire Bazar Empire Bazaar sounds like one of those
fake Instagram like clothing stores.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Just a scan, definitely sounds like that, or like a
band for Scott Wheeland after Stone Temple Pilots Rip.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Right. So anyway, they hire a third member because we
need somebody who can sing, So they get this woman,
Charlene Shuling, and together the trio record a single called
Dances Right Dance and so it was a dance club
pop song. As you might imagine, all three they danced
as they sang. They played their own instruments. Yeah, oh yeah.
Rob sang lead while playing bass guitar. So they were

(21:21):
legit musicians. They managed to sell some records like in
the club scene, like and they saw like you know,
thousands of records, but mostly they stayed what they were,
starving artists, subsisting on their shared dream. So now they
didn't know this at the time, but stardom was best
approaching Elizabeth look out. Yes, so enter the bad man.
This is the kind of scumbag you meet in many

(21:41):
music business cautionary tales. Oh no, in this case, his
name is Frank Ferrian, but that's his street name, government name,
Franz Reutza, Franz Royce. So as you can tell from
his original name, Franz was a German or a German
was a German. Anyway, as Frank Ferran he becomes a
German record producer, so he is real baby energy. But
it turns out this dude predates the war as in

(22:03):
World War Two. He was not part of the post
war baby boom. He was born in Hitler's Germany in
nineteen forty one. That was the energy. Old Franz Reuta
well no aka Frankie Ferrian was born into just.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Like the other lady like wanted her body deafened itself
to the bad musics. He like his ears through tell me.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
I want to epic sing about the exploitations. So he
goes on to become a German pop music producer who,
by the mid eighties was really slinging right. His big
innovation was to select people who look good, who look
hip and sexy. Then he'd have them lip sync songs
by people who had good voices. Yeah, He'd hire session musicians,
a session singers and cut a record. Then he'd hire

(22:44):
some models and dancers to perform it. Instant pop music hits. Right.
This is because he knew this work, because it worked
for him. His personal success in music dated back to
the nineteen seventies, when he had a minor hit covering
the song al Capone, which he then retitled Baby Do
You Want to Bump?

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Wait wait wait wait. First of all, I'm not familiar
with the song al Capone, and how does one get
from al Capone to Baby do you Want to Bump?

Speaker 3 (23:09):
I do not know.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Explain this to me, sar.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
It's so amazing, Baby.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Do you want to Bump?

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Exactly?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Like, what do we need by bump?

Speaker 3 (23:17):
We know what we mean, but it makes al Capone
suddenly a very different figure. He's like DJ Coyled all
of a sudden another one. Anyway. The performing name for
uh Frank Ferry and aka Franz Route was Bonie m
so Bony Capitol Letter in the seventies the seventies. Yes,

(23:39):
he would do the singing, but for the performances, he
had in a ruben dancer named Bobby Farrell lip sync
and dance for him. So he's got this face for
radio pretty much. Yeah. So that's the mold set, right,
this is he's like, oh, I got to do this again, right,
So Frankie Faerre And he's also, by the way, a
legit singer. I mean he was a backup singer. His
biggest claim to fame was he provided the backup vocals
for Meatloaf Oh Yes in a lesser known single, Rock

(24:02):
and Roll Mercenaries. He was uncredited, but the track was
released in nineteen eighty six, which means Frankie was working
in the biz when he signed Robin fab to be
his next big EA.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
I am one hundred gonna start telling people that I'm
a background singer. Now I'm uncreditbed.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
I'm uncredited, thank you, yes.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
But you can hear me on all sorts of fantastic hits.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
I think you should do that.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I think I will.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
So anyway, Frankie Farian he'd heard about these two good
looking brothers, these dancers backup singers known as Robin Fab
in the club scene, right. So at this point they're
well known in the Munich club scene, right. So they're hyperstylists.
They're super attractive because I remember their model good looking.
They also dress super cool in the ways that they're
basically the leading edge of cool and Munim club scene.
So the more of this Frankie Ferian hears about them,

(24:46):
the more he likes, and soon he's like he starts
coming up with an idea to make himself wealthy. He's like,
I got a new boney m. So he gets word
to Rob and Fab and he's like, I look to meet,
so he invites him over to the studio in Frankfurt, Germany.
The pair stoked to be invited out to a p
is the studio producer who's heard about them, So Robin
Fab they travel to Frankfurt. They show up at Frankie
Ferry in spot. He puts the business charm on, which

(25:08):
typically works wonders on young starving artists shows you know.
So Frankie Ferry, he plays in the demo he'd recently recorded.
Rob later recalled that fateful meeting and everything in his
life changes, and I quote, we got a call to
come to the studio and we said, all right, that's it.
We were just dumb little kids, so he said, let's go.
When we got to the studio, girl, you know it's true.

