One-hit wonder? Here in Austria you would receive capital punishment for such a bold statement...and that thing has been illegal since... like... forever
YourPrivateNightmare The show has always been from an American perspective. If it's a one hit wonder in the US, it's eligible for the show. Otherwise it can be difficult keeping track of what can and can't count as a one hit wonder. And since Todd is American, it's a bit easier on him. And he even says in this video the guy isn't exactly a one hit wonder in America, either. Sorta.
"And he even says in this video the guy isn't exactly a one hit wonder in America, either. Sorta." He says it similarly in the Men Without Hats video aswell.
I would argue his other two hits, Der Kommissar and Vienna Calling are pretty good and you could at least play the former without much mixing. But Falco is a music nerd name drop for crate diggers, not "pop" experts or whatever this angle is.
"Rock me Amadeus" isn't supposed to be goofy. At the time it came out Falco was already a star and known to be provocative and excessive due to drug use. He was scandalous at the time and "Rock me Amadeus" was an allegory to Falco's life. He was basically comparing himself with Mozart which was a part of his personality/image: arrogance, a little bit megalomania, egoism but always polite and in a suit with manners and always talking in a strong austrian dialect but still some kind of "asshole" and "macho". The song "Jeanny" was very controversal and scandalous and a few radio stations and TV stations refused to play it. Newspapers reported that the song is immoral. It's basically in the point of view of a psychopathic, obsessed kid-napper/stalker (maybe even rapist) and the psychotic sexy creep was somehow Falco's image and the media claimed it would glorify stalkers/rapists. However, it was a huge hit and it's very well written and raises awareness concerning a serious topic (kid-napping and all those young girls missing). He was later known for his severe drug problems and it's such a shame that Todd didn't talk about the song "Mutter, der Mann mit dem Koks ist da" which was a crazy 90ies techno dance hit in the style of a children's song but playing with puns and homonymes and it's actually about cocaine. I loved this song as a child and I only understood the literal words: "Mom, the man selling coals is there" but it has a double-meaning. "Out of the dark (into the light)" actually has an english chorous (just like Jeanny) and it's about his addiction and dying and it was eerily released a short time prior to his death. I remember that they released the song "Egoist" (about him being an egoist) after his death. He's a legend here.
I loved Falco when i was a kid, i actually prefer Vienna Calling, i think Todd, doesn't understand what it was like to listen to this music, when one was young; hearing something that seemed brand new and exciting, and let's make one thing clear the fact that Falco only had one hit in the US doesn't mean anything, his comments seem too "ugly american", like "if you don't make it here your career doesn't count"
@@griseldadominguez8734 He couldn't understand it because it's possible he never heard it when it was new, and with that in mind, it's hard to get the full perspective. He had his own acts that were new at the time and released new tracks in his youth that he was similarly excited for, just like how you were excited for Falco. He already mentioned many times that One Hit Wonderland here is about acts that were one hit wonders in the US, and that's like the one rule for eligibility in this show, especially since it's common that the covered acts had more hits elsewhere, particularly in their home country. He also mentioned that he covered Falco because it was a paid request, otherwise he wouldn't cover it, because he actually had more hits in the US. Falco just wasn't as popular in the US, a country that generally has a different taste in music, as well, you can't really faut Todd for that.
When this song was at its peak, a local DJ was so sick of getting requests for it that he locked himself in the broadcast booth and played the song for 10 hours straight, until the whole city was just as sick of it as he was.
I was at university with a bunch of Germans at the time Falco died. And they were inconsolably sobbing! It was shocking. They held him in such high regard.
Jackson DeStefano that's automatically what I think of as soon as I hear rock me Amadeus. If Falco contributed nothing else to the musical pantheon that 30 second joke on the simpsons would be enough.
