Boney M. is a
disco group created by German
record producer Frank Farian. Originally based in
West Germany, the four original members of the group's official line-up were
Jamaicans Liz Mitchell and
Marcia Barrett,
Maizie Williams from
Montserrat and
Bobby Farrell from
Aruba. The group was formed in 1975 and achieved popularity during the
disco era of the late 1970s.
History
German singer-songwriter Frank Farian (real name Franz Reuther) recorded the dance track "
Baby Do You Wanna Bump" in December 1974. Farian sang the repeated line "Do you do you wanna bump?" in a deep voice (entirely studio created) as well as performing the high
falsetto chorus. When the record was released as a single, it was credited to "Boney M.", a pseudonym Farian had created for himself after watching the
Australian detective show
Boney. After a slow start, the song became a hit in the
Netherlands and
Belgium. It was then that Farian decided to hire performers to 'front' the group for TV performances. The Katja Wolfe booking agency found model-turned-singer
Maizie Williams (originally from
Montserrat) and her
Jamaican singer friend
Sheyla Bonnick for him, along with a dancer known only as "Mike" for the first gigs. Also during 1975, a girl named Nathalie joined but was soon replaced by
Claudja Barry. Then Bonnick and Mike left, and Maizie Williams brought in
Bobby Farrell, an exotic male dancer from
Aruba. Singer
Marcia Barrett (also from
Jamaica) joined the group, which then went through another change in line-up when Claudja Barry – tired of merely
lip-synching – left in February 1976 to pursue a solo career as a disco singer. Finally
Liz Mitchell, former member of the
Les Humphries Singers, stepped in. The line-up was finalised with
Liz Mitchell,
Maizie Williams,
Marcia Barrett, and
Bobby Farrell.
Take the Heat Off Me
Boney M.'s first album,
Take the Heat Off Me, was released in 1976. It contained tracks that Marcia Barrett had already recorded with Farian, including the title track and "Lovin' or Leavin'", both of which were previously recorded in German by another Farian act,
Gilla. As Maizie Williams' voice wasn't considered suitable for recording purposes by Farian, and a try-out with Bobby Farrell performing "No Woman No Cry" didn't work, Farian decided to use only Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett along with his own studio-enhanced voice to create the Boney M. sound.
Liz Mitchell claimed that only she and Farian had sung on the hit recordings, but that Farrell did, however, perform live in some of the various later touring incarnations of 'Boney M'.
The album's commercial performance was initially lukewarm. However, the group rigorously toured discos, clubs and even country fairs to earn a reputation for themselves. The group's big break came when, at the end of summer 1976, German television producer Michael 'Mike' Leckebusch (of
Radio Bremen) requested the group for his show
Musikladen. Boney M. appeared on the live music show on September 18, 1976, after 10 pm and in their daring stage costumes, where they performed the song "
Daddy Cool". The song quickly went to no.1 in Germany, with the album following the success of the single. Another single, "
Sunny" (a cover of the 1966
Bobby Hebb song) gave the group their second no.1 hit. The group's popularity had also grown throughout Europe, with "Daddy Cool" reaching no.1 in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Austria. Both singles were also Top 10 hits in the UK which would become one of their biggest markets.
Love For Sale
In 1977, Boney M. released their second album,
Love for Sale, which contained the hits "
Ma Baker" and "
Belfast". The group embarked on their first major concert tours with a live band of musicians called 'The Black Beautiful Circus' (given their name after Maizie Williams' first band, 'Black Beautiful People'). Though slow to start,
Love for Sale made the UK Top 20 and was certified Gold a year after its release. Both singles from the album reached no.1 in Germany and the UK Top 10. By this time, sales had also slowly increased for their first album which had only peaked at no.40 in the UK but was now certified Silver.
Nightflight to Venus
1978 was the group's biggest year. They released a new double A-sided single, "
Rivers of Babylon/
Brown Girl in the Ring", which became a massive hit all over Europe, reaching #1 in several countries as well as becoming one of the biggest selling singles of all time in the
UK. It also became their most successful single in the
United States, peaking at #30 on the
U.S. pop singles chart. Following this came their biggest-selling album,
Nightflight to Venus, which spawned another hit single, "
Rasputin". Continuing with their success, they released "
Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord", which was the 1978
Christmas number one single in the United Kingdom and became another of the biggest selling singles of all time there. Also during 1978, Boney M. made a much publicized promotional visit to the
Soviet Union, one of the very few Western acts along with
Elton John to do so. Although tracks like "Rasputin" were not released in the Soviet Union due to their lyrics, the band was welcomed by the Soviet regime and this visit resulted in an enormous popularity in the entire former
Eastern Bloc that has lasted for more than three decades.
[citation needed]
While it had never been a secret that Bobby Farrell never was in the studio providing vocals for the studio recordings (Farian did the male vocals in the studio), in 1978 it became public knowledge that Maizie Williams did not sing on the studio recordings as well "since her voice wasn't suited for this kind of music", as Farian stated in an interview with German teen magazine
Bravo. Since this had become common practice within the disco genre of the late '70s, few people cared – unlike when Farian did the same thing with
Milli Vanilli in the late 1980s. While only two of Boney M.'s official members actually contributed to the band's records, all four members of the group, including Maizie Williams and Bobby Farrell, performed the vocals live at Boney M. concerts. The band's live sound was also augmented by several backing vocalists, which served to enhance any vocal deficiencies the group may have had compared with the studio productions.