(25:28):
Was just a demo, and he asked us of our
opinion of it, and we if we could sing it,
and we said, yeah, we could sing it. And he said,
oh beautiful, I believe it. But next week we have
shows to do, so don't Troy. I'll make you into
a millionaire. So there all week shows next week. He's
just met him and he's like, I got shows next week.
You're ready. You're a try on this spandex.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
He's hot seating him.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
So he's got the bootprint ready, the song recorded. All
he needs is his frontmen. He makes the pair sign
his standard deal with the double contract, and the date
of the contract signing is January first, nineteen eighty eight.
The contract stipulate so Robin fab will record ten songs
per year. I couldn't find any limit on how many years,
just ten songs per year until I say stop. So
they signed the contract without of course, any legal advice whatsoever.

(26:13):
Now Frank Ferry has his talent right where he wants
them under lock in contracts, so he gets down to
business of exploiting them. He has them coming to a
studio and shows them. He goes, he goes, show me
what you can do, right, and so they cut a
track and it's not at all what he wants and
he's like, oh, this sucks. Rights Veryan would later recall quote,
these two guys come into the studio, they recorded, but
they didn't have enough quality. So he's like, you know,

(26:36):
not in it. So he goes to plan A. He
hires session musicians and session singers and he has them
record the track. The singers are this guy, John Davis,
Brad Howell, the twin sisters Jody and Linda Rocco, and
finally Charles Shaw. So the album's done recorded April nineteen
ninety eighty eight Fairy and he whips out his standard
deal with the Devil contract has all the session singers
signed the contracts forbidding that they will ever reveal that

(26:58):
they were the ones actually singing the record and not
Robin fab Of course, they all agreed to stay mum,
so the secrets, of course are hard to keep. Charles Shaw,
let's talk about him for a second. Chuck us, army veteran.
He had cross paths with Frank Ferry and somewhere along
his winding path through life he wrangled six grand out
of Fairy and to perform his part on Girl. You

(27:20):
know it's true he did the rap part. Oh god,
all right, so Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
He shouldn't tell anyone.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
So Frankie Ferry he gets greedy, controlling. He didn't know
how to win over his stable. The session singers entirely.
So Shaw starts making noise about how he wants credit
or more money, and so he did what you know,
made sense to his businessman brain. He threatened Fairy and
then he'd rat him out to the music press. Right,
So now the guy's like, you know, Faryan's like, no,
Kotobs has come on. I can give you maybe like

(27:46):
a couple of hundred dollars mole or whatever. He's trying
to like low bomb. So Shaw's like, no, I'm going
right to the press. So Farry and what does he do.
He's like, oh, yeah, sends you are fires, take your
mic for wrapping, and you go right. So he's like,
all right, so he leaves. Now just remember that name
Charles Shaw, okay, because that dude's gonna be out there
plotting his revenge for now. Charleshaw disappears from view. Well,

(28:09):
Millie Vanilli takes center stage, and now, Elizabeth, did you
know how they came up with the name Millievanilly? I
told you about it, but I had to tell you
how they came up with it. So Rob Plot he says,
it's quote, a fantasy name. He said that, like, oh,
their pop stardom success, the words Millie Vanilli were something
of a fairy tale. Right. It all happened so fast,
it's just like, oh, just out of like magic, right

(28:30):
in a beat of a flood of a butterfly's wing.
Suddenly Millie Vanilli was on the lips of everybody around
the world.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
But Rob said, you know, at one point he had
the story of a friend who's traveling down in Africa
and he couldn't believe it. But quote, there was no
soap and no coke, but there was Millie Vanilli. So
that's how wild MILLI I.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Thought this was still the story of how they got
I'm telling you like what is everywhere?

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Everywhere? He says, his magical quality is my point. It's
like a spell cast, right, the words they conjured, the
silly magic right into the world. The story is this
that Millie Vanilli comes from a trip that they robbed
fabit taken together to Turkey, and in Turkish the phrase
is used as an advertising slogan. It apparently means positive energy.
Oh really, Yeah, there's another story though, that is actually

(29:15):
a nickname of Frank Farryan's girlfriend. Her name was Ingrid Sigeth,
but Frank Ferrin called her Millie, right, So fob just
paired that with a rhyming nonsense word to evoke the
sound and feel of a very big British band at
the time, scritty poaliitti.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
So which is it, guys?

Speaker 3 (29:29):
And then there's a third version of the story where
the name was borrowed from a long defunct Berlin discothech. Yeah,
the truth is is probably one of those stories, or
maybe like they were just like like one was eating
vanilla yogurt and the other one dropped his bread and
he's like, you got your Milli in my Vanilli. I
don't know what the story is.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Elizabeth, but do we know that it is like currently
used in Turkey? Is it is?

