Falco (musician)

Johann (Hans) Hölzel (February 19, 1957 – February 6, 1998), better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian hip hop, pop and rock musician. His albums and singles have sold about 60 million copies worldwide.

Early years

Born in Vienna, graduating from the Vienna Music Conservatory in 1977, he lived for a short time in West Berlin, singing in a jazz-rock band. When he returned to Vienna he was calling himself "Falco," reportedly in tribute to the East German skier Falko Weißpflog, and playing in the Austrian bands Spinning Wheel and Hallucination Company. En route to becoming an international rock star in his own right, he was bass player in the Austrian hard rock-punk rock band Drahdiwaberl (from 1978 until 1983). With Drahdiwaberl he wrote and performed the song "Ganz Wien," which he would also include on his debut solo album, Einzelhaft.

Individual success

Falco's first hit was "Der Kommissar", from the 1982 album Einzelhaft. A German language song about drug consumption that combines rap verses with a sung chorus, Falco's record was a number-one success in many countries but failed to break big in the U.S. The song, however, would prove to have a life of its own in two English-language versions. British Rock band After the Fire recorded an English cover version, loosely based on Falco's lyrics and also called "Der Kommissar" (with "uh-oh" and "alles klar Herr Kommissar" the only other lyrics held over from the original). This time, the song shot to number three in the United States (their only major hit there) in 1983, though it failed to crack the UK Top 40. The band—who had been together more than a decade—broke up almost immediately thereafter. That same year, American singer Laura Branigan recorded a version of the song with new English lyrics, under the title "Deep In The Dark", on her album Branigan 2.

After a second album, Junge Roemer, failed to provide a repeat to his debut single's success (outside of Austria and Germany, where the album topped the charts), Falco began to experiment with English lyrics in an effort to broaden his appeal, and chose a new production team. The result would be the most popular album and single of his career.

Falco recorded "Rock Me Amadeus" inspired in part by the Oscar-winning film Amadeus, and the song became a worldwide hit in 1986. This time, his record reached #1 in the U.S. and UK, bringing him the success that had eluded him in that major market a few years earlier. The song remained in the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and his album, Falco 3, fittingly peaked at the number three position on the Billboard album charts. Unheard of at the time for a white performer, much less a European one, the Austrian rapper's single climbed to the upper reaches of the Billboard Top R&B Singles Chart (only a few years earlier called the "Black Singles" chart), peaking at number 6. It would be two more years before a white artist, Teena Marie, would momentarily break the colour barrier to top that chart, with George Michael topping it later in that year. While several white women would top the chart in later years (for example, Lisa Stansfield would do so three times), no other white man would top the US R&B chart until Robin Thicke in 2007. (Both Michael and Thicke did it with blue-eyed soul ballads; only Eminem has peaked higher on that chart with a rap song, and only once, reaching number four in 2002.) Falco 3 peaked at number 18 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Ultimately, "Rock Me Amadeus" went to the #1 spot in over a dozen countries including the Soviet Union and Japan. Follow-up single "Vienna Calling" was another international pop hit, peaking at #18 of the Billboard Charts and #17 on the U.S. Cash Box Charts in 1986. A double A-side 12" single featuring remixes of those two hits peaked at #4 on the U.S. Dance/Disco charts.

"Jeanny," the third release from the album Falco 3, brought the performer back to the top of the charts across Europe. Highly controversial when it was released in Germany and the Netherlands, the story of "Jeanny" was told from the point of view of a rapist and possible murderer. Several DJs and radio stations refused to play the ballad, which was ignored in the U.S., although it became a huge hit in many European countries, and inspired two sequels on later albums.

In 1986, the album Emotional was released, produced by Rob and Ferdi Bolland (Bolland & Bolland). On the Album were "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2)," and songs about Kathleen Turner and the song "Kamikaze Cappa" which written as a tribute to the late photojournalist Robert Capa. "The Sound of Musik" was another international success, and a Top 20 U.S. Dance hit, though he failed to make the U.S. pop charts. He also went on "Emotional-Tour" which was a world tour were he ended up in Japan at 1987. In 1987, he sang a duet with Brigitte Nielsen "Body Next to Body" and the single was a Top 10 hit in the Germanic countries. The Album Wiener Blut was released in 1988 but it did not get much publicity outside Germany and Austria.

In 1990, he made a song for Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz, "Tanja P. not Cindy C.," which appeared on the Album Data de Groove.

After "Jeanny," there were a number of European hits, but Falco was rarely heard in the U.S. and the UK. His 1992 U.S. comeback attempt, the album Nachtflug with the song "Titanic," won a number of awards, but failed to chart in America.

