Far Corporation

The brainchild of producer Frank Farian, Far Corporation was an assembly of German session musicians and several better-known rockers, including members of Toto. Having most notably been the producer for Boney M. in the late '70s and early '80s (and later Milli Vanilli), Farian brought together musicians he had utilized in the studio and christened them Frank Farian Corporation, which was truncated to Far Corporation for the act's recorded output. Added to the mix were guitarist Steve Lukather, keyboardist David Paich, and singer Bobby Kimball (all of Toto fame); drummer Simon Phillips (Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend); and vocalist Robin McAuley. The quasi-supergroup's debut, Division One, was released in the spring of 1986 and consisted primarily of outside material, including a cover of Free's "Fire and Water." However, it was Far Corporation's interpretation of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" that garnered a modicum of interest for the act. The song earned Far Corporation some posterity as the answer to a trivia question when the song scraped into the bottom of the U.S. singles chart and, briefly, entered the U.K. Top Ten, making it the durable epic's first chart appearance (Led Zeppelin had never released their version commercially). The conglomerate wouldn't surface again for nearly a decade and, when it did with Solitude in 1994, it was to little interest of anyone aside from the most ardent fans of Toto's talented players.
© Tom Demalon /TiVo