Who recorded it first

Girl You Know It's True

Not a Milli Vanilli original — a 1988 Numarx song

This one carries a double twist. Almost everyone takes ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ for a Milli Vanilli original — it even named their album — but Milli Vanilli’s version is a cover. The song was written and first recorded by Numarx, a group from Baltimore, in 1988. The layered irony: Milli Vanilli were later exposed as not having sung on their records at all, so the song that made them famous was neither their composition nor, it turned out, their voices.

The record

Who recorded it first

Original recording
Numarx, 1988
Written by
Bill Pettaway Jr. and fellow Numarx members
First released
1988, on Numarx’s album Our Time Has Come
Made famous by
Milli Vanilli, 1988–89 (US No. 2)

How we traced it

The song was written and first recorded by Numarx, a Baltimore collective of DJs and MCs, and appeared on their 1988 album Our Time Has Come; the writing credits go to Bill Pettaway Jr., Sean Spencer, Kevin Liles, Rodney Holloman and Ky Adeyemo Wikipedia ↗.

German producer Frank Farian reworked the track for Milli Vanilli, releasing it in Europe in mid-1988 and in the US in 1989, where it climbed to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and became so identified with the duo that it named their American debut album the song’s history ↗.

The second twist arrived in 1990: Milli Vanilli’s Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were revealed to have mimed to studio singers, not sung on the record at all. So the song that defined them was neither written nor originated nor even vocally performed by them — a rare case where the misattribution runs two layers deep.

Wikipedia — the song and both versions
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Fact-check

The attribution problem

Most cover-eclipses have one error to correct. This one has two: Milli Vanilli did not write or originate the song, and — the part everyone remembers — they did not sing on it either.

The beliefcover, not original

‘It’s a Milli Vanilli song’

Milli Vanilli’s hit is a cover. The song was written and first recorded by the Baltimore group Numarx in 1988 the history ↗.

The originalwrote it and recorded it first

Numarx, 1988

Their version never charted nationally, so there was no famous original standing in the way when the cover arrived — the reworked track simply became the version people knew.

The second twistnot even the voices

Pilatus and Morvan

In 1990 the duo were revealed to have mimed to studio singers. So the record misattributed to them as writers was also misattributed to them as performers — a rare two-layer case where neither the authorship nor the vocals were theirs.

Written and first recorded by Numarx in 1988, made famous — but not originated — by Milli Vanilli in 1989, who were then exposed as not having sung it either the record ↗.

Context

Why the cover ate the original

A cover eclipses its original most completely when the original never had its moment. Numarx’s ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ went unnoticed on the national charts; there was no hit occupying the public’s memory, so when Frank Farian’s glossy reworking arrived it simply became the version, with nothing to displace.

What makes this case unusual is the second layer. The act the song made famous turned out to be a front — Pilatus and Morvan were mimers, not singers. So the song lost its authorship to Numarx and its voices to a set of uncredited studio performers, all at once. It is a misattribution wrapped inside a hoax.

The record, in order
  • Numarx write and record ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ in Maryland; it appears on their 1988 album Our Time Has Come.
  • The original does not chart nationally, though it circulates in clubs.
  • Frank Farian reworks the track for Milli Vanilli; released in Europe (June 1988) and the US (1989).
  • The cover reaches No. 2 on the US Hot 100 and names Milli Vanilli’s American album.
  • In 1990, Pilatus and Morvan are exposed as not having sung on their records; the original stays a footnote.
A misattribution wrapped inside a hoax: not their song, and not their voices.

The writers and original recording artists

Numarx

Baltimore hip-hop group · formed in the early 1980s

Numarx were a Baltimore collective of DJs and MCs who both wrote ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ and recorded it first, in 1988. The song’s credits read like a footnote to a scandal that had nothing to do with them — among the writers was Kevin Liles, who would go on to run Def Jam Recordings. Their original never charted nationally, which is a large part of why a European producer could lift the track and hand it to two dancers who became a global act on the strength of it.

Popularly credited as the original

Milli Vanilli

German-French pop duo · active 1988–1990

Milli Vanilli — the on-screen faces Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan — took Frank Farian’s reworking of the song to No. 2 in the US in 1989, and it became so tied to them that it named their album. The confusion is unusually deep: not only was the song a cover of Numarx’s original, but Pilatus and Morvan were exposed in 1990 as having mimed to session vocalists. The famous record was, by any honest accounting, not their song and not their voices — only their image.