Speaker 3 (29:50):
It is an expression, It is an advertising slogan, so
that part we do know is true. Right. What we
know at this point is the summer of nineteen eighty
eight is upon us, and Millie Vanilli has just entered
the chat. So the crowds get these in Europe, they
get an eyeball, these two beautiful black men and spandex
biker shorts, thigh.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
High twenty black.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Leather Doc Martin boots, black blazers, black leather biker jackets,
you know, like.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Just like straight up so they like big jackets and
little tight pans exactly.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Big up top, tight on bottom. And the eurocrowds they
are loving it, like the braided extensions are floating and
whirling about like a dancer skirt when they go right
in totally and they lip sync the hell out of
those pop songs right if they hadn't recorded them, but
they knew the lyrics to lip sync them, so it
was like, oh, this is amazing. They look so good.
They just look phenomenal doing it, right, But this at

(30:41):
this point they believe it's just the warm up. This
is like you know in bands they go to Europe
and American bands go to Europe to build a name,
and then they come back here and they do their
real tour. That's what they think they're doing, right, So
then they'll go back to the studio and record their album.
But as Rob tells it, quote, we would ask Frank
when we're going to be allowed to give some input
and he would say, ah, yeah, but right now we
need you to go out to do promotion. Of course

(31:03):
you'll get to do it. Just walk with us. That's
how he strung us along.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
So they didn't wonder why they had never recorded anything.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
No, no, they're out on tour. So the tour all
summer right, really built up and name for themselves. A
lot of people know Million Vanilli Is at this point
in Europe. Right November nineteen eighty eight, their summer tours
down behind them, their debut album drops. They've built up
the name boom. First, it's only available outside the US,
only available in Europe. Okay, now you could not buy
it in America. But then in March of the next year,
in nineteen eighty nine, the album hits American Star sholves,

(31:32):
and at the same time the songs hit the radio, airwaves,
videos drop on MTV, the pop shock wave starts, and America.
Milli Vanilli's album was given a new name, You Know
It as Girl You Know It's True. The album gets
You remastered, remixed, and songs replaced interesting. Five singles came
out of that album. Five singles. All five singles made
it to the top five of the Billboard Hot one

(31:54):
hundred lists.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Really, I don't think I could name five.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah, maybeither three of them five to number one. It
on the Rain was another one. Yes, Dave, how many
can you go? Blame it on the rain, Girl, you
know it's true. Blame it on the rain. That's it.
That's Can you keep it going? Can you get a
third one?

Speaker 4 (32:13):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Wait, wait baby, don't forget my number? Baby, don't forget
my number. Yes, Producer Dave, that's three. Can you keep
it going? Uh, girl, I'm gonna miss you. Yes, that's right,
and uh, I've got all or nothing?

Speaker 2 (32:34):
But oh, you little stinker you were reading that is correct?

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Producer Dave got them all, whether or not Wikipedia help him.
So at this point the album's out, everybody is like
into it. They're all singing along to all the various
hits and uh. At this point though, the band is desperate,
the fearing that someone will find out because they have
not been able to record their album and now.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Out and it's like over a year at this point.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
And they're having to travel the world and perform and
they're always wondering, will this be the day that our
secret comes out? Any time they perform.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Who who's singing the actual stuff?

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Like, I mean not really. I mean they do know
that there's some other singers, but it's like, what do
you want to know? You want to know who else
is doing your job? I mean no, Yeah, this guys
sound good. Don't ever let me meet them. So as
Rob tells it, quote after Frank Reassy the album and
he told us that it was too late to stop
now because the single was such a big success. He said,
now you have to go through with it. I'll cover
you guys, nobody will find out. He said, here, I'll

(33:31):
give you twenty thousand advanced money. We had never had
Hippo falls. We went along with it. We played with
Faia and now we know but it's too late.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, you do get too far into it.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
That's exactly what happened to them. So at this point
we have them tick tick ticking up to the first peak,
and the roller coaster ride is about to begin. But Elizabe,
I'm gonna leave you there at the peak of that
roller coaster. We're gonna take a little break, coming right
back and tell you about the rest of this through ride.

(34:15):
Elizabeth March nineteen eighty nine, Million Milli begins their North
American publicity blitz.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
They perform at the Soul Train Awards. They perform at
the Edit Aids Benefit put on by their label Arista
Records in Toronto. They pick up a Juno Award for
International Album of the Year. Meanwhile, they also perform over
one hundred concerts across America. Whoa, the buzz is not
only lit, it's gone. Yeah. Yeah, So at every single
concert their lip syncing all of their hits, all five

(34:42):
five of them.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
That's not too uncommon, No, that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yeah, right, But anyway, and so Bob said it was
a strange agony to be performing, but not really in
his words, quote, we sang along every night at Divere concerts,
but the audience was not allowed to heal our voices
we can sing and that so all while you forget
that it's not your voice, but were afraid to tell anybody.
When people find out you're not really singing, your credibility
is shot. You just a joke? Yeah, yes, Rob, pretty much.

