Wndyri Plus subscribers can listen to Blame It On The Fame, Millie Vanille, early and ad-free. Join WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcast. Robin Fabb watched from the back seat of a rental car as white sand beaches zipped by. Every beach they passed looked like a postcard. Well, an R-rated postcard. The The women were topless, the men were in thongs, the water was a bright neon blue. But they weren't here to soak up the sun. How can we go to the beach? We have to work. Girl, You know it's true, had just dropped. In less than two weeks, it had climbed to the top of the German charts. That was great and all, but Frank had even bigger ambitions. He wanted Millie Vanille to conquer England. And from there, the world. He had a plan. First stop, Ibiza. During the summer months, Brits flocked to the Spanish Island. And if there's one thing you should know about the Brits, they love to find something they like, pretend it's theirs, and take it home, which is exactly what Frank was betting on. He'd pack the trunk with as many promo copies of their single as it could fit.

Once the sun set, the beaches would turn into one long party, and thousands of people would be sweating on the dance floors to their new favorite song. Frank went over the plan. The four of them would fan out and hit every single club in town. Go in, locate the DJ, give him the record, go to the next club, don't stop to get a drink, don't stop until everyone who matters has that record in their hands. For two days, the gang carried out Frank's orders. So we went to the clubs, bring the DJs, the record. The days were long and hot, and no fun at all. But on their last morning, while Frank and Ingrid were on the beach, she heard something. Was that? Girl, you know me, too. Ingrid couldn't believe it. Pretty soon, the song was booming out of every speaker on the island. People couldn't get enough of it. And just like Frank had hoped, the Brits took, Girl, You know It's True, Home with them. They flew home and they went to the record stores and said, Where's the record? Where's the record? We want to buy them. The single started climbing the UK charts.

And it went in the top three. And then explosion in the whole Europe. Frank had his first new hit in almost a decade. The potential was huge. Now everything depended on Robin Fabb remembering their lines and following the rules. But that's the irony of Creating Stars. If you do it right, they can outshine you. And if you get too close to the sun, everyone gets burned. Hi, I'm Anna. I'm Emily. And we're the hosts of Terrible Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of of the biggest celebrities. And we are really excited about our latest season because we are talking about someone very, very special. You're so sweet. A fashion icon. Actually, just put this on. A beautiful woman. Your words, not mine. Someone who came out of Croydon and took the world by storm. Okay, Anna, don't tell them where I live. A muse, a mother, and a supermodel who defined the '90s. I don't remember doing the last one. Wow, Emily, not you. Obviously, I mean Kate Moss. Oh, I always Please get us confused. Because you're both so small. How dare you? We are going to dive back into Kate's '90s heyday and her insatiable desire to say yes to absolutely everything life has to offer.

The parties, the Hollywood heartthrobs, the Rockstar bad boys. Have I said parties? You did mention the parties. But saying yes to excess comes at a price as Kate spirals out of control and risks losing everything she's worked for. Follow Terrible Famous wherever you listen to podcasts or listen early and ad-free on WNDRI Plus on Apple Podcasts or the WNDRI app. From WNDRI, I'm Amanda Seals, and this is Blame It On The Fame. The body is against the This is episode 2. Listen with your eyes. Frank and Ingrid were almost gitty over how well the Abiza scheme had worked. So far, everything had gone just how Frank said it would. But bringing the band together, making the single, and getting it on the UK charts, that was just the prelude. This next part was much more complicated. Located. It was going to require the timing, the precision, and the teamwork of a bankheist. Step one, send Robin Fabb to London. Frank said it's better they live in London instead of Germany, that it looks more European. It also got them out of his hair and far away from his studio. When he first shared, Girl, you know it's true, they'd wanted to know when they would get to sing.

Rob had gotten upset when Frank told him, Oh, no, the song is already done. I don't need you to sing. So Frank had told them that if the song became a hit, they'd do an album. And if they did an album, then they could sing. But that was a promise he never intended to keep. Frank told Ingrid that Fabrice could sing a little. But Rob was absolutely fucking hopeless. So Ingrid found them an apartment, signed the lease, and shipped the guys off to the UK so Frank could focus on step two, making a full Millie Vanille album. If they were going to make it big, they needed more than one single. Frank recruited his most trusted sound engineers, musicians, and singers. He called in American Twin Sisters, Linda and Jody Rocco, to sing backup vocals. Linda had worked with Frank before, but nothing like this. We were there for eight a day for months. Months. It was like a full-time job. Frank had all four studios in his place going at once. The backup singers in one, keyboards in another. Working out some riffs for Frank in the one studio. Then you got the guy working on something on the drum track.

