Although they never had much success in America the Euro-disco
group Boney M. were a European phenomenon during the '70s. After
German record producer Frank Farian (born in 1942) recorded the
single "Baby Do You Wanna Bump?" (which was successful in Holland
and Belgium) he created Boney M. to support the song bringing in
four West Indian vocalists who had been working as session singers
in Germany -- Marcia Barrett (b. October 14 1948 St. Catherines
Jamaica) Liz Mitchell (b. July 12 1952 Clarendon Jamaica) Maizie
Williams (b. March 25 1951 Monserrat West Indies) and Bobby Farrell
(b. October 6 1949 Aruba West Indies d. December 30 2010 St.
Petersburg Russia). "Daddy Cool" reached the U.K. Top Ten in
February 1977 followed in April by a remake of Bobby Hebb's
"Sunny." In July "Ma Baker" just missed the U.K. number one spot
and "Belfast" hit the Top Ten in December. In 1978 Boney M. were at
the height of their popularity with "Rivers of Babylon"/"Brown Girl
in the Ring" which became the second-biggest selling single in U.K.
chart history; "Rivers of Babylon" was also Boney M.'s only U.S.
Top 40 hit. Boney M.'s album Nightflight to Venus topped the U.K.
charts. In October 1978 "Rasputin" became another U.K. Top Ten hit
followed by the seasonal chart-topper "Mary's Boy Child"/"Oh My
Lord" which became the fifth-biggest selling single in U.K.
history. In March 1979 "Painter Man" hit the U.K. Top Ten followed
in May by "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday." In September the
album Oceans of Fantasy hit number one. Their music continues to
sell well in Europe with a compilation hitting the U.K. Top Ten in
1994. Farian went on to create the late-'80s dance sensation Milli
Vanilli. In 2017 Farian and Liz Mitchell under the Boney M. moniker
released the festive conceptual holiday LP World Music for
Christmas which featured well-known world music mixed with
Christmas lyrics.
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