(35:07):
That's the truth. Brother, So Rob, he spoke to this.
There's a psychological imprisonment, this distortion of reality that they
started going through. You said quote. One of the weird
psychological things about doing what we did is that after
you perform one hundred concerts, slowly but surely, you begin
to believe you really are the singer scooze you up,
you're out on stage and you just catch yourself thinking
that it really is your own voice. Right, that's gotta

(35:29):
be weird, right to start hypnotizing yourself and pop songs
until you believe you are the singer of the songs.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Anyway, Meanwhile, the record company Fat Cats, they make sure
that no one will question their end of the video,
so BMG and Frankie Ferry, and they make sure that
neither Rob nor Fab ever speak to a lawyer or
even an agent, and instead they slap a label on
the back of each album that pushes the lie a
former BMG marketing director, Carston Hayne. He said, quote, the
record company made sure that it was written on the
back cover of the singles and the album that the

(35:55):
vocals were Robert and Fabrise. The record company did this
on purpose in order to avoid all the questions, so
they could say to the media, look at the cover,
what does it say?

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Wait, so they didn't have agents.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
No, So the reason why there were questions was because
Robin fab weren't good at lip syncing as much. I mean,
they were pretty good, right yeah, but you know, but
that was a big part of the deal. But also
they look the part, and so to the untrained eye,
they were pretty convincing, right right. Then there would be
their on camera interviews. That's when the questions blossomed. Oh no,
but do you think it was odd that two euro
brothers with thick German and French accents was sing an

(36:28):
unmistakably American accented pop singing voices?

Speaker 2 (36:31):
A little bit weird? Right, you're looking back.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Looking back at the time. I heard this when it
was new. I heard this when it was pop music,
and I told my sister, who was a big fan
of them, I'm like, that's not them. There's no way
you're getting that voice out of that. Do you hear them?
That's talking like this, Megan, And then they're singing like this,
Oh yeah, no, it's very thick accent, right, So that
becomes a problem for them. And so now the next

(36:56):
month April eighty nine, a month or so under their
Populitz in America Robin fab they seek legal protection because
they start realizing it's going to be so long before
someone's gonna be left holding his bag. Now, they signed
a contract with Galen Morey Associates for legal representation. They
want someone to fight for their legal right to sing
their own songs, which they weren't really their own songs,
but anyway, they wanted to be able to sing on

(37:16):
their next album and on their next tour. Now, at
the time, Sandy Galen was a top agent in Hollywood,
so they felt finally protected. They have somebody to fight
their producer. Meanwhile, they also began to taste some of
the fruits of their success. They moved into a home
in Beverly Hills. It was a rental, but they shared
a house right you know, for the summer. They began
to like, you know, now they're also touring, so they

(37:36):
really didn't get to like be in their house much.
They probably there.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
For like a week space you say, but they're also
they're good buddies.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
I don't know anyway, So they performed at some big
summer shows. You know, this is their first taste of trouble.
And rather than me is telling you about Elizabeth, I'd
like to close your eyes and to take sure it's
July twenty first, nineteen eighty nine. You are hot, You
are sticky with humidity. You smell like some tan lotion
and other people's sweat. You are at a summer tour

(38:03):
event for the show MTV Club. You, along with tens
of thousands of teenagers, are currently in the Lake Compounds
theme park in Bristol, Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
My god, count even build to perform today?

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Are was not Wassaurtone Loak and Millie Vanilly The moment
you are in a throng of screaming teenagers and on
stage is Milli Vanilly. You wonder how you got here?
I do, and I'll tell you it's not pretty. You
signed up to be a chaperone for a Girl Scout
Troops trip to a theme park. You thought you'd ride

(38:34):
some rides some cotton candy, maybe get a sunburn instead.
You're listening to cotton candy, and you do indeed have
a good sunburn going, and you're indeed on a roller
coaster of emotion. So at the moment the duo Milli
Vanilly is bouncing around on stage, dancing and singing. At
the same time, they are a whirl of braid extensions
and black leather jackets, and you're like, in this heat anyway.

(38:54):
There's also the spandex It's a whole thing. As the
mostly teenage crowd sings along with girl you know It's true. Ooh, ooh, ooh,
you want to go home so badly. Oh yeah, but
you have at least three more hours of this. You
wonder how much longer this MTV club show can possibly last.
The Girl Scouts left this part of the trip out
of the planet, and then you hear it, the same

(39:16):
lyrics over and over again. Girl you know it, Girl,
you know it. Girl, you know it. Girl, you know it, Girl,
you know it. The song is skipping on stage. The
two performers don't know what to do, so they just
keep dancing as the song keeps skipping. Girl you know
It's girl, you know it. On the inside, Rob is
thinking I knew right down and it was the beginning
of the INFAMI. When my voice got stuck in the

(39:38):
computer and it just kept repeating and repeating my voice,
I panicked. So the song just continues to skip. The
dude who's working the soundboard, Dude, couldn't you just hit
the fast forward button? But nope?

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Why is it skipping on like a digital track? I
would assume.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
So the kids are just beginning to realize this is
not intentional. This is not a DJ cutting up the record.
This is a CD scratching.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
They don't have a microphone held up to a record player, Like,
how is this skipping?