Frank was constantly on the move. All he needed was that white coat like a doctor. Then you say, Dr. Farran is in room four, a room three. Linda got to know every last person working on the record. While everyone except the ones that were singing in the lead vocals. You know, Robin Fabb. But I didn't think about that then. Which is exactly how Frank intended it. That brings us to step three. I used to have to go down through the basement of his house and wait till Frank sent everybody out of the studio. As soon as the Coast was clear, Brad Howell would be brought up to the studio. Nobody was supposed to know I was the singer from middle Vanille. Brad Howell, the American expat with the bum knee and the golden voice. At the end of Every day, the other musicians would go home. And then every night, a taxi driver picked Brad up around 11:00 PM. He'd be in the studio from midnight till the sun came up. By the time the taxi would drop him off back at home... My wife is going to work. I'm coming from work. I said, Cheers, bye-bye.

His wife said, These hours are going to kill you. And Brad said, Yeah, maybe. But you'll be a rich woman one day. And that left step four. Perhaps the most important step of all, Robin Fabb needed to be Millie Vanille. Never mind they weren't doing a lick of work on the album. They needed to play the part. So Ingrid went to London to babysit Rob and FAB. Someone needed to keep the guys on script. Girl, You know It's True was on fire. The song had made it to the top five in France, Spain, and Austria. And in the UK, it was holding strong at number three. Right up there with heavy hitters like Whitney Houston, YouTube, and Prince.. Invites for TV shows all over Europe started pouring in. We're going to kick off tonight's show with Millie Vanille. Tv shows where Rob and Fab would have to perform in front of a live studio audience. But Ingrid wasn't nervous. Yeah, this is easy. Everybody was doing playback. All the TV shows relied on playback anyway. People didn't know at this time what is playback. They looked at the TV and said, Oh, nice song.

So Robin Fabb's lip syncing wouldn't raise any eyebrows. They'd hit the stage, the audience would go nuts. They'd run through Girl, You know It's True, just like they'd practice. Maybe answer a question or two, just like they'd practice. Oh, how do you being number one. And Robert said, Oh, wonderful. It's great. I love London. And that would be it. Then they'd be free to hit the town running around like the pop stars they were becoming. They stayed out late. They got up even later. Ingrid started stalking her purse like a pharmacy, whatever they needed to bounce back from last night's party. The way Fab remembers it, she was like a mother figure/sidekick. She had a soft voice, and she was like the cleaner. When something bad happened, in the situation, she would come in and clean it all up. And when Frank called to check in on everyone, she told him exactly what he wanted to hear. Yeah, everyone was behaving. Yeah, it. Yeah, we're just getting ready for bed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they'd sneak out and go to the next party. But Ingrid knew how to play the guys, too. And when they would ask her the obvious question, When were they going to get to sing for real?

She knew exactly what to say. She was very good at letting things open-ended, and then you would fill in the gaps. So in our mind, we thought she was saying, Don't worry, we're going to figure it out. Meanwhile, their stars kept rising. People recognized the guys on the street. Strangers shouted their names. Women threw themselves at them. Best hotels in the world, best best drinks, models everywhere. They discovered the pleasures of high thread counts, minibars, and room service. Everybody loves room service. It was all enough to distract them from the fact that Frank was finishing up their album, and they still hadn't sung a note. Money makes the world go round. Do you know? They were sitting on top of the world, and if they wanted to stay there, they just needed to tell one little lie. A camera trained in tight on Rob as he said, We have just finished our first album. He was sitting on a couch in a Berlin café in a T-shirt with a smiley face that read, Don't worry, be happy. Fab sat next to him, nodding along. Their album had just dropped, and it was already number six on the UK charts.

The host asked if they had written any of the songs on Rob didn't skip a beat. Rob said, Yeah, all the tracks were written as a team. He said he and FAB picked the best songs and that the album would be a worldwide hit. He was cool and confident. The host nodded along. And then he asked another question. Are you guys the real singers? If this question threw Rob, he didn't show it. Instead, he just smiled and made a joke. No, I just stand there and do like this. And he waved his arms around like a puppet. But Rob knew exactly what this guy was hinting at because he and Fabb had been hearing through the grapevine about Frank's former group, a group that never made it big in the States, but was huge in Europe. They were called Bony M. And Bony M's lead singer never sang a on the records. It turns out there was a reason why Frank knew how to run Millie Vanille, because he'd done it all before. Have you ever felt like escaping to your own desert island? Well, that's exactly what Jane, Phil, and their three kids did when they traded their English home for a tropical island they bought online.