As a German all I can tell you is this: This man has become an icon over here based on his goofyness mixed with some VERY rare strokes of genius storytelling. One of the best songs to combine the two is "Mutter der Mann mit dem Koks ist da". It's a dance song, pretending to be about a type of refined coal being delivered ("coke" in English). The point of the song is, that "Koks" (just like coke) is used both for coal and cocaine. And the song is, in fact, about a mother prostituting herself for cocaine in front of her children. Just like der Kommissar is about cocaine. And pretty much all of his later works. Except for the last two hits of his, released after his death, that revolved around depression and suicide in the case of "out of the dark" and about only really living while slowly falling towards death in the case of "verdammt wir leben noch". This leads many to believe that his car accident was actually on purpose and therefore suicide.
Die Sache is, Mutter der Mann mit dem Koks is da is halt musikalisch gesehen nicht wirklich gut und zeigt dadurch seine Verzweiflung, in einer unfreiwilligen Art. Er war aber eine interessante Figur, muss man ihm lassen.
That's just not true "Mutter, der Mann mit dem Koks ist da" is an old song from the late 1900s that Falco gave a dance treatment. And it's in fact about coal, but of course Falco used the innuendo.
Vienna Calling is about people emigrating from Vienna into the world and Vienna calling for them. Vienna had the lowest population in 100 years in the 80s.
Expensive 'Caine in the 80s, too. i think that contributed to its popularity. People who could not afford much felt like they were living the good life, in a manner of speaking. Kinda like waiting in line for a new iphone or something. For the wealthy, it was expected, for the not so wealthy, it was more an event.
I remember reading in that oral history of MTV that when they were first starting making music videos, they often didn't have money to pay the crew, so they gave them coke instead, and hid the cost in the budget under craft services. And that often it wasn't the rock stars you would've thought of that were the worst cokeheads, there's hilarious anecdotes about a coked up Mr. Mister and Toto.
Full disclosure: I'm German, not Austrian, and I'm 25, so obviously I wasn't around while Falco was big, so obviously I might be getting some of this wrong, but in hindsight, I don't feel like German-speaking people really consider Rock Me Amadeus (or any other Falco song for that matter) a novelty. At least not more than Bohemian Rhapsody is considered a novelty - sure, it's odd and over the top bombastic and kinda silly when you look at it, but it comes from such a genuine place that you can in fact groove to it unironically. Also, for context, during the 80s we had our own take on new wave, called Neue Deutsche Welle. NDW didn't really have to be about anything - or rather, they could be about extremely mundane and silly things. There are NDW hits that are still remembered fondly today about driving your car really fast, phone sex hotlines and the gross domestic product (no, really). Falco was kinda out there even by those standards though. His over the top personality, his strong Viennese dialect, his forceful delivery and his fondness for adding rap/hip-hop elements to his music really made him stand out. He is often described as "the first German-language rapper". Of course, it also "helps" that he was known as pompous, difficult to work with and deeply, deeply troubled, and that he died tragically at a rather young age. There's a lot of reverence for his work and he's considered a genuine legend. His most well-known song, at least here in Germany, is probably Jeanny. For good reason - it sounds fantastic, it's bone-chillingly creepy and at the time, it was highly controversial due to its subject matter. Personally, I love it a lot. I'm a huge fan of obsession songs and to me it's an all-time classic. While it's from the point of view of a deranged killer and possible rapist, it clearly doesn't glorify or romanticise his actions, as some have stated, although just writing a song about this subject at all was pushing it to far for some people. Falco claimed that the song wasn't about what it was CLEARLY about, but that Jeanny was just a runaway girl - hence him releasing Coming Home, a "conclusion" to the story where Jeanny returns home, alive and well. Jeanny Pt. 2 wasn't released IN SPITE of the controversy, but BECAUSE of it. As I've stated, my perspective is somewhat limited, but that's just my two cents.
Um .... it seems to me that two things contradict that statement about Jeannie pt 2, namely that - even though one line goes "I will give anything(everything?) just to see you again", there is at least in one case the lyric instead is "i will give anything to see Jeannie again" indicating that it is NOT Jeannie that is coming home .... Also, the video, (unless i'm confusing it with pt 3,) where the guy sees who he think is Jeannie ... and it isn't?
According to Wikipedia, his response to the outrage that the song is about rape was that it really is about a stalker. A video of Part 2. is full of references to both real-life and fictional sexual assaults and murders...