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Well, it's a CD skip, a skipping CD, so it's
like digital skip. Yeah. Right. Also, backstage, you see Millie
or Vanilli run off stage. It turns out it was Rob.
He'd later say, I didn't know what to do. I
just ran off the stage. So your eyes follow the
fleeing pop star and as you see him run smack
dab into downtown, Julie Brown, the legendary MTV VJ with

(40:25):
the hip British accent, she stops Rob. It looks like
she's clearly urging him to go back out on stage.
Bob is still out there. He's dancing over the skipping song.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
He's skipping.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
He's a trooper. So you clearly see a few mouth
f bombs, and then there's a head nod and Rob
agrees to go back out on stage. He rejoins his
partner Fob, because why, Elizabeth, you already know the answer.
The show must go on. The fifteen thousand or so
kids watching the show are never really the wiser. The
ones who do figure it out, they know it's a
CD skipping. They aren't bothered because you know, their performers

(40:56):
are lip syncing at a show in Bristol, Connecticut theme park.
Maybe they wouldn't be singing. There's no negative repercussions that
day whatsoever. Meanwhile, you go back to wondering when this
MTV Club show will be over, or at least when
will Tone Lok be on stage. Okay, as it turns out,
a few of the sun drunk teams and the actually
drunk older members of the MTV audience, they noticed the

(41:17):
Milli Vanilli did disaster going down. They saw, just like
you that There were others though, who were backstage and
they noticed and when they noticed, talk got out industry
kind of talk a whisper campaign began. Now, when I
was reading about this, I like to imagine a conference
room at Arista Records, like the next day after this event,
and there's like talk around the table and like just
probably went something like this, like okay, so that wasn't great,

(41:40):
and someone else like chimed in, could we maybe let
them really sing next time? I mean, how bad could
that be? And then some other executives like, oh yeah, no,
that that could be worse. And then they're like the
first guy's, well, you know what the real problem is.
It's not their singing, it's their talking. Can we just
get them to stop talking? So now everyone in the
room agrees and it gets real quiet. Anyway, my point,
the American music press, they start to feast on all

(42:01):
the questions that are arisen now, and so the late
night talk show hosts they also sees on this. Ourcineo
hall particularly brutal. He stayed on them making jokes about
the German accented pop stars with the flawless American singing voices. Yeah,
it was like his new favorite go to joke, right,
It was so obvious for people. Even Rob said quote,
every time we give an interview with the reports is

(42:21):
with him my French accent to Rob's German accents. They say,
no way, how could these guys have sung these songs if.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
He has a friend, where are you giving?

Speaker 3 (42:29):
You know what, Elizabeth, I like doing a German accent
more than a French accent because I just sound like
I'm making fun of the French, Whereas with the Germans
they're like, also, please leave us out of this. But
you know what, they can't stop me. Those are my people,
so deal with it. And so anyway, he also said,
the more we talked to West Thing's god, we were
afraid the truth would come out. It's kind of like
when I talk the worst thing anyway. So, after their

(42:50):
MTV gig in July, Million only stops doing all press
or interviews. They go no more talking, but they keep performing.
So their team seems to hope that all the talk
will just kind of melt away and they can go
back to printing money out of pop songs. The talk
does not go away, Elizabeth, No. So in August, some
meeting is called and Frank Ferry and his girlfriend Ingrid
aka Millie, along with Robin Fab. They take an elevator

(43:12):
up to the one hundred and seventh floor of the
World Trade Center. There they meet the executives from Arista Records.
They all lunch at Windows on the World Restaurant. I
view must have been incredible. Anyway, the subject of the meeting,
how quickly can we improve their English and make it
seem like they actually plausibly sang their own songs. No
one has an answer. So clearly the record company is
aware of the scam that they are perpetuating.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Now, Todd Hedley, the duo's manager at the time, he
said that quote, anyone who worked closely with Milly Vanilli
has known from the get go that these guys do
not sing their own material. When I came on board,
every record company official at Arista and BMG knew it.
Everybody in the management company knew it. That's why most
of their employees are forced to sign a confidential clause
binding them to stay silent. So there we have some evidence. However,

(43:56):
the folks from Arista, they have maintained their innocence. They
claim that they did not know that Rob or Fab
weren't singing on their records. Yeah, and I'm sure. Iheart's
lawyers would insist that I add that this is quote
from Arista that quote. Any assertions to the contrary are
false and libelous, and regarding Millie and or Vanilli quote,
we deplore their attempts to distort the record and to
falsely accuse Arista and its executives. So there you go.
That's been saying record industry legend. Clive Davis, he was

(44:19):
at that summ At dinner. He was the big boss
of the dinner. It's been claimed that he was fully
aware of the hoax and that was going down. Others
say he was innocent and unaware, So who's to say.
I have my opinion exactly. Anyway, Now you remember Charles Shaw, Yes,
he was the American brother who was the rapper on
the album. He was the one who was fired when
he threatened Frank Ferry and he said he would snitch. Well,
he was good to his word. Charles Shaw finally got

