I only brought up Millli Vanilli as an example for those who like to say a record company would never do something like or similar to what some believe happen with the Cascio tracks because it's to risky. But, the past show that yea they could if they wanted too and one actually did.
there's a little problem with that example
- the European company that released Milli Vanilli albums dancers or with performance or no credit and they didn't know it , it was all planned by the producer
(reference : credits of first album All or Nothing in Europe
Reference : quotes from the producer
Boney M record albums pictured five black performers, mostly former U.S. service members who stayed on in Germany to make a living in music. But Boney M was also Frank Farian, finally getting to record the black music that got him into the business.
On the albums, he was mentioned only as a back-up singer, and sometimes he wasn't mentioned as a singer at all. It was like practice for the Vanilli gambit.
Farian wanted a catchy look to go with the bouncy sounds. With the Milli Vanilli songs already recorded, Rob and Fab walked into the studios one day, seeking work. They looked great. They sang terribly. They were perfect.
"I just said, OK, let's do it," Farian remembers. "What's the difference? It's some extra money for me.
Even here in-house, the musicians didn't know. I knew it could get them all in trouble."
Farian set up Rob and Fab with long-braided wigs, costumes, dance bits.
Howell says Farian had him
come into the studios after midnight to record, often working until 4 a.m. No one could see him. No one could know.
Another ex-soldier, Charles Shaw, was hired to do the rap on "Girl You Know It's True." The song would go platinum seven times in the States.
"It was a crazy idea," Farian says. "I thought, OK, it's just for discotheques and clubs. I never thought it would be a great hit, not No. 1, not Top 10 in America. And then it was too late and I was too embarrassed to say anything."
Now the Grammy is gone and Milli Vanilli's future is uncertain. "If I had it to do over," Farian says, "perhaps it would have been smarter to have them all together onstage, have the original people singing and Rob and Fab just dancing."
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-12-31/entertainment/ca-5618_1_milli-vanilli/2)
- Arista only got the rights to release the album after their success in Europe, got the recorded songs sent to them. Arista all through it claimed they never knew it, they never saw the recordings. Arista's position is that they were completely unaware.
(reference: Roy Lott, an executive vice president at Arista, told the Times: "There is no way that anyone ever could have known whether they sang or not. We are merely a distributor of their records in the United States. No one from Arista was ever in the studio when they recorded it. Rob and Fab and Frank (Farian) assured us that they sang on the record."
Farian supports Lott's position.
"
The record company never knew that. I never told them anything," the German producer said at the press conference. "
Later on, after the record was out, there were some people who raised some questions."
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-16/entertainment/ca-4894_1_milli-vanilli)
so it's not an example of a company that's doing such thing knowingly and willingly. According to Arista they were duped. According to Frank Farian - the producer behind it all - he hid it from everyone including the original European company as well. Milli Vanilli can only be a good example of record companies being duped.
(reference: US credits insert which clearly credits the records to Rob & Fab