Oceans of Fantasy
1979 saw Boney M. release a brand new single, "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday", which became another Top 10 hit across Europe. Later in the year they released their fourth album,
Oceans of Fantasy, containing two hit singles –
"Gotta Go Home"/"El Lute" and
"I'm Born Again"/"Bahama Mama". The track "No More Chain Gang", one of a number of black freedom songs the group recorded, exemplified Boney M.'s mix of white and black music. The album also included a "Lead" and "Backing Vocals" credit for the first time. The album made no.1 in the UK and was certified Platinum, though their run of Top 10 singles had now ended with "Gotta Go Home" peaking at no.12 and "I'm Born Again" peaking at 35.
The 1980s
In 1980, Boney M. released a greatest hits album,
The Magic of Boney M. - 20 Golden Hits, which also contained two new songs, "My Friend Jack" and "I See a Boat on the River". It made the #1 spot in the UK, reaching Gold status within six weeks of release, though it was their last big-selling album in the UK.
Boney M.'s fifth album had been scheduled for release in November 1980 but the recording sessions dragged on all through 1981. When
Boonoonoonoos was finally released by the end of that year, Bobby Farrell was fired from the group due to his unreliability. While still a healthy seller in continental Europe, "Boonoonoonoos" failed to crack the UK Top 100 after three consecutive #1 albums, and Farrell's departure left the group unable to promote it. Following this, the group released a
Christmas Album.
Reggie Tsiboe was hired to replace Farrell as the new male member of Boney M. in 1982 but the singles "The Carnival Is Over" and "Jambo" fared poorly, and the group's seventh album
Ten Thousand Lightyears, issued in 1984, marked another commercial low point. The group, however, returned to the German Top 20 in the autumn of 1984 with "Kalimba de Luna" and "Happy Song", the latter seeing Bobby Farrell return to the group. Both songs were carbon-copies of the original Italian hits by
Tony Esposito and
Baby's Gang respectively.
By 1985, Farian clearly began losing interest in the group, and their final studio album
Eye Dance was widely regarded as uninspired and disappointing. After celebrating Boney M.'s ten-year anniversary in early 1986, the group officially disbanded after the release of the commercially unsuccessful single 'Young, Free and Single'.
From this point, different versions of the group were formed. One version began touring in the first half of 1987 with Marilyn Carrillo taking Liz Mitchell's place. Mitchell returned for a second leg of the tour late 1987, and Marcia Barrett soon left the band again. At the same time, Bobby Farrell had set up a deal for a new Boney M. album to be recorded without Farian in Belgium. When Farrell failed to show up for either recording or tour, and Maizie Williams had never sung on record, the album ended up being released as Liz Mitchell's first solo album
No One Will Force You. Mitchell and Williams completed a tour during 1987-88, adding singer Celena Duncan and Curt De Daran as replacements for Barrett and Farrell. Carol Grey later replaced Celena Duncan.
In October 1988, the classic Boney M. line-up reunited for the album
Greatest Hits of All Times - Remix '88 but tensions ran high between the members, and Liz Mitchell left in the spring of 1989 to be replaced by
Madeleine Davis. While Mitchell promoted her solo album, the group recorded the single "Everybody Wants to Dance Like Josephine Baker", without Farian's knowledge or approval. Threatened with legal action by the producer over the use of the Boney M. name, the single was subsequently withdrawn and Farian issued "Stories" with his own new Boney M. line-up featuring Liz Mitchell, Reggie Tsiboe and two new members, Sharon Stevens and Patty Onoyewenjo. A second remix album
Greatest Hits of All Times - Remix '89 - Volume II was released but fared poorly.
The 1990s
1992 saw a renewed interest in Boney M.'s music with the "Boney M. Megamix" single returning the group to the UK Top 10 for the first time since 1979, and a subsequent Greatest Hits album reaching the UK Top 20 in 1993. While Marcia Barrett, now residing in
Florida, was battling
cancer and unable to perform, Boney M. toured the world with a line-up of Liz Mitchell, Carol Grey, Patricia Lorna Foster and Curt Dee Daran (replaced by Tony Ashcroft in 1994). Maizie Williams assembled her own Boney M. line-up with her friend and short-time Boney M. member in the early days in 1975, Sheila Bonnick, and two others. Bobby Farrell also toured with three ever-changing female performers.
2000s
Boney M featuring Maizie Williams performing at a concert
Liz Mitchell was touring the world with her line-up of Boney M., which is the only line-up officially supported by Farian (the court ruling of 1990 stated that all four members are entitled to perform their own Boney M. shows). Bobby Farrell and Liz Mitchell have released solo albums containing their own re-recordings of Boney M.'s classic hits. Maizie Williams released her first solo album in 2006 and her own single version of Boney M.'s "Sunny". In 2007 her rendition of 'Daddy Cool' with Melo-M hit the number one spot in the Latvian (LMK) Charts. Marcia Barrett has released two solo albums with a third scheduled for release in 2010.