You're not even aware you released this just in time for his would-be 60th birthday, right? The media over here in Austria have been celebrating it like crazy.
Falco may have been a one hit wonder in the U.S., but he was enormous in Europe throughout most of the Eighties. Around the same time as Rock Me, Amadeus was riding high in the charts, it was joined by both Vienna Calling and Jeannie, both of whom were smashes. And let´s not forget breakthrough hit Der Kommissar from 1981, probably his most celebrated song overall.
You missed out "Out of the dark!" one of the most haunting sendoffs a Rockstar ever gave to themselves. It was basically like he had announced a suicide with the lyrics going like: "do I have to die to live on?" Suicide speculations around his death actually never died down. Seeing that video, listening to that song, right after his death, was absolute spine-chilling.
Does Ramstein count? 30 years later but they certainly rock. Then one can hardly argue against The Scorpions. Some German music does get the status of superstars. However I barley knew of the song and artist's name. Happy to see details of the history of the artist.
Sashizakura kind of? It was probably played more in German on the radio now, like 99 Red Balloons. Since the song novelty is more interesting than playing the English version, even if the song was hit because both versions were considered a single song for the charts.
I'm not sure how visible a comment will be, more than one year after this video's release, but for posterity I would like to provide a little more context for "Jeanny" since I was alive in Austria at the time. The Wikipedia page really does not do justice to how big of a scandal the song was at the time of its release, especially coming from Falco being a superstar at the peak of his career with huge exposure. It was met with protests, heavy boycotts towards any radio station that played it, very public discussions in higher-up political circles, and even death threats. It is my firm belief that "Jeanny (Part 2)" was damage control, assuring to any concerned party that in fact, "Jeanny is alive and well." However intentional or not, Falco overstepped what was considered "pop artistic" license at the time, and while "Jeanny" remains one of his most well known tracks his career never fully recovered afterwards. (That, and his music was deeply rooted in the '80s and did not transition well into the '90s.) Also, "Wiener Blut" is an on-the-nose reference to one of the most famous musical pieces of Johann Strauss II. The first few bars of the waltz are even played in the intro of Falco's song.
@@juliamavroidi8601 It's odd, I grew up with so many German songs about guys killing the girl they had a onesided crush on, all from the mid 80's to mid 90's, I wonder what the problem with this one in particular was.
@@Kaefer1973 from what my mother told me there were many kidnapped girls in that timeperiod and falco made a song about it which was terribly misunderstood and bc the media didnt like him from the beginning they just massacered his carreer
It's only tangentially related, but I wonder if "Janie's Got A Gun" was inspired by "Jeanny". Probably not, yet I could definitely imagine the members of Aerosmith hearing of that controversy and thinking of what they could do with similar topics...
Is ironic the right word though? It would be ironic if it DIDN'T sound good on the piano, because you'd expect a song titled after one of the greatest pianist ever to sound good on the piano.
@@TheWarriorpony its said about mozart and Hitler, never heard it with beethoven. also it can be argued that mozart was german because Salzburg wasnt even part of austria at that time and the HRE was a thing. The joke is based on the thing that the same can be argued about Hitler.
@@Swagorath Well yeah, you can be pedantic about Salzburg not being part of Austria at the time, but historically, since Salzburg has been part of Austria for centuries now and Mozart worked most of his life in Vienna, Mozart was pretty definitely Austrian. Beethoven however, was not. There was a time where he studied (under Mozart) in Vienna, but he was definitely German, not just arguably. But because Austria claims to be the center of all classical music people started to think that Beethoven was Austrian too. I'm not saying your version isn't sort of valid, but it is pretty pedantic. I've only even heard it about Beethoven, which just makes way more sense as a joke? To me at least.
in Germany and Austria Falco is a Legend the first Rapper in german Language. He is so importand for German Hip Hop. He is the Grandmaster Flash of Germany/Austria/Swizerland.
First off he wasnt the first german rapper, that were GLS united with rapper Delight ( Gottschalk, Laufenberg, Sexauer). Second he most certainly is not the grandmaster flash of german rap Third: HIER WIRD DEUTSCH GESPROCHEN NICHT ANGELSÄCHSISCH!!!1!!