But paradise has its secrets, and family life is about to take a terrifying turn. You don't fire at people in that area without some consequence. And he said, Yes, ma'am, he's dead. There's pure cold-blooded terror running through me. From Wundery, I'm Alice Levine, and this is the Price of Paradise, the real-life story of an island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder. Follow The Price of Paradise wherever you get your podcasts or binge the entire season right now on WNDYRI Plus. That's Frank Farian, a 20-something German dude with short curly hair and a shiny green blazer that was two sizes too big. He looked like he was going for a cross between Ricky Nelson and Smoky Robinson. His band, The Shadows, were all in the same metallic green jackets. Frank couldn't speak a word of English, but he insisted on singing in it. He wrote out the lyrics phonetically and tried his best. He desperately wanted to be cool like the American blues and R&B rock music he loved. But as a performer, he wasn't even close. This man was no Elvis, and he sure as hell wasn't any Mick Jagger. The record companies always would like to make money.

And they said, Frank is not looking like, sorry to say this, but he looks German. Oh, that man looked very German. So surprise, surprise, Frank Farian and the Shadows went absolutely nowhere. But the experience taught him the lesson that would guide his entire career, that people don't just listen with their ears. They listen with their eyes. The record company told him to make something that sounded more, well, like he looked. The German record company didn't allow him to sing in English? Frank did what they asked and covered a sickly sweet song called Rocky. Now, this was what German audiences wanted, Frank getting his best Tom Jones impression. And it worked. Rocky went on to hit number one in Germany. It also made Frank his first million. But Frank hated it. He wanted to do something new, something that sounded like the Black music he loved. He just needed to figure out how to make that music while still looking like Frank Farian. Brad Howell had seen a lot of musicians and producers blow through Europa Sound Studio, but he'd never seen anyone like Frank Farian. He worked every day. He worked hours, hours for one song.

When everyone else would go home for the day, Frank would stay to sing. But... He don't go into the recording room. Instead, Frank sang directly into a mic that was patched into the mixboard. He sang one line over and over. Baby, do you want to bump? Then he'd start messing around with all the studio equipment.. Here's Frank on the German station, ARD. He used the harmonizer to turn his voice way down until he sounded like, Baby, do you want to bump? He tried singing like the Bee Gees. He did some backing vocals in falsetto, and suddenly he realized. He could do everything himself. I like it. I like it very much because it had good beats, and it was really soulful because Frank, he loved Black music. He loved Black music very much. Now, this song sounded like something new. Danceable. Interesting. Frank put out Baby Do You Want to Bump as a single. He kept his name and face off the cover. Instead, he put a picture of a Black woman dancing over an American flag and called the band Bony M. And then, Crickets. The Germans weren't feeling it. But just as he was starting to believe this was yet another dead end in his career, Frank got a call.

The song had become a sleeper hit in the Netherlands and Belgium, and they wanted to see Bony M in person. Shit. Frank knew he couldn't show up as himself. He needed a group, a group that looked like the music he'd made. So Frank put out a casting call. He found three good-looking Caribbean women. Only two of them could actually sing, but it's not like he was hiring them for their voices. For the frontman, he cast the Aruba-born DJ, Bobby Farrell. Bobby didn't sing a note, but he was a miracle on stage. Frank, he knows what he's doing. He knows that if he had been on the stage, he wouldn't have sold not one record. But Bobby could pull off Gold Lamey jackets platform heels. He could spin on a dime from sexy to slapstick, from slinky to soulful. He was half dancer, half sex God. She's crazy like a fool. And the people loved it. Bony M took off like a rocket. They went from hit to hit. They charted in Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada, almost everywhere, but the one place on Frank's vision board, the United States. They sold over 100 million records.

Bobby would tell Frank, Bony M is your voice and my legs. That's the winning combo. But the more success they got, the more Frank saw it going to Bobby's head. He thought Bobby became unreliable and arrogant. Bobby was a very special person. When he was hungry and there was a TV show, he said, First, I want to have a schnitzel. And when I do not have a schnitzel, I don't want to go on stage. Bobby showed up with a lawyer to get more money out of Frank. And the lawyer told Frank that Bobby was the real Bony M. The last straw came when Bobby skipped a music awards ceremony in Vienna. Well, Frank had enough. He fired Bobby that night. Frank hired a replacement, another charismatic young Black dancer. Concert. But when record sales hit an all-time low, Frank made the move to add Bobby back. Turns out Bobby had been right. Bony M needed Frank's voice and Bobby's legs. Both were irreplaceable. But by that point, it was too late. Disco was already falling out of fashion, and Frank was looking ahead. He said, Okay, it's over, and I'm going to the next. Bony M had been frigging massive.

But as big as they were in Europe, they'd never made it in the US. Frank had unfinished business. Over the next few years, he'd work with some heavy hitters. He'd make an album with Meat Loaf, and Stevie Wonder would mix I Just Call to Say I Love You at his studio. But with those projects, he was just along for the ride. Frank wanted to get back in the driver's seat. It wasn't until Millie Vanille that he got the chance and that the United States finally came calling. But the scrutiny of being on the US stage would put his perfect plan to the test. Ken Ledy was sitting in a meeting with other Arista execs in their Midtown Manhattan offices. We had a lunch in every week, usually on Thursday days, they ran very long. And then we played songs from each of the artists that we were working and upcoming artists and so on and so forth. So I think the first time I heard Girl, You know it's true, was in the luncheon when Clive Davis played it for everybody seated at the table. Clive Davis himself, the guy who founded Arista Records and discovered Whitney Houston.

