Boney M. are a disco group that specialises in R&B, reggae, disco and funk. The group was created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's official line-up were Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett from Jamaica, 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 differing personnel.
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin, known as Stenka Razin, was a Don Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and tsarist bureaucracy in southern Russia in 1670–1671.
Roberto Alfonso Farrell was an Aruban dancer, singer and DJ. He was a member of the 1970s R&B group Boney M.
Volga-Volga is a Soviet musical comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, released on April 24, 1938. It centres on a group of amateur performers on their way to Moscow to perform in a talent contest called the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the action takes place on a steamboat travelling on the Volga River. The lead roles were played by Alexandrov's wife, Lyubov Orlova, and Igor Ilyinsky.
The "Song of the Volga Boatmen" is a well-known traditional Russian song collected by Mily Balakirev and published in his book of folk songs in 1866. It was sung by burlaks, or barge-haulers, on the Volga River. Balakirev published it with only one verse. The other two verses were added at a later date. Ilya Repin's famous painting Barge Haulers on the Volga depicts such burlaks in Tsarist Russia toiling along the Volga.
Marcia Barrett is a Jamaican-British singer and one of the original singers with the vocal group Boney M.
Tom Springfield was an English musician, songwriter, and record producer who was prominent in the 1960s folk and pop music scene. He was the older brother of singer Dusty Springfield, with whom he performed in the Springfields. He wrote several hit songs for the Springfields and later for the Seekers, whose records he also produced.
Reggie Tsiboe is a Ghanaian-British entertainer, dancer and one of the singers of the disco group Boney M. between 1982 and 1986 and later between 1989 and 1990.
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 20 Greatest Christmas Songs is a compilation/remix album by Boney M. In 1986 producer Frank Farian took the master tapes from 1981's Christmas Album, added six recordings by Liz Mitchell, Reggie Tsiboe and two session singers from 1984, remixed them and created Die 20 schönsten Weihnachtslieder der Welt, internationally released as The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs. The 1986 version of the Boney M. Christmas album has since been re-issued as The Most Beautiful Christmas Songs of the World (1992), A Wonderful Christmas Time (1998) and Christmas Party.
More Gold – 20 Super Hits Vol. II is a 1993 greatest hits album by Boney M. Producer Frank Farian issued More Gold - 20 Super Hits Vol. II containing the remainder of Boney M.'s best known songs – again most of them appearing in remixed or overdubbed form but credited as the original versions – as well as four new recordings featuring lead singer Liz Mitchell. Two singles were released from the album in Europe, "Ma Baker Remix '93" and "Papa Chico", the latter credited as "Boney M. featuring Liz Mitchell" and released in early 1994.
Greatest Hits of All Times – Remix '88 is a remix album by Boney M. released in 1988. Boney M.'s new manager at the time, Simon Napier-Bell, succeeded in persuading the four original members to briefly reunite and promote this remix album. The man employed to re-arrange the original hits and create new interest in the band was PWL's Pete Hammond, who previously had remixed many of the Stock Aitken Waterman stable's chart-topping hits with Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley and Bananarama. Five of the tracks also feature new lead vocals by Liz Mitchell. In early 2021, Hammond recalled the following about the '88 remix project, explaining the new vocals: "The 2inch 24 track multi-track tapes were sent to PWL by Frank Farian of Far Music. Apparently, they had lost some of the original recordings—four songs if I remember correctly—and had to record four new versions; they were musically incomplete but good enough for me to overdub and remix". The remix project spun off three fairly successful single releases, "Rivers of Babylon ", "Rasputin " and the 1988 "Megamix", which would appear on the follow-up album issued a year later, and created the first wave of Boney M. nostalgia in Europe.
The Complete Collection is a compilation album of recordings by Boney M. released by BMG/CMC Records in Denmark in late 2000.
Christmas with Boney M. is a Christmas compilation by Boney M., released on 16 November 2007. It is a reissue of The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs with a reordered tracklist that restores the two songs from the original Christmas Album which were originally excluded, and a 2007 recording by the Daddy Cool Kids as a bonus track. This compilation follows the 2007 re-release of Boney M.'s original studio albums.
"Young, Free and Single" is a single by German band Boney M., taken from their final album Eye Dance (1985). Only a modest hit, the single peaked at #49 in the German charts. Being a novelty record, the lyrics were about a radio talkshow for dating. Male dancer Bobby Farrell was featured in heavily disguised vocoder vocals in the verses while Reggie Tsiboe did the lead vocals on the chorus. The B-side Blue Beach was an instrumental dub version.
"Stories" is a 1990 single by German band Boney M. It peaked at #26 in Switzerland and #94 in the UK. The single was based on an instrumental 1989 underground favourite by Izit, which itself was a re-work of a 1972 recording by Belgian group Chakachas. With added lyrics by Peter Bischof-Fallenstein, "Stories" was released as a response to the withdrawn "Everybody Wants to Dance Like Josephine Baker", released illegally under the group name by original members Marcia Barrett, Bobby Farrell, Maizie Williams and new singer Madeleine Davis. "Stories" launched a short-lived 'official' Boney M. line-up consisting of original lead singer Liz Mitchell and Reggie Tsiboe and two new girls, Sharon Steven and Patty Onoyewenjo. Never appearing on any studio album by the group, Stories was added as a bonus track on the remastered 2007 edition of the group's 1977 album Love for Sale. An unreleased 3:54 mix was used in the video clip for the track.
"Jambo Bwana" is a Kenyan pop song also popular in Tanzania. It was first released in 1982 by Kenyan band Them Mushrooms, and later covered by a number of other groups and artists, including Mombasa Roots, Safari Sound Band, Khadja Nin, Adam Solomon, Mani Kollengode, and the German group Boney M. Some versions come under different titles, such as "Jambo Jambo" and "Hakuna Matata".
Stenka Razin, Op. 13, is a symphonic poem composed by Alexander Glazunov in 1885. Dedicated to the memory of Alexander Borodin, it is one of the few compositions written by Glazunov on a nationalist subject and is composed in a style reminiscent of Borodin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Stenka Razin, also called Free Men of the Volga, is a 1908 silent film. It is generally considered the first Russian feature film.
Dmitry Nikolayevich Sadovnikov was a Russian poet, folklorist and ethnographer.
