In addition to shedding light on the 1989 Menendez murder case, another byproduct of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has been the resurgence of the popular late 1980s and early 1990s singing duo Milli Vanilli. Remember them? Well, if not, Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, the duo that was Milli Vanilli, broke onto the scene in 1989 with hits like “Blame It on the Rain” and “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You,” but fell victim to what might be considered by today’s standards a total cancellation when the public learned that they were actually lipsynching their lyrics. When their dubbed vocals were made public, Milli Vanlli was stripped of their Best New Artist Grammy they snagged at the 1990 awards ceremony, and essentially thrown out of the business.
Until Murphy’s show, the band and their infamy have been used as an easy punchline or are just a distant pop culture memory in people’s minds. Now, a younger generation is rediscovering the magic of their sound, and a considerable spike in the band’s streaming numbers proves it. Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez and Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story According to Billboard , “Blame It on the Rain” saw a 68 percent jump in its number of streams within four days of the show starting to stream on Netflix.
In the show’s premiere, the song serves not just as the episode title, but also as the soundtrack a wild scene in which Erik and Lyle sing along to the hit on.