@@knecht6974 GLS were a parody group of three entertainers (none of them even a musician) who only made one song, and the song managed to hit a number 49 in Germany and Germany alone. Frankly, it doesn't count, not at all.
I unapologetically love the song Jeanny. The big huge chorus and the creepyness of the lyrics combined with his personality is just such a delicious mix. If a song about a stalker can be a hit for The Police, why not a song from the perspective of a murderous kidnapper?
The mayor problem with Jeanny is Austria. For quite a while it was rather common for abducted children to be found after years to be living in austrian cellars.
Anyone familiar with the parody "Rock Me, Jerry Lewis?" I heard it before I heard Falco and it's even funnier than the original. Don't know who did it.
The nickname, "Falco" came exactly along as you think Todd. Falco was searching for an artist name (can't start a career with "Hans Hölzl"), was on tour in Munich with one of his early bands, watched ski jumping on TV and decided that "Falco" from the east german ski jumper Falko Weißflog sounds just awesome enough. It was right a this time when he put on his stage persona as Falco, the over-arrogant and a bit slimy superstar with glued-back hair and expensive suits. And you're also right about his wish to essentially be the continental David Bowie. Listen to "Helden von Heute" (Heroes of today) from his debut album Einzelhaft, it is essentially a new wave version of David Bowies Heroes. "Vienna Calling" is probably a reference to Eurovision. Every participaing country "phones in" their scores, and it's tradition to start with the phrase "Hello [host city], this is [captial of the country giving the votes] calling." "Wiener Blut" is the name of a waltz by Johann Strauß Jr.
This makes Rammstein's "Wiener Blut" even more screwed up. "Till, how can we call this song about a guy raping his own daughter?" "Let's name it after the Strauß waltz!" "Why are you like this, Till?"
Omg Todd, I'm from Latin America and we have heard of this guy more than once. I can't believe Jeanny wasn't a big hit in the U.S. because it was pretty known here. Every 80's radio station has it in their playlists! It doesn't sound aaall the time, but is somewhere!
You missed a couple of the coolest factoids: That's not technically German he's rapping in, it's the "dead" dialect of Viennese, so apparently there are some lyrics that even sound like gibberish to German speakers. He was banned from Vienna radio for his early hit "Ganz Wien", because it's lyrics declared that "all Vienna is of cocaine and heroin". The song "Vienna Calling" was supposed to be a peace offering. And, if you can find it, the bio-picture "Falco - Damn, we're still alive!" is darkly hilarious, with Falco's response to most success and failure to declare his career over ("Der Kommissar is number one throughout Europe, I'll never top that!" or "Junge Roemer has underperformed, I'm done!") and lock himself in his apartment, binging on cocaine and hookers. Anyway, love your work. Keep it up.
Ryder Grindle „dead“ dialect of viennese? I‘m viennese and although it is quite difficult to understand everything because of his „hiccups“ every word and phrase he uses is still beeing used or at least understood in vienna.
Mandy C. I suppose you dont speak German then. Falco talks more than he sings in the video. The refrain (the only part where he really sings) is in English tho, so that should be good enough.
Rod Cord The song is good, it just didn't cross over due to the subject matter. Amadeus was a goofy pop song that no one could understand, so they had fun with it. Meanwhile, Jeanny was extremely dark. If you had a number 1 hit that defines the pop scene and is a song that can be enjoyed by anyone, it wouldn't be Jeanny. It'd be Amadeus.
I'm loving this random facts section and I want to chip in something I didn't really find mentioned here. It's about the song "Jeanny". May be an obvious one, but here goes. The video is actually heavily based on the 1931 classic German horror movie "M". It is about a serial killer of children. Falco wears the same kind of clothing as the killer. In the movie the killer eventually gets marked with the letter "M" on his right shoulder, and Falco has the letter "F" in the same fashion. The movie does not show the violence itself, instead cutting to something like a balloon the child was carrying trapped in between electric wires or a ball rolling away (the doll dropping on the ground in Falco's video). I love this song, and not being a native German speaker at first I was really confused if there is anything in it that allows the listener to know for a fact that the protagonist killed Jeanny. Apparently yes.