(44:40):
his revenge. Millie Vanilli. They're back on the continent now
for their first big European tour. They've left America trying
to maybe put some distance between them and all these
ugly rumors. Meanwhile, Charles Shaw he sits down for an
interview with John Leland, a writer from New York News Day.
He tells the reporter the whole story, how he was
one of three male vocalists featured on the album, and
that Robin Fabb did not saying a single note on

(45:01):
the album. At that same time, Frank Ferry and he
finds Charles Shaw. He starts throwing money at Shaw to
shut up and go away, and at first he's like,
but you also have to retract your statement. So Frank
Ferry and he offers the rapper one hundred and fifty
grand to take back what he said. This is more
than he's given the boys rock the albums right. Shaw
doesn't take it at that point. Millie Vanilli is a
behemoth of pop music. The dude at this point has

(45:22):
sold fourteen million albums. They are certified pop stars. And
then the unthinkable happens. In February of the next year,
as a controversy is now swirling and denials persisting, Millie
Vanilli wins the Grammy Award for the Best New Artist.
Fabric called how at that moment at the Grammy spell
for them backstage that night, he said, Rob and I hugged. Sorry,
if you I'll do it. Rob and I hugged each

(45:44):
other instead of to may have looked like joy and happiness,
but inside it was pure confusion. We knew this would
come back to bite us since the butt. The folks
at the record label weren't so thrilled about this Grammy win,
which is rare normally they like a war. But a
former head of creative services at Arista, this dude ken,
He said, and I quote, we all knew by the
time of the awards that they hadn't sung on the album.
So it was a little awkward and uncomfortable for us

(46:07):
when they did win. Yeah, I bet it was. There
can So at this point now, Neil even Elli, they
know their moment is over. So what do they do? Elizabeth,
they know it's just a matter of time. They go
whole hog and they really live it up. So in March,
a month after their Grammy win, Rob is quoted in
Time magazine. He gets straight up heretical. He says, and
I quote, Musically, we are more talented than any Bob Dylan. Musically,

(46:28):
we are more talented than Paul mccotney, Nick Jagga. His
lines are not clear he don't know how he should
produce a sound. I'm the new modern rock and roll.
I'm the new Elvis.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Wait, wait, wow, right to the top.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
So to his credit, Rob later clarified his comments. He
said that the reporter misunderstood his German accent. I didn't
say Elvis. I said Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks.
I'm the new Alvin. No, I don't know what he
said anyway. April nineteen ninety, our senior he invites Million
Vanilly to perform live and just prove that they can sing.
They do not take the gig. That same month, Damon

(47:05):
Wayne's Keenan Wayne's they do a very famous send up
of Millie Vanilli on the Big Color. Do you remember that? Yeah?
They that pretty much killed them. Then comes August and
then suddenly there is a new Milli Vanilli album no
one asked for. The title is a great choice considering
the timing of the context. It's called keep on Running Now.
It was a pure cash grab by Frank Farrion. Farian

(47:25):
Debut is the new Milli Vanilli album at a listening
party in Frankfurt from music executives. The album features a
female singer, a rapper, two male singers, the same session
singers as the first album, and still no Robin Fab.
All they ever wanted was to sing on their second record.
As Robb recalled a Frank Farian, he would not allow
us into the studio. Then he said that the new

(47:46):
album was already cut with other singers and it was
too late, so we falced the issue. He's a white
German guy who has a big complex about the black artists.
He did it with Bonie m and he did it
with us. He's a control freak, oh right. So when
their new album is released in a Maria, there's a
new title, the Moment of Truth, because I already has
no bounds. So the duo's now called, by the way,

(48:06):
the real Millie Vanilli, like the real Ghostbusters or something.
When the new album failed to charte or gain any heat,
Frank Ferry and tried to control the narrative, so he
claimed that he'd fired Rob and Fab and then Fery
and tried a quick rebrand of the new band as quote,
try n B like apostrophe, capital n apostrophe, So try
capital n B, or.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Like try and B, try and B.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
Yeah, we try and B. We try and boss that's
what I heard. I don't know anyway. Finally, to distance
himself from what he had done, Fairy And tells a
reporter from the La Times that neither Rob nor Fab
had performed a single note on their album. The truth
is now out there from the source, and then Millie
Vanilly is immediately dropped from Arista Records. Smash cut to
the Voice of Reason aka A generation's newsman MTV News

(48:54):
is Kurt Loader. He said, at the time it couldn't
happen to nicer people when they said they were better
than Paul McCartney. They were setting themselves up for a fall.
I love it with undercut. So in the La Time story,
Rob comes clean as well. He told Chuck Phillips. The
writers are from the La Times quote, I feel like
a mosquito being squeezed. The last three years of our
lives have been a total night Tomare. We've had to

(49:14):
lie to everybody. We own the true singers, but that
maniac Frank Farran would never allow us to express ourselves.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I love that he's the mosquito being like, you're parasite.
Yeah exactly, Okay, yeah, four things.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
So that same day the La Times Stories comes out
that night on David Letterman, for his top ten monologue
of the night, he lists top ten new jobs for
Millie Vanilly. Oh go, I went back and I watched
that episode. The top ten list is not a funny one.
Number five professional objects of scoring a ridicule for years
to come. Number four fact checkers at twenty twenty, the

(49:48):
buckwheat division. Wait, Number three, yes, number three even newer
kids on the block. Number two extremely groovy fry cooks.
And number one who cares just as long as we
don't hear from them ever again?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Can I turn the car around and go back to
number four?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Oh, the buckwheat division?

