Boney M.
Boney M. is a vocal group created by German record producer Frank Farian. Originally based in Germany, the four original members of the group's official line-up were Jamaican-born singers Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams from Montserrat and Bobby Farrell from Aruba. The group was formed in 1976 and achieved popularity during the disco era of the late 1970s. Since the 1980s, various line-ups of the band have performed with different personnel.
History
1970s
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 Jamaica-born Claudja Barry. Then Bonnick and Mike left, and Maizie Williams brought in Bobby Farrell, a male exotic dancer from Aruba. Singer Marcia Barrett (also from Jamaica) joined the group, which then went through another change in line-up when Claudja Barry 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.
20th Century Hits
20th Century Hits is a remix album of recordings by Boney M. released by BMG in 1999. This remix project which was credited as 'Boney M. 2000' spun off a series of new single releases; "Ma Baker – Somebody Scream" in early 1999 and previously included on French compilation Ultimate, "Daddy Cool '99" featuring Mobi T., "Caribbean Night Fever / Hooray! Hooray! It's A Holi-Holiday" and "Sunny".
Track listing
Personnel
Ten Thousand Lightyears
Ten Thousand Lightyears is the seventh studio album by Boney M. and the first to feature new member Reggie Tsiboe who had taken over Bobby Farrell's role as the band's leading man in early 1982. The first single to emerge from new recording sessions in 1982 was a cover version of The Seekers 1965 hit "The Carnival Is Over" backed with Jimmy Cliff's "Going Back West" in June 1982 - "The Carnival Is Over" had an ominous ring to its title, being the first Boney M. single not to enter the German Top 20, peaking at a disappointing #41, and prompting Hansa to send out a new mix of "Going Back West", promoting this as the A-side.
After a break in the spring of 1983 when Liz Mitchell gave birth to her second child, and Marcia Barrett recorded demos with Eddy Grant, the band issued "Jambo - Hakuna Matata (No Problems)" backed with a new remix of "African Moon" from the Boonoonoonoos album. In Spain and Portugal, the single emerged with the original 1981 mix of "African Moon". The Iberian 12" singles furthermore included the full 7:44 mix of "Jambo" (the German 12" included a 5:35 edit) and another 1983 recording, "I Need A Babysitter" (a cover of French punk rocker Mahjun's 1980 hit), unavailable elsewhere. "Jambo" was originally intended to be the lead single for the seventh Boney M. album scheduled for release in the Autumn of 1983, but due to the poor chart performance of the single (#48 Germany, 5 weeks) both "Jambo" and "Babysitter" were omitted from the album, and the project postponed for another six months.
Ten Thousand
Ten thousand glimmering like coals in our chest
Ball bearings drawn to the magnetic breath
Of ten thousand weeping with wings on their tears
Amidst ten thousand voices for ten thousand years
For ten thousand graves yawning unlocked and unlatched
Now ten thousand holes with rocks on their backs
Ten thousand tombs gaping wide singing the praise
Of ten thousand bodies unlaced and unlaid
As the ten thousand highways unfold their doors
For the ten thousand standing on Nineveh's shores
Where the blood of a husband silences wars
For the girl who rises to meet him
And she sings
World, I have overcome you
World, I have overcome you
World, I have overcome
By my song and the blood of a son
Ten thousand rivers
Run red like my veins
Where the bones of men hum
Like a rattling cage
For sinew to cling to
And wind to remain
In ten thousand lungs
For ten thousand days
Breathing like a choir
Of holes in the ground
Where the cynical have lain
Where the cynical go down
Save the gravity of time
Lets go of her drowned
Like ten thousand sparrows
Unlocked and unwound
As the ten thousand highways unfold their doors
For the ten thousand standing on Nineveh's shores
Where the blood of a husband silences wars
For the girl who rises to meet him
And she sings
World, I have overcome you
World, I have overcome you
World, I have overcome