Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Lawsuits Seek Truth In Music Labeling

Lawsuits Seek Truth In Music Labeling
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
December 6, 1990, Section C, Page 17Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Martha Wash has been the lead singer on hits by Black Box, Seduction and C.&C. Music Factory. But no one who has seen the video clips or bought the records would have known it. As with Milli Vanilli, the two singers who were recently stripped of their Grammy Award after they admitted taking credit for vocals they did not sing, photogenic young dancers lip-synched Ms. Wash's voice on video clips and, with Black Box, onstage.

The result of these deceptions is a flurry of lawsuits, both filed and threatened. On Nov. 21, class-action suits on behalf of consumers who bought albums by Milli Vanilli and Black Box were filed in Federal District Court in Los Angeles, accusing the acts' producers and record companies of consumer fraud. The American record companies involved -- Arista Records for Milli Vanilli and RCA Records for Black Box -- bought the finished albums from European record producers. Arista has said it was not aware of the deceptions; RCA said it believed Katrin Quinol, who appeared on Black Box's albums, videos and stage shows, was among the singers on the album. Who Gets the Credit?

The lawsuits have to do with credits. All parties agree that record producers and video directors have every right to create all the aural and visual illusions technology can unleash, just as film directors use special effects. As video clips have become more important in marketing popular music, performers' appearance and dance skills have been more highly prized to create glamorous images for television. It may have been inevitable that sooner or later, singing and dancing would each be left to specialists, as in Milli Vanilli, whose image was embodied by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus.

"The state of proper contractual documentation in the music business is deplorable," said Steven Ames Brown, Ms. Wash's lawyer. "If you branded or labeled a drug, or cookies, the way the music business documents its products, the Government would force them off the shelves."

This year, bills were introduced in the New Jersey and New York legislatures to require concert promoters to disclose whether pre-recorded material would be used on stage.

The plaintiffs in the class-action suits insist that consumers should know who does what. "It's important to send a message to record companies and producers that they not perpetrate a fraud on the public," said Howard Rosen, a lawyer who has filed two of the suits. "Why not simply have said 'vocals by Martha Wash' and disclose what they're doing? It's false advertising that's been done to get people to buy the product." Her Name, Her Face

Meanwhile, Ms. Wash is getting credit. Mr. Brown said yesterday that after he filed suit under truth-in-advertising laws, BMG Records, which owns RCA, signed an eight-year, eight-album contract with the singer and agreed to a substantial, undisclosed settlement for her work with Black Box. "RCA now has guaranteed that her records will come out with her name on them and her videos will come out with her face," Mr. Brown said.

A&M Records, which released an album by the group Seduction, is also on the verge of a settlement, Mr. Brown said. David Cole and Robert Clivilles, who produced Seduction, now record for Columbia Records as C.&.C. Music Factory, whose song "Gonna Make You Sweat" includes both a rap (by Freedom Williams) and Ms. Wash's voice; the single now rising in the Top 40. Ms. Wash was paid as a backup singer for that session, Mr. Cole said. Mr. Brown said he plans to file suit against CBS Records and C.& C. Music Factory.

Ms. Wash is a longtime performer. In the late 1970's, she was a member of Two Tons of Fun, which started as the backup vocal group for the disco singer Sylvester and went on to make its own albums; Two Tons of Fun also recorded as the Weather Girls, who had a hit with "It's Raining Men." She has also worked as a studio singer. She could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Ms. Wash's lawsuit against Black Box, filed in September, alleged that she was paid a flat fee as a session singer to perform all but one of the songs on the album "Dreamworld," including the recent hit "Everybody Everybody." The remaining song, "Ride on Time," Black Box's first hit, was created using a snippet from a disco hit by Loleatta Holloway. No vocal credit appears on the Black Box album. Backup on Her Own Record

Mr. Brown said she sang a demo recording (a preliminary version) of a song recorded in 1988 titled "You're My One and Only" for a flat fee and was unpleasantly surprised when the demo was released under the name of the group Seduction, three attractive young women who were assembled after the record was made. "To Martha's complete dismay, she was credited as a backing vocalist on her own record," Mr. Brown said.

David Cole, Seduction's co-producer, said Ms. Wash was aware of the situation and was given "a point" -- 1 percent of the royalties -- for the Seduction song. "As I remember it, we were down to the wire during the vocal session, and we didn't have a lead singer," he said yesterday. "We had been using Martha for backing vocals, and we had auditioned a whole bunch of girls and none of them could cut it. So we used her and processed her voice so that she wouldn't sound as much like Martha Wash. She knew what it was, and we negotiated that we would pay her a point for her performance."

"That's what they offered to go away after they did what they did," Mr. Brown said. "That's why we sued. An artist gets 10 percent, not 1 percent." 'Anybody . . . Could Have Done It'

When the Seduction album appeared, Ms. Wash was credited in the fine print as a backup singer; the other songs had been recorded by the group members. "I don't even remember why she didn't get credit, or if it was our decision," Mr. Cole said. "We were concentrating on finishing the album, and we weren't even thinking about 'You're My One and Only.' "

"Martha's vocals are incredible," Mr. Cole said. "But it's not like she's the only singer in the world; anybody with a strong, powerful voice could have done it. Would it have been a hit record without Martha? Most definitely."

On C.&.C. Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat," Ms. Wash's vocal shares the foreground with a rap by Freedom Williams. "When we recorded it, we didn't look at it as a lead vocal," Mr. Cole said. "It wasn't until we mixed it that it sort of turned into one. We had Zelma Davis, the other featured vocalist, come in and overdub along with Martha to blend in with her. What we were actually getting ready to do, and time wouldn't permit, was to redo the vocal itself for the album, just so Martha doesn't feel that we tried to dog her again. We wanted Martha to be a physical part of C.&C. Music factory, but she turned down our offer." The Music Factory's album, "Gonna Make You Sweat," is due for release Dec. 18 and will credit for Ms. Wash's appearances.

"Most consumers will not be dissuaded from attending concerts or buying records if they know that someone else sang the song," Mr. Brown said. "They're buying the performance, the staging and the image. But they have a right to make that choice with the facts."

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 17 of the National edition with the headline: Lawsuits Seek Truth In Music Labeling. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT