Frank Farian, the German singer, songwriter and producer behind eurodisco hit-machine Boney M, pop duo Milli Vanilli and numerous other chart-topping acts has died aged 82, his agency has announced.
Born Franz Reuther in Kirn, western Germany, he started his career as a solo musician, and enjoyed a hit with a schlager version of the country song Rocky in 1976. Around the same time, he came up with the idea for Boney M, a disco group of four West Indian singers and dancers that he masterminded.
The band charted worldwide with such songs as Daddy Cool (1976), Ma Baker (1977), Rasputin (1978) and Rivers of Babylon (1978) – Farian sang the deep-voiced male vocal parts in the studio, with Bobby Farrell the male face of the group who performed the songs live.
Farian later also produced the pop duo Milli Vanilli, who became embroiled in a major scandal when it emerged that duo Fab Morvan und Rob Pilatus had merely lip-synced their hits’ vocals. As with Boney M, Farian had recorded the act’s first songs before its members ever met in a studio.
“My condolences to his family,” Morvan said in a statement his management sent to the Guardian. “His music will live on. We can never deny the happiness and joy it brought into this world.”
Sometimes dubbed “Mr German Hit”, Farian claimed to have turned down Michael Jackson’s invitation to produce songs for his 1991 album, Dangerous, because he wanted to concentrate on Boney M, but later worked with artists including Stevie Wonder, Meat Loaf and Terence Trent D’Arby.
He continued to produce bands into the 90s, landing another hit with euro dance duo La Bouche’s Be My Lover in 1995.
Having trained as a chef before opting for a career in the music business, he once likened his method of producing chart hits to cooking. “The ingredients have to be right,” he told Der Spiegel. “You need a fantastic interpreter, you can’t do it without a good voice. And the song has to be catchy, with a good melody and a memorable chorus.”
With over 800m records sold worldwide, Farian is considered the most successful German pop producer ever, though his achievements generally found more recognition abroad than in his native country.
At the height of Boney M’s success, in 1978, the Soviet Union’s politburo handed Farian’s band a rare permission to play a concert in Moscow, picking up the musicians and their producer on military planes. They performed 10 concerts in the Soviet Union, under the stipulation that they were not allowed to play their latest hit, Rasputin.
Written by Farian along with along with George Reyam and Fred Jay, the song gives a miniature history lesson on the mystical healer and adviser to the family Nicholas II, the last emperor, including contemporary rumours that he was a “lover of the Russian queen” and “Russia’s greatest love machine”.
“Our work was truly blessed and so enjoyed by people around the world who had the privilege to hear it down the years,” said Liz Mitchell, the Jamaican-born British singer who was part of the original Boney M lineup.
“We shared and united under a star which rose above and beyond what we ever dared to expect. I say well done to the work that we did. Rest in peace Frank.”
Farian, who received a heart valve transplant in 2022, died peacefully at his home in Miami, his agency Allendorf Media announced on Tuesday.