1970s[edit]
German singer-songwriter
Frank Farian (real name Franz Reuther)
[2] 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.
[3]
I turned on the TV one day and it was the end of a detective series. I just caught the credits and it said
Boney. Nice name, I thought – Boney, Boney, Boney... Boney M. Boney, Boney, Boney M. Nice sound. Simple
[3]
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.