Far Corporation's primary claim to fame is their cover of "
Stairway to Heaven". Far Corporation was actually the first group to make the singles charts with this song as
Led Zeppelin had never released it as a single. In fact, it was the only version of the song that charted on the US
Billboard Hot 100, reaching #89 in October 1986. Some of the musicians Farian assembled included vocalist
Robin McAuley, vocalist Henry Gorman, drummers
Curt Cress and Peter Bold, and three members of
Toto: vocalist
Bobby Kimball, keyboardist
David Paich, and guitarist
Steve Lukather. Far Corporation released its first album
Division One in 1985 on IMP/ATCO Records and their cover of "Stairway to Heaven" reached #8 on the
UK Singles Chart. The band was promoted by a full playback performance at German TV
ZDF in the show "Rockpop". The show was also attended by
Robert Plant, who backstage congratulated
Robin McAuley for his great performance. Some rehearsal shots were used for
Puma sportswear commercials underlay by "
Live is Life" hit of the Austrian band
Opus making the impression of FAR Corporation performing the Opus hit. A second album,
Advantage was completed for a 1987 release, heralded by the new single "One by One". Both this as well as the second single - a cover of
Cockney Rebel's "
Sebastian" - failed to reach the charts, and the album was eventually scrapped. Two years later, another complete track, "She's Back Again", appeared on the soundtrack to the German TV show "Blaues Blut" in 1989. Two of the album's lost recordings, "Make Believe" and "Big Brother", surfaced as Bobby Kimball duets on Farian artist Jayne (Collins)'s
Ambush in the Night album (1989) and
Milli Vanilli's second album
The Moment of Truth (1991). The rest, bar "One by One", were recycled along with a few new recordings on the group's second release, 1994's
Solitude on
MCI-BMG. This time they were joined by former
Thin Lizzy and
21 Guns guitarist
Scott Gorham; included on the album was a cover of the 21 Guns song "Just a Wish". Mostly assembled in honour of Farian's 25 years anniversary as a producer, the album failed to repeat the success of "Stairway to Heaven". ==Discography==