Fab Morvan (Milli Vanilli)
Written by Ricardo Waddell Lewis on 20/05/2020
More About Fab Morvan:
Fabrice Morvan (born 14 May 1966) is a French singer-songwriter, rapper, dancer, and model.
He was half of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, with Rob Pilatus, selling multi-platinum albums around the world. However, he was later involved in one of the largest scandals in pop music history when it was revealed that neither he nor Pilatus had actually sung on any of Milli Vanilli’s recordings. After the scandal, the group reformed as Rob & Fab in the 1990s with limited success. Morvan had a solo comeback in the 2000s releasing his first solo album, Love Revolution.
Early years:
Morvan was born in 1966 in Paris, France, to parents from Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.[1] At 18, he moved to Germany, where he was a dancer and model, and was influenced by funk, soul, hip hop and pop.
He met Rob Pilatus in a nightclub in Munich.
They decided to form a rock/soul group.
According to one interview after the Milli Vanilli scandal, Fab moonlighted as a McDonald’s employee.
Fame:
Morvan and Pilatus were noticed by music producer Frank Farian, who signed them as part of a musical act. Shortly after a trip to Turkey, where they reputedly got the band’s name from local advertising slogan, Milli Vanilli was born. Morvan and Pilatus served as the public faces for singers Charles Shaw, John Davis, and Brad Howell, who Farian thought were talented musicians but lacked a marketable image.
The first Milli Vanilli album was Girl You Know It’s True. Despite critical derision, Milli Vanilli’s fame continued to grow worldwide. The album had four hit singles: the title track, and the group’s three #1 hits, “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You“, “Baby Don’t Forget My Number“, and “Blame It on the Rain“. Milli Vanilli won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist on 22 February 1990 for Girl You Know It’s True.
Morvan and Pilatus were a frequent target of rumors and allegations of on-stage lip-synching and not having sung on the album.
Shaw told a reporter the truth about Milli Vanilli but recanted after Farian paid him $150,000 to do so.
When Morvan and Pilatus pressured Farian to let them sing on the next album, Farian admitted to reporters on 15 November 1990 that Morvan and Pilatus had not actually sung on any of the records. As a result, Milli Vanilli’s Grammy was withdrawn four days later and Arista Records dropped the act from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalog, thus making Girl You Know It’s True one of the largest-selling albums to ever be taken out of print. A court allowed any American who bought the album to get a refund.
Farian would later attempt a failed comeback for the group without Morvan and Pilatus.
Aftermath:
Months later, Morvan and Pilatus parodied the scandal in a commercial for Carefree sugarless gum.
They began to lip sync to an opera recording. An announcer asked as they were lip-synching, “How long does the taste of Carefree sugarless gum last?” The record then began to skip and the announcer answers, “Until these guys sing for themselves.”
They then moved to Los Angeles, where they released an eponymous album under the name Rob & Fab.
Despite positive reviews from critics, the album failed due to financial constraints, poor promotion, and the scandal surrounding Milli Vanilli’s lip-synching allegations. The album itself only sold around 2,000 copies.
Pilatus later served three months in jail for assault, vandalism, and attempted robbery.
He spent six months on drug rehabilitation before returning to Germany.
He died of an alcohol and prescription drug overdose at a hotel in Frankfurt on 2 April 1998.
Solo comeback:
Morvan spent several years as a session musician and public speaker. In 1998, he was hired as a radio DJ at famed L.A. radio station KIIS-FM.
During this time, he also performed at the station’s sold-out 1999 Wango Tango festival concert before 50,000 people at Dodger Stadium.
In 1997, Morvan was interviewed for the premiere episode of VH-1‘s Behind the Music.
He was also featured in a 2000 BBC documentary on Milli Vanilli. Morvan then spent 2001 on tour, before performing in 2002 as the inaugural performer at the brand-new Velvet Lounge at the Hard Rock Café Hotel in Orlando, Florida.
In 2003, Morvan released his first solo album, Love Revolution, producing, recording, writing and singing all the tracks. On 14 April 2011, Morvan released a new single, “Anytime”, to digital outlets.
On 25 May 2012, Morvan released a single, “See the Light” with a new band, Fabulous Addiction.
