False Credit

While it's far more common for someone to work on a project and ultimately be left Uncredited, rarely, someone will receive credit for a work they did not actually do any work on at all. This is rather common within music, most commonly in the form of a band member, usually either a longtime core member on a brief hiatus, or a member added to group very late into production, being credited on a release that they did not actually perform on. Usually, artists aren't too keen on disclosing that someone who was alleged to have performed on an album didn't perform on it, and as such examples are usually only admitted to years after the fact, or even stay an Open Secret forever.

The opposite of this is an Uncredited Role, though the two concepts often overlap, as usually someone will be given a false credit in place of someone who was uncredited. See also Nominal Coauthor, when someone who only made minor contributions to a work is given equal credit as the major creators, and Alan Smithee, when someone asks for their credit to be removed.

---

Examples:

Film — Animated

• Fleischer Studios: Dave Fleischer was credited as director on every film made by the studio, but his actual job was more in line with that of a producer or creative supervisor. In actuality, it was a "head animator" (the first listed in the opening credits) who performed the duties typically performed by an animation director.

Film — Live-Action

• When it was originally released, The Bridge on the River Kwai falsely credited Pierre Boulle, the author of the original novel, for adapting it to the screen. This was because the actual screenwriters, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, were on The Hollywood Blacklist at the time. Incidentally, Boulle couldn't even speak English, making the falsity of this credit extremely obvious, and it only became more awkward after the movie won the Oscar for best screenplay.
• Overseas (but not in America) Columbia falsely promoted the 1935 film If You Could Only Cook as a Frank Capra production, in order to exploit the director's massive popularity in Europe. Capra sued Columbia for unlawful use of his name; the parties settled out of court.
• Poltergeist (1982): While rumored long beforehand, actress Zelda Rubenstein confirmed that the director of the film was Steven Spielberg and not the credited Tobe Hooper, with John Leonetti also testifying that Spielberg was the true director. According to Leonetti, this was due to the possiblity of a director's strike, leading Tobe Hooper to be credited in order to avoid filming being shut down.

Live-Action TV

• Frasier had an In-Universe example. He buys a painting said to have been painted by an eccentric artist and holds a party to unveil it. He also invites the artist herself to view it as well. When the painting is unveiled, the artist reveals that she didn't paint it and her name was put onto it fraudulently.
• "Howards' Way": The theme song is co-credited to Leslie Osborne, who was not involved in the composition.