As recounted in his 2004 book
Touching the Void, the British climber
Joe Simpson was subsequently to find the catchy tune of "Brown Girl in the Ring" haunting him in the final hours of his struggle to survive the descent of
Siula Grande in the
Andes, and the song was later used in the film of
Touching the Void made by
Kevin Macdonald. Simpson recalls: "I remember thinking, bloody hell, I'm going to die to Boney M".
A
musical based on the music of Boney M.,
Daddy Cool, opened in London in August 2006 to mixed reviews and sluggish ticket sales, causing it to close again in February 2007. From April to July, 2007, this show played in a mobile theatre in Berlin, which was specially designed for this show.
In April 2007, pop singer
Peter Wilson, who during the mid-90s scored a couple of Top 40 hits in his native Australia, released a brand new song, co-written by
Frank Farian entitled "
Doin' Fine". It is described as "paying tribute to the sound of Boney M." and features the famous string arrangement from their first number 1 hit, "
Daddy Cool".
In a sign of their continued popularity in South Asia, a concert by Boney M. (featuring Marcia Barrett) was a featured attraction at the 37th
International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which took place on November 23, 2006 in
Panaji, the state capital of
Goa, India. The group is also popular in the Vietnamese diaspora, and was featured in Thuy Nga music productions.
In the UK, a new album of their greatest hits, entitled
The Magic of Boney M. was released via
BMG on November 27, 2006. Special additions to this release were a
Mousse T. remix of "
Sunny" and a brand new song from 2006, featuring Liz Mitchell, entitled "A Moment Of Love".
On April 10, 2007, Boney M.'s first four albums were reissued on
compact disc with bonus tracks, this time also in the United States (the first time these were available to the
U.S. music market since their original releases in the 1970s).
In September 2007, Boney M.'s last four original albums,
Boonoonoonoos,
Ten Thousand Lightyears, Kalimba de Luna - 16 Happy Songs and
Eye Dance were reissued on
compact disc in Europe and the United States, all including bonus tracks. In November 2007, a new
Christmas compilation was scheduled for release as well as the DVD
Fantastic Boney M. - On Stage and on the Road featuring live performances and a film from the band's 1981 visit to
Jamaica.
Bobby Farrell's Boney M. performed a concert at the Amphi in
Ra'anana,
Israel in May 2007. On June 28, 2007 Boney M. featuring Matthew Felsenfeld and Liz Mitchell performed at the "Oktiabrsky" concert hall in St. Petersburg, Russia. In September 2007, Maizie Williams Boney M. line-up performed live at the Royal Albert Hall, UK, to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Africa, performing her own renditions of 'Brown Girl in the Ring' and 'Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday'.
The legal rights to the name "Boney M." have been a matter of controversy, and even court cases, between the former members of the band and producer Frank Farian ever since the late 1980s. Farian, the man who in effect created the group, has continued to work with Liz Mitchell and her line-up all through the 1990s and 2000s, but in a strange twist of fate further Boney M. productions in Germany could be faced with legal proceedings. January 2007 was the date Zanillya Farrell (daughter of
Bobby Farrell) and Yasmina Ayad-Saban (ex-wife of Farrell) renewed the trademark to the name Boney M. in Germany for a 10 year period.
In November 2008, iconic disco legend and former label mate,
Amanda Lear recorded a version of the song, "
Doin' Fine" as part of her new studio album,
which she announced on French television is scheduled for release in spring 2009.
In January 2009
Frank Farian released a brand new single called
Felicidad America (Obama Obama) under the name-check
Boney M. feat. Sherita O. & Yulee B. featuring two new vocalists. The song is a remake of the 1980 Boney M. classic with new vocals and re-written lyrics now referring to the new US president
Barack Obama.
2010s
In July 2010, Maizie Williams headlined a Boney M performance at Ramallah's Cultural Palace, in the West Bank, as part of the Palestine International Festival. The band played "Daddy Cool", "Ma Baker" and "Brown Girl in the Ring", but refrained from playing "Rivers of Babylon", rumored to be at the event organizers' request due to its description of the Jewish yearning for Zion
On December 30, 2010, it was announced that Bobby Farrell had died at the age of 61 from
heart failure. His agent said Farrell was complaining of breathing problems after performing with his band the evening before.
Farrell lived in Amsterdam until his death. The singer was found dead in a hotel room in
Saint Petersburg,
Russia, where he had been performing. Coincidentally, Farrell died on the anniversary of
Grigori Rasputin's death, also in St. Petersburg.
Members
- Liz Mitchell, Lead and backing vocals (1976–)
- Marcia Barrett, Lead and backing vocals (1975–)
- Maizie Williams, Dancer, live vocals (1975–)
- Bobby Farrell, Dancer, rap, live vocals (1975–81, 1984–2010)
- Reggie Tsiboe, Lead and backing vocals (1982–86, 1989–90)