In March 2014, it was mentioned that Morvan was working on his next single in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning viral producer Clarence Jey and Grammy-winning singer Delious Kennedy from U.S. R&B group All-4-One.
Morvan also DJs for private Heineken functions at the Heineken Experience center in Amsterdam. As a solo musician, Morvan has worked with several DJ/producers including Don Diablo, Guy J, Dance Spirit, Desert Minds, DJ Prinz, Patrick BP Bruyndonx, MuziJunki, Sean McCaff, Limoncello, Guan Elmzoom, and has collaborated on well-received dance releases with several. Some of his other pursuits include writing, painting, and fashion design.
Film and Best of the Best album
On 14 February 2007, it was announced that Universal Pictures was developing a film based on the true story of Milli Vanilli’s rise and fall in the music industry.
Jeff Nathanson, a screenwriter from Catch Me If You Can, was to write and direct the film. Morvan was supposed to serve as a consultant, providing his and Pilatus’ point of view.
However, the project was never completed.
In 2011 German director Florian Gallenberger declared that he was reviving the project and would be rewriting the script.
On 26 March 2007, the Milli Vanilli Best of the Best album was released.
Morvan now resides in Amsterdam and Los Angeles as of 2010.
All or Nothing is the debut album by dance pop duo Milli Vanilli, released only in Europe on the Hansa label in November 1988. In 1989, it was repackaged and retitled Girl You Know It’s True for release in the United States on the Arista label, with several of the original album tracks replaced and/or remixed. After 1990, due to lip-synching allegations, a disclaimer sticker was added on the cover to explicitly name the singers who provided vocals on the album.
Although All or Nothing was replaced in America with Girl You Know It’s True, All or Nothing is available on the American iTunes Store.
In December 1990, singer-songwriter David Clayton-Thomas sued Milli Vanilli for copyright infringement, alleging that the title track of All or Nothing used the melody from his 1968 composition “Spinning Wheel“, a hit for his group Blood, Sweat & Tears
Track listing
| 1. | “Can’t You Feel My Love” | Toby Gad, Jens Gad | 3:32 |
| 2. | “Boy in the Tree” | T. Gad, J. Gad | 3:10 |
| 3. | “Money” | Frank Farian, Michael Newman, Kerim Saka | 4:09 |
| 4. | “Dance with a Devil” | Farian, P. G. Wilder, Newman, Jayne Collins | 3:12 |
| 5. | “I’m Gonna Miss You” | Farian, Dietmar Kawohl, Phil Bishop | 3:59 |
| 6. | “All or Nothing“ | Farian, Wilder, Brad Nail | 3:19 |
| 7. | “Baby Don’t Forget My Number“ | Farian, Nail | 4:09 |
| 8. | “Dreams to Remember” | Farian, Kawohl, Mary Applegate | 3:56 |
| 9. | “Is It Love” | T. Gad, J. Gad | 3:22 |
| 10. | “Ma Baker“ | Farian, Fred Jay, George Reyam | 4:24 |
| 11. | “Girl You Know It’s True” (maxi version – super club mix) | Bill Pettaway, Sean Spencer, Kevin Lyles, Rodney Hollaman, Ky Adeyemo | 8:48 |
| 12. | “Hush“ | Joe South | 3:12 |
| 13. | “Too Much Monkey Business” (maxi version) (bonus track) | Farian | 1:48 |
Girl You Know It’s True is a 1989 album that was the US debut of German pop group Milli Vanilli.
It is a reconfigured and repackaged version of Milli Vanilli’s Europe-only release All or Nothing for the US market.
The album was a major success in the US, producing five singles that entered the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100, three of which reached the top position. On January 1990, Girl You Know It’s True was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA after spending seven weeks atop the Billboard Top 200.
Additionally, the album spent 41 weeks within the top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 and 78 weeks within the charts overall.
The album was also certified Diamond in Canada, denoting shipments of over a million units there.
The success of the album earned the duo a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Following the scandal exposed by Los Angeles Times journalist Chuck Philips that revealed that Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan did not sing on their album,
Arista Records dropped the act from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalog, making it one of the largest-selling albums to ever be taken out of print. In addition, their Grammy was revoked, marking the first time a Grammy was ever rescinded from an artist.
According to producer Frank Farian, the decision to repackage All or Nothing as Girl You Know It’s True was made by Arista Records president Clive Davis.
