Chart entered : 18 December 1976
Chart peak : 6
Number of hits : 14
They didn't last long and their story is not without its darker elements but these guys were the chart superstars of the late seventies.
Boney M began life as a nom de plume for German producer Frank Farian . He had started out as a singer achieving little success so turned to producing and came up with a European disco take on Prince Buster's Al Capone with his own treated dirty vocal posing the question "Do You Wanna Bump ?" He took the name from an Australian cop show. When the song was a hit in the Low Countries in 1975 he set about hiring a "group" to appear on TV shows in his place. He went to a talent agency who produced Maizie Williams a Montserrat -born model who fancied herself a singer and two other short-lived members. Maizie introduced her dancer friend from Aruba Bobby Farrell ( no relation to yours truly ). Jamaican- born singers Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett eventually completed the line up.
When it came to recording more material both Maizie and Bobby were found wanting as singers so the first album features only Liz and Marcia with heavily-treated Mysteron-esque vocal interjections from Farian himself. Ignoring "... Bump ?", "Daddy Cool" was the first single, released in Germany in May 1976 . It was slow to take off but after an energetic appearance on Musik Laden it went to number one and spread out from there.
"Daddy Cool" is a nonsense song with minimal lyrics but is stuffed with killer hooks- the discreet sequenced percussion, the driving bassline, staccato string sweeps and Liz and Marcia's double-tracked vocals giving the track an urgency and drama seemingly conjured out of nowhere. A whole new strain of pop - never critically revered of course - begins here with the likes of 2 Unlimited, Vengaboys , Aqua direct descendants of the disparately talented foursome.
You know who's coming next...
I think it's a good point of what this beget - makes you wonder if Bill Drummond was taking notes for his later work on "The Manual".
ReplyDeleteHard to resist, though, especially with that bassline, which is simple and effective - a decent enough description of the whole song.