Speaker 2 (50:04):
But what yeah?

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Right, okay, oh wow? Oh yeah no, this is like
nineteen ninety so it doesn't matter. Yeah no, I'm not saying,
just placing it in the context of time. Yes, this
was the casual racism I grew up with, Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
This is it the casual racism.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
So three days after the Letterman Top ten list, nearly
time story runs the Grammys people they step into the
fray to minimize the stink that's getting on them. They
revoke the award, the only time they've ever done that,
the one they hand out to Millie Vanilli. They take
back right, so no one can ever say Grammy Award
winning Millie Vanill ever again. The question then becomes, well,
which one of the runner ups, Yeah, win the award?

(50:42):
Everybody wants to know, Elizabeth. Can you guess who the
runners up were? For the best? They are in nineteen
nineteen ninety nineteen, So the album would be a nineteen
eighty nine album. Oh God, give you a hint. Here's
the one. Nana Cherry, Oh yeah she was. She was awesome.
Don Cherry's daughter.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
I just I don't he was up? I see where the.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
Group sold a Saul and the folk duo Indigo Girls.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Oh my god? Who one is?

Speaker 3 (51:08):
And if Grammy folks decide the award will go to
No One? Yes, well, no award this year? And what
a lineup of crazy Indigo Girls versus Tone Loach so
five D. After the story breaks, Rob and Fab they
give a press conference because everybody wants to hear from them.
They agreed to return their Grammy and then to prove
that they really can sing and rap, they perform for

(51:31):
the gaggle of journalists. About one hundred different journalists are there.
Their voice coach is also there. And he's at the
press conference. He told the reporters that they can sing
up to Pavaratti's high Sea not as well as Pavaratti,
but they did do it. That's a quote from him. Now,
Rob his personal is confession as to why they went
along for the Milli Vanilli ride. He tells the gathered
press quote, we were living together in the projects with
two other musicians in Munich. We had nothing to eat,

(51:53):
and we are unhappy. We wanted to be stalls, and
suddenly this guy gave us a chance and we took
it pretty much straightforward. Where they happy it was over.
We hear about this often with criminals. Were they happy
it was over? You better believe it, Elizabeth. It was
house kazeiting it. It means outstanding in German, So anyway,
someone would have to pay for the crimes of Millie Vanilli. Right,

(52:13):
So they said, quote, we're happy that it's over, but
we don't understand that it's us, the two little guys
from Germany, the victims who have to play suddenly the
role of the crooks. Now I would make the same point. Now,
were they these two scheming artists who conned the innocent
music industry with their devious plans. No, clearly, not with anything.
Rob and Fab were the ones who were conned. We
went along for the ride as much as anybody, if

(52:33):
not more so than anyone. They were conned. But yet
the world is still mad at them. Right, everybody suddenly
hates them. Meanwhile, Frank Farrian and Clive Davis Arista record executives.
They all knew the score, and they all profited a ton,
and then they all left Robin Fab holding the bag
of stinking dookie.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
In public derision, right exactly, but.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
They owned it. These dudes owned it once again. A man,
Rob Polaitis, he said, quote all of our lives, we
dreamed about Hollywood, We dreamed about Sunset Boulevard and Zibeat.
We became big. It's not like we cried every night
or something. We have to be honest. We were pressurized
with fear, but we will still play us. We had
lots of good times with the girls and the money
and the champagne and all that. We sold our souls
to the devil. We lied to our families, on our friends,

(53:13):
we let on our fans. We realized exactly what we
did to achieve our success. We made some very big mistakes,
and we apologize. We were afraid for two years that
this day would come. We've cried about it sometimes that
the secret might come out, but deep inside we wanted
it to happen now. The quieter of the two, fab Moribun,
He said at the same press conference. We loved being
on stage, We loved being in front of an audience.