In addition to including five of the tracks that originally appeared on All or Nothing (“I’m Gonna Miss You”, “All or Nothing”, “Baby Don’t Forget My Number”, “Dreams to Remember” and “Girl You Know It’s True”), Girl You Know It’s True featured several new tracks, including “Blame It on the Rain“, which would go on to be a worldwide hit single, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In Europe, the track later appeared in an extended version on the album All or Nothing – The U.S. Remix Album.
Career
In the wake of the Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal, Pilatus and Morvan went to the studio and recorded a song, “Don’t Give Up The Fight”, to prove that they could sing. Even though they performed it on multiple TV shows, they never officially released it. Both Pilatus and Morvan then moved to Los Angeles and acquired a new manager, Sandy Gallin. They signed with The Joss Entertainment Group, with whom they recorded new songs featuring their own vocals.
Their first and only album, Rob & Fab, was financed by Joss subsidiary Taj Records in 1992 and released under the Joss Entertainment label in 1993. A single, “We Can Get It On”, was made available for radio play to promote the album and was eventually performed on the Arsenio Hall Show but it did not see much commercial success. Additionally, due to financial constraints, the album was distributed only in the United States, the market that had become the most critical of Milli Vanilli. “We Can Get It On” failed to chart and the album itself only sold around 2,000 copies.
Over the next two years, the relationship between Pilatus and Morvan soured and the pair eventually stopped speaking to one another. The duo subsequently disbanded and Taj Records went out of business shortly thereafter. Rob & Fab would be the final work by Pilatus prior to his death in 1998. A Milli Vanilli comeback album, Back and in Attack, was recorded in 1997 but remains unreleased.
Morvan would go on to have a solo career, releasing his first album, Love Revolution, in 2003.
Track listing
- “We Can Get It On” (Kenny Taylor, Ivan May, Fabrice Morvan) – 3:38
- “Do I” (Kenny Taylor) – 4:19
- “Please Don’t Throw It All Away” (Kenny Taylor, Renard Gallo) – 3:40
- “A Kiss 4 Now” (Kenny Taylor, Rob Pilatus) – 3:54
- “That’s What My Heart Says” (Steve Deutsch, Larry Brown) – 4:14
- “Where Do We Go from Here?” (Kenny Taylor, Fabrice Morvan) – 4:17
- “Get Ready” (Volker Barber, Rob Pilatus, Fabrice Morvan) – 4:30
- “Let’s Do It” (Kenny Taylor, Ricki Taylor) – 3:39
- “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” (Mick Leeson, Peter Vale) – 4:53
- “Land of the Free” (Volker Barber, Rob Pilatus, Fabrice Morvan) – 4:29
- “I Want You to Want Me” (Rick Nielsen) – 4:29
Love Revolution, released in 2003, was Fabrice Morvan‘s first and only solo album, his latest since Rob & Fab, recorded with Rob Pilatus. The record was the brainchild of Morvan manager Kim Marlowe, who A&R’ed and served as executive producer on the album. All the songs were written, sung and produced by Morvan himself. The album features the song “It’s Your Life”, a memorial for Pilatus, their eventful career as Milli Vanilli, and was favorably reviewed in HITS magazine by Sr. Editor Roy Trakin.
Track listing
- “Heaven” – 3:34
- “Foul Play” – 3:27
- “Don’t Tell Me” – 3:18
- “Dreamin'” – 3:17
- “Look Here” – 3:55
- “Imagine” – 3:54
- “Tables Turn” – 3:06
- “On the Wrong Side” – 4:19
- “Immortal Songs” – 3:54
- “Love Revolution” – 4:18
- “How Could We Be So Sure” – 4:31
- “It’s Your Life” – 2:19
“One of These Nights” is a song written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey and recorded by the American rock band Eagles.
The title track from their One of These Nights album, the song became their second single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart after “Best of My Love” and also helped propel the album to number one. The single version was shortened from the album version of the song, removing most of the song’s intro and most of its fade-out, as well. Henley is lead vocalist on the verses, while Randy Meisner sings high harmony (not lead) on the refrain. The song features a guitar solo by Don Felder that is “composed of blues-based licks and sustained string bends using an unusually meaty distortion tone.”
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- vanbergh@wxs.nl
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