Do you remember Far Corporation, the ’80s supergroup behind a hit dance pop cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”?The ’80s were a wild time when new wave and synths became the flavor of the day. Experimentation was rampant as the ’80s sound diverged further and further away from the ’70s by each passing year. But, on occasion, there were covers attempting to modernize rock classics. The ’80s collective Far Corporation scored with one such update, a more danceable version of the revered Led Zeppelin epic, “Stairway to Heaven.”Who were Far Corporation? Where did the members come from before the supergroup formed? Do you recognize the names of all the rock musicians involved? And how did their modernized (for the ’80s) version of this iconic song come together?Let’s take a look.Who Started Far Corporation?A look at the history of this group is an interesting one of names you likely know from other places.Far Corporation was initially the idea of a German music producer named Frank Farian. Frank had already achieved some success in Europe during the ’70s with the chart-topping band Boney M. who scored Euro hits with “Ma Baker,” “Daddy Cool,” “Sunny,” “Rivers of Babylon” and “Rasputin” among others.Farian was Boney M.’s primary singer and songwriter. But he would gain a different form of acclaim in the late ’80s when he was behind the formation and management of disgraced pop duo Milli Vanilli.Milli Vanilli group photoMichael Putland, Getty Imagesloading…The project actually used two studio singers on the debut album All or Nothing and then put lip-synching performers Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus as the faces of the group when they played live. But the bottom fell out of Milli Vanilli’s popularity when a backing track with their vocals skipped during a live show and fans began to unravel the origin story.Between Boney M. and Milli Vanilli, there was another creation for Farian — Far Corporation, which was a name shortened from Frank Farian Corporation. Initially, Farian had gathered a group of musicians to record a charity cover of Paul Simon’s “Mother and Child Reunion” and that eventually morphed into a full-fledged group for additional recording opportunities.Who Made Up Far Corporation?Though their cover of “Stairway to Heaven” had more of a dance pop feel to it, there were actually some notable rock musicians involved in the recording. Robin McAuley fronted the group. He had previously played with the bands Grand Prix and GMT, but would find greater acclaim after Far Corporation as the singer in the McAuley Schenker Group. McAuley has also recorded solo albums and, in recent years, has released a pair of albums with Black Swan.The other main voice in the band was Bobby Kimball, who had been the frontman for Toto between 1977 and 1984. With Toto, he had sung on such standout hits as “Hold the Line,” “Rosanna” and “Africa.” Within the Far Corporation’s cover of “Stairway to Heaven,” McAuley handles the more intimate opening moments while Kimball takes on the heavier rock moments at the end of the track.READ MORE: Led Zeppelin Albums RankedOther musicians used during the recording of Far Corporation’s debut album included Kimball’s Toto bandmates — keyboardist David Paich and guitarist Steve Lukather, as well as drummers Curt Cress and Peter Bold and singer Henry Gorman.The band’s first full album collaboration came in 1985 with the Division One album. In addition to their take on “Stairway to Heaven,” the group also covered Free’s “Fire and Water.”About the “Stairway to Heaven” CoverThe band got a big boost in Europe when they made an appearance on the German show Rockpop (seen below). Led Zeppelin’s own Robert Plant reportedly attended the taping and congratulated McAuley backstage after the performance. That appearance essentially doubled as a video for the song.The song stays fairly faithful early on with the somber guitar opening leading into McAuley’s vocals. The occasional presence of a backing choir adda some early nuance to the performance.But things start to vary off the original about midway in when a familiar guitar strike leads into a more tribal and danceable drum beat. The back portion of the song is also accentuated more by keyboards that aren’t prevalent in the original.Kimball handles vocals on the latter portion of the song, which at that point have more of an upbeat ’80s dance pop vibe to it. The choir also takes more of a presence in the backing vocals to provide a more epic and soulful feel to the performance as well.Far Corporation, “Stairway to Heaven”What Happened to Far Corporation After 1985?Far Corporation’s Led Zeppelin cover carried them into 1986 when the song peaked at No. 89 on the Billboard Hot 100. It fared better in other parts of the world with the song reaching No. 8 on the U.K. singles chart, No. 9 in Ireland, No. 16 in South Africa and No. 23 in Australia.The group followed with their cover of Free’s “Fire and Water” but it failed to meet the heights of their Zeppelin cover.Far Corporation would complete two albums – 1987’s Advantage and 1994’s Solitude –  but Advantage was scrapped after the first two singles failed to gain any traction. One of the songs from the failed record, “Big Brother,” later turned up as a Milli Vanilli song on their 1991 record The Moment of Truth. Other songs from the unreleased Advantage album would later appear on Solitude.One more notable name would come on board for their Solitude album, as Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham appeared on the record. The album also featured a cover of a song from Gorham’s other band 21 Guns called “Just a Wish.”But with diminishing returns, the band members all moved on to other projects after Solitude stumbled commercially.The Best Cover Songs by 50 Rock BandsThis sounds familiar.Gallery Credit: Chad Childers