Yeah, Falco was big in Europe in the 80s. Over here in Belgium, everyone can still sing along to Der Kommissar, Rock me Amadeus and especially Jeanny (arguably his biggest hit over here). Heck, for a long time "Alles klar Herr Kommissar?" was a catchphrase over here, due to it sounding very similar to how we say it in Dutch.
Since Italy confines with Austria, it was natural that his songs hit the number one spot in Italian single charts. My parents can confirm he was pretty popular in that time here in Italy.
As an Austrian this sure was a pretty weird episode to watch. I can sing along with a lot of those but then there where some I've never even heard of. Also I just looked at the lyrics and... I have no idea what Vienna Calling is about either. Some of it is a bit patriotic in a chill way and the rest is... about girls but what does it have to do with each other? idk But yeah Falco is like... a bit of staple of music here, I think? You just KNOW him. There's a song called "Nie mehr Schule" (No more school, I think you can imagine why THAT one stuck around) and there's this tradition of a "Maturastreich" (something like graduation prank) where at the end of the last year of high school the graduates get to prank the entire school and also get drunk as fuck on school grounds (the second part is technically not allowed I think but this IS Austria) and if you haven't conga-lined through an entire school (including the classrooms while the teachers teach!) with a stereo while loudly and wrongly yelling "No more school" then wtf are you doing with your life honestly Jeanny creeped me the fuck out when I was a kid tho. I'm pretty sure the girl talked about is also 13 or something? But yeah, from an Austrian perspective he most definitely isn't a One-Hit-Wonder lol
wow...I never knew "nie mehr schule" was by falco. All I knew was the chorus and from that I couldn't tell it was a falco song. this man really was an icon
>and if you haven't conga-lined through an entire school (including the classrooms while the teachers teach!) with a stereo while loudly and wrongly yelling "No more school" then wtf are you doing with your life honestly My final year ended with a few post it notes in the hallways. I feel cheated.
It is and it isn’t (weird that is). If you think about the influence and popularity of Kraftwerk on Black American radio and the fact that one of earlier hip hop artists, Afrika Bambatta very obviously either used, borrowed or was heavily influenced by that sound (‘Planet Rock’) it’s clear that at least some German artists were known and appreciated in the U.S. Also, remember that many Black Americans served in the military and were stationed in Germany. That’s most likely how the music was heard.
Not gonna lie I liked every single song played in this video, I might check out his other stuff. A damn shame he died so young. Glad he got success in Europe! He deserved better here in the US!
Watching this as a german is soooooooo fucking funny :) Really nice one. Wünsche dir alles Gute. Liebe deine Show und gucke sie schon seit Jahren. Mach weiter so. YOU ROCK ^^
Uh, habe die ehre Applewar ;) It´s true, very funny! I love Falco and i think he deserve better, he died too young. Hearing Jeanny as a none german must be very creapy for sure!
In their attitudes toward each other, correct. But in terms of how successful they were during their lifetimes, it’s actually Salieri who was Homer and Mozart was Grimes.
Watching this from Austria I'm only shaking my head about how he could be perceived as a one-hit wonder anywhere when he totally defined the whole decade over here ....
Falco definitely was no one-hit in Germany and Austria. but also the Austria music of today still has some falcoaesk moments in them - see: Bilderbuch - Bungalow (for one recent example) liebe grüße aus Deutschland ;)
@@teresarivasugaz2313 Interesting question. I think that the legacy of falco can be found in many contemporary bands, and probably ones perspective is mostly bound to which version of Falco you think of, f.e. the more energetic pop music with mixture of English and Austria (more Bilderbuch maybe) or the darker more introverted songs (maybe more Wanda), or something complete different. Or to put it another way: the (by far best) alternative radio station in Austria FM4 recently poled the best 100 songs from Austria in the 21. century - fm4.orf.at/stories/2977831/ - with Bilderbuch at #1 and Wanda #3, and you could propably argue for falcos influence on a lot of them, directly or indirectly. Then again it might sometimes be more reading into it, I'm no pop music expert. But I like fm4 - highly recommended ;)
Cheesy one hit wonder weirdness from the '70' s and '80's are right in my lane. I unironically love a lot of the stuff, my favorite is probably "One Night In Bangkok" by Murray Head. This one is great too simply for it's sheer goofiness.