Music

• Bathory for many years were, according to their album credits, a trio consisting of vocalist/guitarist Quorthon, bassist Kothaar, and drummer Vvornth. Nowadays, however, it's well known that the latter two band members never existed at all, with bass and drum parts on the albums actually being the work of either Quorthon or uncredited session musicians, with friends of Quorthon's being used in band photos to sell the illusion of Kothaar and Vvornth's existence.
• The Beach Boys released "Never Learn Not To Love", credited to Dennis Wilson. However, it was actually written by his at-the-time house guest Charles Manson, who got very angry that Dennis both changed some of the lyrics and didn't credit him.
• The Beatles: Many of their later songs credited to Lennon-McCartney (starting with The White Album) were not actually written by the duo, but only one or the other. This was due to them having an informal agreement to share credit for any songs they wrote jointly or individually. But an especially egregious example was John Lennon's solo debut single "Give Peace a Chance", which also gave Paul McCartney credit for the song, even though he had absolutely nothing to do with it. John claimed it was a "thank you" to Paul for helping him record "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (their final non-album single), though later pressings removed Paul's credit. Yoko Ono meanwhile, who actually helped write the song, went uncredited, something John regrets.
• Alan Freed managed to get himself falsely listed as a co-author of Chuck Berry's "Maybelline", as a financial incentive to plug the record on his influential radio show. This now-illegal practice was not uncommon in the 1950s.
• Black Flag's My War and What The... both credit Dale Nixon on bass guitar; no such person exists and guitarist Greg Ginn also recorded the bass parts on both albums: In the case of My War it was a genuine attempt to downplay that they didn't have a full time bass player; by the time What The... was released, the ruse was so widely known that other bands had been using "Dale Nixon" as a Credits Gag, so they apparently just credited him again as an in-joke.
• Bon Jovi: Fans nowadays generally know that the bassline to "Livin' on a Prayer" was played not by Alec John Such, but his future replacement Hugh McDonald. Other accounts give McDonald credit for the entirety of Slippery When Wet, New Jersey, and Keep the Faith, with the band's episode of Behind the Music claiming that Alec "stopped contributing to the band's albums" long before his dismissal from the band.
• Bullet for My Valentine: After his departure, Michael Thomas claimed bassist Jason "Jay" James "Never contributed to the band anyway", and Matt Tuck later mentioned he played bass on every album but was never credited for it.
• Both of the first two albums from Hard Rock band Cinderella credit Fred Coury on drums. Coury was unable to play on the band's debut Night Songs due to joining shortly after it was recorded, while session musicians were used on the band's sophomore release Long Cold Winter due to Fred being deemed too inexperienced by his bandmates.
• The Cure: Their original drummer Lol Tolhurst's alcohol abuse reached its worst point during the making of Disintegration (Album), and the rest of the band say he spent the recording sessions too drunk to play anything. He's listed in the album credits due to contractual obligations, but they cryptically reference his actual level of involvement by only crediting him for playing "other instrument" (sic).
• Fear Factory: To date, Christian Olde Wolbers is the only bassist the band has had to perform on an album, with Andrew Shives and Byron Stroud being credited for their work on Soul of a New Machine and Transgression respectively despite not playing a note on the albums. Wolbers himself did not perform on Demanufacture. Bass on Fear Factory albums is usually handed by guitarist Dino Cazares or by Wolbers after his promotion to guitarist.
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood: The band's debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, infamously saw producer Trevor Horn replace everyone except vocalist Holly Johnson with himself and various session musicians. Despite this, the full band is credited in the liner notes despite only one member contributing to the finished product.
• KISS: Peter Criss was the first example. After only playing on his Step Up to the Microphone track on Dynasty, Criss was entirely absent on Unmasked despite being credited for playing on the album. Ace Frehley would be credited for an album he did not work on years later. Despite being featured on the album cover and credited as the guitarist, Frehley did not play a single note on Creatures of the Night. The album's lead guitar parts were actually played by Frehley's replacement, Vinnie Vincent on the majority of tracks, with some help from rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley and session musicians Steve Farris and Robben Ford.
• In an unorthodox example, the seventh album from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard credits second drummer Eric Moore for "nothing."
• Many, many early record label owners, music promoters, and other unscrupulous industry types were notorious for strongarming their way into the writing credits, solely so they could collect songwriting royalties. As one example amongst many: convicted music-biz mobster Morris Levy was 'officially' the author of dozens and dozens of records, including the Frankie Lymon hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" ... even though Levy never wrote a song in his life.
• Melvins: Lori Black was credited on Houdini despite having left the band prior to the album's recording. Guitarist/vocalist Buzz Osbourne played bass on the album.
• Milli Vanilli would eventually become infamous after a lip-syncing scandal lead to the revelation that frontmen Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus never sang on any of the band's music at all and had been lip-syncing during live performances. This led to public outrage, instantly sinking the career of Milli Vanilli and leading to their Grammy award being revoked. Both Morvan and Pilatus, as well as the session musicians who had actually recorded Milli Vanilli's albums attempted to make a comeback, though the latter was a commercial failure and the former never materialized to the death of Pilatus.
• My Bloody Valentine: Bassist Debbie Googe did not perform on the band's landmark album Loveless, due to bandleader Kevin Shields finding it easier to record the bass parts he had envision himself instead of explaining to Googe what he wanted them to sound like. In a less extreme example, Bilinda Butcher is credited for playing guitar on the album despite only being featured as a vocalist.
• Nirvana: Rhythm guitarist Jason Everman was both credited and featured on the cover of the band's debut album, Bleach, despite not appearing on any of the album's tracks. Everman's credit was both to thank him for both paying for the album's recording, as well as to "make him feel at home in the band", according to bassist Krist Novoselic.
• Ozzy Osbourne: Diary of a Madman credited bassist Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge on its original release, who were touring with Ozzy at the time. The album's bass and drum parts were actually played by Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake, who played on and were credited properly for Blizzard of Ozz.
• Panic! at the Disco: After the departure of bassist Brent Wilson, the remaining band members alleged that he did not actually perform on the band's debut album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, with his parts being composed by vocalist Brendon Urie and lead guitarist Ryan Ross, with Urie recording the bass parts on the album. Wilson denied these claims.
• Pink Floyd: "Speak to Me", the opening track of The Dark Side of the Moon, is officially credited to drummer Nick Mason, who rarely ever made any songwriting contributions. While Mason claimed that he indeed wrote the track (a sound collage consisting of clips from other songs on the album) himself, Roger Waters and Richard Wright claimed that they actually wrote the song and simply gave Mason a writing credit so he could make some extra money from songwriting royalties. Following his acrimonious departure from Pink Floyd, Waters stated that he regretted attributing the piece to Mason.
• Queensrÿche: Scott Rockenfield did not perform on Operation: Mindcrime II, and while the album's physical copy did not feature any personnel credits, he was credited as playing drums for the album on the band's website.
• Quiet Riot: Rudy Sarzo was credited in place of Kelly Garni on Quiet Riot II. He wouldn't actually perform on one of the band's albums until Metal Health.
• The Rolling Stones: "Sway" and "Moonlight Mile" from Sticky Fingers are credited like most of the band's songs to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; Jagger actually wrote the songs with then-lead guitarist Mick Taylor, who was supposedly promised credit on the tracks but never received it, while Richards received credit despite only contributing backing vocals to the former and nothing at all to the latter. Taylor would continue to be denied songwriting credits for songs he helped write, which was a contributing factor to his departure from the band in 1974.
• Savatage: The liner notes for the album Handful of Rain list longtime bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and founding drummer Steve Wacholz, neither of which performed on the album. Both chose to not participate in the album's recording due to the death of Criss Oliva, though Middleton would return to the band for the album's tour and all albums afterward. Drum and bass parts on the album were actually handled by former lead vocalist Jon Oliva, who is only credited on the album as a session keyboardist and co-producer.
• Sepultura: While bassist Paulo Jr. is the only band member to be credited on every album the band released, frontman Max Cavalera later admitted that lead guitarists Andreas Kisser and Jairo Guedz played bass on the band's first five albums, due to Paulo's bass playing at the time being considered unsatisfactory. Paulo would make his actual recording debut on 1993's Chaos A.D.
• Slipknot: Despite being credited as a percussionist on the band's debut album, Chris Fehn's only appearance on the release was vomiting during the hidden track "Mudslide".
• Stryper: Tim Gaines was fired during the production of To Hell with the Devil and bass on the album was handled by Bill Cobb. Gaines was rehired for the tour and is credited on the album as a bassist.
• Weezer: Guitarist Brian Bell is credited with doing guitar work on their first album. In reality, he didn't play a note. Near the end of the sessions, their original rhythm guitarist Jason Cropper was fired from the band with Brian being brought in to replace him. While he did get to do backing vocals, there wasn't enough time to have him re-record Jason's guitar parts and so Rivers did it himself. That being said, Brian claims he did some guitar work on the album.
• Whitesnake: Due to an injury, Adrian Vandenberg was unable to play on Slip of the Tongue, yet still received a credit as a guitarist. Despite the credit, his absence is still acknowledged with the message "Unfortunately, due to injury, Adrian was unable to perform on this recorded work. Our thanks to Steve [Vai] for fulfilling all guitar responsibilities".