(53:34):
Rob and I never meant it to go this way.
Our producer tricked us. We signed contracts as singers, but
we were never allowed to contribute. It was a nightmare
we were living alive. The psychological pressure was very hard.
It was like we were trapped in some golden prison.
So once the truth comes out, there of course this
string of lawsuits, twenty six of them to be exact. Oh,
there's even a lawsuit from the band Blood Sweat and Tears.
They got him there, like know right, well, they apparently

(53:57):
they accused the group of stealing one of their melodies
for song spinning Wheel, and using it for a girl.
You know it's true and if you listen to it,
it's pretty clear. Okay, so the lawyer wrote in this
legal briefs quote, this lawsuit is about the song they
never wrote on the album. They never sang you gotta
hand it to Homie for that anyway. Fun fact, during
their madcap rocking ride through Fame and American Star to
Millie Vanilli ended up performing with Bob Dylan what and

(54:20):
the rest of the Willberry's Traveling or Otherwise. Yes, Rob
and Bab were in the Traveling Willberry's music video. I
don't know, I can look it up. I had a
note for an earlier but I don't have with me
right now. Sorry. Yeah, but what I am saying is this,
they were everywhere, Elizabeth. For a moment. They were huge,
they were they was the new rock and roll, they
were the new Elvis, and then they were gone. Poof.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Now, I think my man Rob he subbed it up
at the best period when he said the hardest thing
to take was kids in the school bus sticking out
their tongues at me.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
That was the hardest thing, dude.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
I'm with them on this, Elizabeth. If you ever had
like a teenager murk you in public, that it's my
personal nightmare. I'd rather have to face a snake a
person with a gun than like two teenage girls.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Terrible. Oh my god, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
They're merciless. They see everything an adult wants to hide.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
It's like terminator visions. They know and then they go right.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
And they also they don't, you know, like they talk
like rattlesninks. Baby rattlesnanks are the ones that are the
most dangerous because they don't know how much talksin to
put in, so they just put a full load in.
So you never want to be struck by a small rattlesnake.
It's always be struck by a big rattleskan that's teenagers.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Yeah, that's very true.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Anyway, so I feel them on the whole. They were
ticking their tongues. I imagine they were saying stuff beyond
that you didn't want to say. Anyway. How does the
Milli Vanilly story end?

Speaker 2 (55:27):
I don't think it ends.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Well, there's some darkness. Actually, there's a lot of darkness,
and we're not We're just gonna skip over that and
instead I will leave you with this. In December twenty
twenty five, more von He gave an interview to Variety,
and he said of their time as Millie Vanilly quote,
we were seduced and very young. We had no life experience.
We were riding the wave it was a crazy adventure.
We were getting loaded, trying to escape constantly a fear
of being discovered. We've been carrying this cross for a

(55:49):
long time. We've been blamed over and over. We are
victims of our own dreams of stardom who tooled up
and spit out by the record industry machine. I've always
been underestimated. My dream was to be a single, our
song right to I'm able to look at zama to
today and be happy with what they see. So there
is that he no longer sees Milly or Vanilly in
the mirror. He just sees fob Yeah, and a reflection

(56:11):
of happiness. So what's our ridiculous takeaway? Elizabeth Man, I.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Don't think people understand like the power that.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
You know, fame and the desire for fame.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
That desire, it's the glamour of it. It's so the
floorful and intoxicating for people, and they will do all
sorts of stupid, crazy.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Things, especially when they first get a taste of it,
because then you want to keep it going. You waited
so long to get to this point, you don't want
to lose that.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yeah, when you see like parents who get their kids
involved in it and they will overlook all sorts of
red flags. But it's like because there's that chance that
they and their kids will be rich and famous, and
like it is, it's the glamour of it all. Like
he was saying, like, you know, you're living in la
and you're riding around in limos.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
And you have a lot of co conspirators. Yeah, there's
a lot of other people helping out who are making
a lot off of this, and then they're just the
front for this and.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
They will puff you up. They'll tell you everything you
need to hear.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
No more, we got you.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Yeah, So I really I really feel for them.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
I did too well. My ridiculous take away, Elizabeth, once again,
thank you for us as always is. I can't do
a French accent. Sorry, I'm just I'm just not going
to talk. You know, French accents for some has a
lot of talking. Like you don't want to hear that
much of my French accent. Anyway. That's it. That's my
ridiculous takeaway.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Excellent.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
You can always find us online Ridiculous Crime on Twitter, Instagram,
We have a website, ridiculous Crime dot com. You can
also do talkbacks on the iHeart app. We love those.
Email us if you want a Ridiculous Crime at Gmail,
and as always, remember Dear Elizabeth, that's how it should starts.
Once again, thanks for listening and always we'll be back
Next Crime. Ridiculous Crimes hosted by Elizabeth Dunton and Zaren Burnettes,

(57:55):
produced and edited by The MILLI to our Vanilly, Dave Kusty.
Researches by Marissa Nanay, was Rob Brown and Andrea I'm
a tone Lope Truther song sharpened t hear our theme
song is by Thomas one Hit Wonder Lee and Travis.
Kurt Loder was Right Duttony. Post wardrobe provided by Botany
five hundreds. Executive producers are Ben I always preferred Technotronic,

(58:16):
Holand and Noel Yeah pump up the jams.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
Round CUI say it one more time, geek Cry.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts
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