i can't even describe how much i love his sound. i do think he deserved to be bigger and tbh after watching this video it makes total sense that he was a prodigy who studied music at a conservatorship. his melodies are "right" like even with the goofy lyrics and weird vocal delivery his music still has this "professional" feel about it. he could've been a massive producer if he wanted to, may he rest in peace
I LOVE the German version and I can't understand a word of it. Looked them up on Wikipedia and apparently the German version is FAR more political than the translation. They claim to have NEVER played the English version in concert, for one, they hated the translation, for another they aren't all that fluent in English.
@@davidmonypeny5734 the Germans don't like it so much anymore, not cause its bad but because its like way too much in Denmark and they got tired of us drunkenly screaming the lyrics at them in broken German lmao
Not exactly. It's definitely the quintessential stalker song, and not romantic at all to non-Twilight fans (it's still cool to make fun of them, right?), but no one ever mentions doing anything really VIOLENT in the song.
Was living in Germany at the time of Falco's death. A few weeks later I went to visit another American friend living in Vienna. We went to the cemetery where Falco was buried, and it was Princess Diana levels of tribute everywhere. I rather like Falco's music. Thanks, Todd, for "Deutschlish" because "Germlish" is a lot worse. (I personally wasn't sure what to call that. Deutschlish it is. Also, he did use Italian, too, such as in "Junge Roemer")
I lived in Germany with my folks during the mid-2000s. There's no doubt that Falco will always be a pop culture icon there. You can bet that his songs got considerable radio play back then, and I'm sure they still do. Verdammt wir leben noch! Thanks for the memories. :)
Well its funny how you talk about jeanny^^ Back in Germany and Austria Radiostations refused to play it for about a year and despite that he still managed to score a Top hit That was the impressive part
Actually he had the chance to become bigger in the US, his manager even wanted him to sing with Madonna but he didn't want. He wanted to stay at home with his loving mum and Apfelstrudel ;) In the 90s he started to play in front of smaller crowds, the Donauinselfest 1993 and the Symphonic concert 1994 were exceptions. In Austria and Germany those years are senn as climax #2 and his first comeback. In the mid 90s he had a little success with his techno/europop song "Mutter der Mann mit dem Koks ist da". You can read more about this important song in the comments. Maybe the most important point is, that he changed his name back in 1995 from Falco to in T>>MA. His friends told him that he had to decide between Falco and Hans Hoelzel. And I think he chose Hans Hoelzel. Just my opinion. He had a really bad personality disorder and he had problems with his sudden fame. Falco was always the cool, nimble-witted guy, but his real personality, Hans, was shy and full of unsatisfied love. The women wanted Falco, not Hans. That and the fact that he came back to the drugs destroyed him from inside so he went in the Dominican Republic.. Not, he didn't moved, he flee.. They say he planned another comeback but I don't really think so. I know I lean far out of the window but I think he wanted it to handle like David Bowie did it. In his very last song, Out of the Dark, there's this line.. "Muss ich denn sterben um zu leben ?" That means "Must I die to live ?" There's also a video from 1997 on RU-vid in which heself comments this line with a sarcastic "Yeah, that's the question, isn't it ?" while playing on the bass guitar. And let's be honest.. In Germany and Austria the song hit like a bomb, he got his posthumous comeback. Without his mysterious and till now in parts uncleared death, this song would've been insignificant and would've probably not been in the top 10 charts. For me it is a planned death.. The end of the project "Falco" and the chance for Hans Hoelzel to start a new life with a nice account ;) And those contradictions do exist ! And there are way too many to ignore them. The death report is actually one big fake with wrong drug results. This is proven by, but the most don't know it. Falcos friends still say in 2017 he would've been high on drugs while the crash and their statements about the crash are just wrong. One of them, who arrived on the crash site 3 minutes after the crash, said that Falco would've been pressed against the drivers seat by the airbag. But that's wrong.. An airbag becomes limp seconds after the crash and on the airbag you can't see any blood. The wreck is still kept as a wreck. And then there's this song, the spirit never dies.. Part 3 of the Jeanny history.. Allegedly found in 2009 after more than 20 years because of a water pipe breakage. But independent music producers say that this song must be definitely from the early or mid 2000s. Again, people say it would definitely be from 1986 but even a layman can say that his voice sounds deeper and rougher than in the mid 80s. He smoked very much so his voice changed with the years. In the 80s the voice was way younger than in this song. It just sounds like the voice was made synthetically younger, so far that in some parts it doesn't even sound like Falco xD These examples are just a few in a huge amount of unclear stuff.