He'd been hearing a lot of buzz about this new group from Germany. There was already some heat on the record because of the other countries that it was going up the charts at. Clive wanted in on that heat. As he went on about how big Millie Vanille was in Europe, he hit play. I heard it. I thought it was a really different sounding record than anything else that was being played on the radio. There weren't a lot of mixes of rap and vocals at that time. Not only that. Rob and Fab, they were very handsome guys. Their look was very different. So Aris had told Frank Yeah, we want in. But we also need to make some changes. Some of the songs on the album weren't going to play well in the American market. They'd need to swap them out, add some new ones. And yeah, the timing would be tight. They needed those new songs in the next two months. But they'd send their A&R guy over to Frank's studio to help. I remember that he wanted to go to Germany to supervise the recording of a new Diane Warren song, which was Slaimant on the Rain.

Frank said, no, that doesn't work for me. No visitors ever. Look, it's not uncommon for the label to want to go into the studio and a producer says, Well, why don't you come on another day? When We have more done, or this and that. The total shutout, though? That was pretty surprising. But Arista didn't push it. They needed to get this album done as fast as possible. They weren't going to waste time arguing with Frank. It was like Clive kept saying, every week that they still didn't have an album, they could be missing out on a million dollars. It was like, We got this record from overseas, so we're going to put it out as fast as possible to take advantage of what was happening around the globe. On March seventh, 1989, Arista released Millie Vanille's debut album in the US, Girl, You know It's True. Could you open the door and bring in, please? Millie Vanille. Within a month, the title track hit number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Arista was making those millions. Everyone wanted in on the action. Frank and Ingrid got a call from Sandy Gallen, one of the biggest managers on the planet.

This man represented Cher, Dolly Parton, and Michael Jackson. Usually, he made people come to him. But Sandy was like, No, no, no. You stay put. I'll get a flight from LA to London and come to you. Sandy booked a reservation at one of the hottest restaurants in town and showed up with a huge bouquet of flowers. Once they all sat down, he cut to the chase. What was the plan for Millie Vanille? Were they willing to move to LA? He fired off question after question, except for the one Ingrid feared most. I was always waiting for the sentence. Are they singing? Nobody even asked. The guys were on board, especially with the moving to LA part. We wanted to stay as far as possible from Frank Fyron. That's what we wanted to do because we knew that he was controlling everything. You better believe they packed those bags as fast as they could. And Frank and Ingrid helped. Frank said, Oh, that's a good idea because we have now a contract with Arista Records in New York, and then it's maybe better. The boys live in LA. But then Sandy made one more suggestion. Club MTV was planning a tour, two months of live concerts all across America with some of the hottest artists out there, like Paula Abdul, Tone Loke, the Information Society.

And Sandy wanted Millie Vanille on the bill. Frank said... Nein. Over his dead body. Life to is impossible. What if there's an issue with the playback? This could ruin everything. You think? But Sandy overruled him. Frank had managed to make a hit album with two fake singers, but now they needed to pull off a much bigger magic trick. Those fake singers were about to head out on a very real live tour. I'm screaming back and forth. I'm giving instructions. I'm like, I'm trying, I'm trying. I don't know what's going on. It's been driving a race car. You may crash, but you're not thinking about it crashing. Otherwise, you wouldn't drive it. That's on the next episode of Blame It On The Fame. Follow Blame It On The Fame, Millie Vanille, on the WNDRI app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell Tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery. Com/survey. From WNDRI, this is episode 2 of 6 of Blame It On The Fame, a series about the lie that shot to number one and what it cost to tell the truth.

Blame It On The Fame is hosted by me, Amanda Seals. I also host another podcast called Small Doses that you should check out. Producers are Melissa Duenas and James Edwards. Senior producer is Julia Lowry-Henderson. Senior Story Editor is Natalie Sheesha. Production assistance by Sam Hobson, Emily Locke, and Christie Taewo Macanjula. Additional reporting by Kirsten Sillm. Additional writing from Kristen Tucker and Pia Wilson. Sound design from Jamie Cooper for WNDYRI. Postproduction services are provided by Ultra Violet with mixing and sound design by Matt Boynton. Original music and additional sound design by David Bowman. Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frissan Sink. Sound supervisor is Marcelino Villapando. Additional research and fact-checking by Barran Dutla. Senior Managing Producer is Lata Pandia. Managing Producer is Olivia Webber. And coordinating producer is Heather Baloga. Executive producers are George Lavender, Marshall Louis, and Jenn Sargent for WNDRI. Wndri.