In 1990 Milli Vanilli famously lost their Grammy’s for the lip syncing scandal – weirdly leaked by Frank Farian who actually signed them to a very bad contract, and lead to tragic circumstances for one of the duo. But as this excellent documentary on ghost singers (uncredited session musicians) from Traxploitation points out, they were not alone.
I remember the Felly/Ya Kid K and Martha Wash and Black Box/Loleatta Holloway scandals, they were talked about at the time. And indeed Phil Spector with Darlene Love, and the Monkees – who did at least sing on all their tracks, even if they did mime playing early on because session musicians had already recorded them and they weren’t allowed to play on the tracks.
Interestingly Black Box threaten anyone who uses their re-recorded version of Black Box -Ride On Time without permission nowadays, which is deeply ironic given why they allegedly got Heather Smalls to re-record it because they did the exact same thing themselves!
Given what they then did to Martha Wash, I feel about the same about them as I do now N-Trance…didn’t know the entire story aboud C+C Music Factory though.
I didn’t know about Marni Nixon, which Hollywood dubbing is very similar to how Bollywood dubs Asha Bhosle onto the lead actress (it’s not a secret unlike in Hollywood), Marni was an amazing vocal mimic.
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