The song Jeany is quite the cultural phenomenon over here, and pretty well known to those living in the nineties and early 2000nds it was used in a capaign to raise awareness of child abuse if I remember it correctly and the dark tone of it really helps it’s status as one of Falcos greatest hits. Out of the Dark really hit home during the time it came out, It was basically the first time I realised the person singing it just died... Added the morbid tone and the usual: As if he knew he would die ( like duh he abused drugs aperently hard enough that this alone should ahve killed him) Add in the fact of my doom and gloom teenage angst... He was quite big... over here... but like Nena or other “Local greats” here... not necessarily aimed at Anglo-Saxon sensibilities ^^ Great retrospective though:)
When I was living in Austria I even saw Mozartkugeln with Falco's likeness from the Rock Me Amadeus MV on the packaging... And it was not some novelty stuff you would find in souvenir shops, it was actually widely sold in supermarkets... God I miss my neighbourhood Spar. Even here in Romania he is viewed as a quality artist, unlike most German synthpop acts that were popular here in the 80s (like Modern Talking), after all these years I am still puzzled Todd didn't like this. Also, being to Vienna twice and wanting to visit the city at least once more, I 100% understand the guy's obsession with his hometown.
It's funny After The Fire created an English cover to Falco's first big international outside the US hit and became a one hit wonder years before Falco did a few years later.
Every comment is like "well actually in *insert country here*" Todd found a way to bring out everyone from everywhere this guy had ever been popular. Honestly seems like the only comments on this video are that people who are deeply familiar with this guys catalogue and the Americans just decided to sit this video out. Me personally I'm just an ignorant American who hasn't heard this song before and everything that's being said doesn't mean anything to me.
In my German college class we had to recite a poem/song in German. This what I chose and everyone loved it lol, the class even cheered when I finished because we had to recite by memory. Also IIRC Falco was where the Star Fox/Lylat Wars character got his name from.
Dude, he was a one-hit wonder *here* in America! When Todd covers one-hit wonders, he either talks about one-hit wonders who almost forgotten or one-hit wonders who were bigger in other countries.
...wow, I'm a CHILD of the 80s and I'd never actually heard this song before. Nonsensical as the lyrics are to a non-German speaker (and from what I understand, even to a German speaker), that instrumentation is kind of...well, epic. Todd had me hooked on the song from the second he started his piano cover. ...and now it won't leave my head. EVER.
Falco would have turned 60 this year. He is still the only big star we Austrians ever had (since Mozart, of course). Thank you for making this hilarious review!
As an european I love to watch this show, for a lot of reasons actually, it's awesome but sometimes it's just really fun to see an american perspective on european hits. Like, as a german speaker to call Falco a one hit wonder is wild to me. Over here he is a legend with a ton of awesome material. I didn't even knew there was a english version of "der Kommissar"`! Seriously, check out some of the deeper cuts there are some truly weird and fun hidden gems form him out there.
Can't help but feel sorry for the guy. And I finally get that musical bit from the Simpsons, when they had an episode with Troy McClure in a musical version of Planet of the Apes, which had a musical number dedicated to Dr. Zaius, with a very similar tune to Rock Me Amadeus.
As you may have seen, i just discovered your channel and im throwing my two cents in every video. I live in a South American country with a large German immigrant population, and i remember Falco being super popular over here in the 80s. Even my husband who is not of German descent, used to have Vienna Calling as a ringtone for his boss (who is of Austrian descent! haha). I studied German as a teen and i know the complete lyrics to Der Komissaar hahaha!!!! Thanks for the video!!!