Video Games

• The DanceDanceRevolution song "Back In Your Arms" is credited to "jun^note Junko Karashima, at the time an in-house composer for Konami feat. DJ Silver vs Milo ft. Becca Hossany". Strangely, Milo released this song on Soundcloud three years before its DDR debut with no mention of jun anywhere (the artist tag is "Milo vs. Silver"), suggesting that her inclusion in the artist credits is this.
• Sonic.Exe: Spirits of Hell: Despite the voice actors being listed in the credits of Whisper Of Soul, you never will be able to hear their voices. As a vote toke place that would decide between shipping the game with voice acting, or not. Most choose without, and it was planned to be brought back in the future updates, but...

Western Animation

• The continued use of fraudulent writing credits brought down the Canadian production company Cinar, whose work included Caillou, Arthur, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and many, many others. Essentially, Cinar hired American writers for their shows, but defrauded the Canadian government by putting the names of Canadians in the writing credits, and then claiming millions in tax credit money for employing Canadians. The sister of prominent Canadian politician Jean Charest was listed as the author of over 100 Cinar-produced TV episodes that she did not write; other episodes were falsely credited to various relatives of Cinar executives. Cinar settled out of court, paying out over $20 million (Canadian) to various government agencies, but as a result of this and other financial misdeeds, the company eventually shut down. Separately, the company's two founders agreed to pay $1 million in restitution; Cinar co-founder Ronald A. Weinberg was later arrested for securities fraud and eventually sentenced to 8 years and 11 months in prison.

---