Falco's version of "Der Kommissar" DID became a hit in the U. S.-went to #10 on the Billboard Dance Charts!!! Wondering why he didn't talk about Dr. Zaius, which is better!!! BTW, how about talking about Sinade O'Connors' "Nothing Compared to You" as your next pick. She's a One-Hit Wonder here, but, did more for what she did on Saturday Night Live in 1992, than having just one hit!
Falco's "Der Kommisar" was on MTV ALL THE TIME! As a little kid I remember being hypnotized by how he's running from the cops or whatever for the whole video on a green screen that is so lame it closes the circle and becomes an amazing surrealist masterpiece.
I'm German and his songs are still played on the radio. My parents liked him, i guess the songs reminded them of their teenage years. I remember when i was young and driving with my Dad, he always turend the radio up when 'Jeanny' and 'Out of the dark' were played.
"No one's ever rapped the biography of Rachmaninoff" They said they same thing about Hamilton. But in all seriousness tho, I'm starting to like this artist. "Vienna Calling" sounds beautiful and "Jeanny" has a Phantom of the Opera vibe to it. Granted, the Phantom is more sympathetic obviously, but it sounds like a fascinating song regardless. I'm glad you did this review, or else I never would have found out about this guy.
German here and I'm so happy you're doing this, Falco is a HUUUUUUUGE deal in germany and austria. Also you're totally right. Because of his austrian accents in combination with his "froggy"(as you called it) delivery makes falco sometimes hard to understand even for germans(at least in this song, in others it was way easier). Also there is already a word for a mixture between german and english, it isn't "deutschlisch" but "denglisch". we germans established that years ago here.
As an American who graduated from HS in ‘85 in then-West Germany, I can say Falco is certainly not a one-hit wonder. Very successful and revered in Europe.
That moment of realization during "Der Kommissar" was everything I had hoped for. Maybe you could cover After the Fire in a later episode, since their cover of the song was their only hit stateside, or practically anywhere for that matter.
Definitely. Falcos Kommisar actually has a meaning (cocaine), After the Fire just translated the quite figurative lyrics just word by word and cut out a few lines, which results in that unrhyming mess that doesn't make any sense.
Here in Czech Republic he was one of the "forbidden fruit" western pop stars during the 80's, only being allowed to perform here and be on radios after the Velvet Revolution. My first contact with his music however was a parody cover of "Jeanny" by Těžkej Pokondr, sort of like Czech Al Yankovices. The song (called "Džíny") is about a guy, who was partying with "a singer from Austria" yesterday and now he can't find his most favourite pants with all leads pointing to Falco stealing them. The rest of the song is filled with depression and regrets over the loss...
Love your reviews! But you siriously underestimate Falco here. He was an amazing artist. (Amadeus is a fun one though) one Hit Wonder isn't really a phrase i'd have thought of for him. BTW Jeanny is still played in discotheques over here :D O love Jeannie Side note 1: Vienna has a thing for the macabre side of life Side note 2: And those two postmortem songs really got the conspiracy engine running.
I need to add something.... Falco apart from being a little weird of course had many things going for him. What I remember mostly though is him being controversial... Jeanny has a news reporter talking about a girl in the middle of the song - 19 I think - that went missing and is mostly written through the eyes of a pehophile or rapist and his way of explaining his perspective. "Where is your shoe? You must have lost it when I had to show you your way!" and "Your lipstick is smeared, You bought it and I saw it. Too much red on your lips", "I saw through you, you need me. Everyone knows we are an item from now on and I can hear them they are coming to find you but they will never find you, you are with me!" It`s quite haunting, the delivery is .... amazing and it came out during a time where there were many famous cases on the TV so it was talked about A LOT. The Koks thing has already been mentioned in the comments, that was a really important song as well.
I genuinely, unironically love this song, and I love the classical music aspect of it, I love how it portrays an 18th century artist as a modern rock star. It’s me I’m the person who loves it because it’s about Mozart 😂