Death

Falco died of severe injuries received following his collision with a bus in his Mitsubishi Pajero near the city of Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic on February 6, 1998, just two weeks before his 41st birthday. While it was initially reported that the autopsy showed high blood levels of alcohol and cocaine, this was disputed. At the time of his death, he was working on a comeback into the music world.

He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna, Austria.

Tributes to Falco

In 1986, Weird Al featured the song "Rock Me Amadeus" in his polka song "Polka Party".

In 1998, Rob and Ferdi Bolland (Dutch producers and co-writers of about half of Falco's albums) released the EP Tribute to Falco under the name "The Bolland Project feat. Alida." The title track featured samples of Falco's music; the other tracks were "We Say Goodbye" and "So Lonely."

In 1999, the Bloodhound Gang sampled "Rock Me Amadeus" in their song "Mope", referring to Falco as "that money making playa that ain't with us no mo", and a "gang bangin' thug that never seen it comin'."

In 2004, Mexican metal band Molotov released a tribute song for Falco called "Amateur (Rock Me Amadeus)" (in the Molotov comedy style).

In The Simpsons episode A Fish Called Selma Falco's tune "Rock Me Amadeus" receives a slightly offbeat tribute in the musical presentation of Planet of the Apes (starring Troy McClure). The repeated tag of "Amadeus Amadeus" is transferred into "Dr. Zaius, Dr. Zaius". A later episode, "Behind the Laughter", features Willie Nelson saying, "Thank you, Taco, for that loving tribute to Falco", as well as the very end of that fictional tribute.

A movie, Falco - Verdammt, wir leben noch!, was released in Austria on February 7, 2008, ten years and one day after Falco's death. This title is also the name of a posthumously-published album by Falco and roughly translates to "Damn it, we're still alive!" Written and directed by Thomas Roth, the movie features Manuel Rubey, who is a musician himself, as adult Johann 'Falco' Hölzel.

Falco's good friend Niki Lauda named one of the Boeing airplanes in his Lauda Air fleet "Falco" .

In Family Guy season 4 episode 6,"Rock Me Amadeus" was featured when a closeup of a tumor on Lois' brain was shown singing the words "I'm a tumor" to the tune of "Rock Me Amadeus".

Discography

Albums

Year	Title	Peak positions
		AUT	GER	CH	UK	U.S.	CAN	NOR	NL	SWE	ITA	EUR
1982	Einzelhaft	1	19	-	-	64	31	-	1	45	21
1984	Junge Roemer	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1985	Falco 3	1	2	1	32	3	7	3	15	-	-
1986	Emotional	1	1	5	-	-	-	7	-	-	-
1988	Wiener Blut	2	9	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Data de Groove	11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1991	The Remix Hit Collection	-	51	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Nachtflug	1	73	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Greatest Hits	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	Greatest Hits Vol. II	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Best Of	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Out of the Dark (Into the Light)	1	3	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	The Hit-Singles	-	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	The Final Curtain - The Ultimate Best Of	1	2	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	Verdammt wir leben noch	3	35	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	Live Forever (live album)	34	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2007	Hoch wie nie (Best Of)	1	2	5	-	-	-	25	-	-	-	6
2007	Einzelhaft (25th Anniversary Edition)	22	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Falco Symphonic (Wiener Neustadt 1994)	1	15	34								34

Singles

Year	Title	Peak position
		AUT	GER	CH	UK	1NL	FRA	ITA	SPA	NOR	SWE	DK	FIN	SU	U.S.	CAN	JPN	NZ	AUS	ZA
1981	"That Scene" (English version of "Ganz Wien")	11
1981	"Der Kommissar"	1	1	2	-	18	3	1	1	3	4	-	1	1	72	11	1	-	7
1982	"Maschine brennt"	4	10			49			34	4			7			-		-
1982	"Auf der Flucht"						-								*	-		18
1982	"Zuviel Hitze" (Promo only)		-
1984	"Junge Roemer"	8	-	24		-			2						-		-
1984	"Nur mit Dir"	18	-
1984	"Kann es Liebe sein?" (with Désirée Nosbusch)		-
1985	"Rock Me Amadeus"	1	1	2	1	2	79	2	1	6	1	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	15	1
1985	"Vienna Calling"	3	4	7	10	40	-	-	5	-	3	10	5	-	18	11	14	-	75	-
1985	"Jeanny"	1	1	1	68	1	24	14		1	1	-	-	-	-	-	5	-	-	-
1986	"The Sound of Musik"	4	4	11	61	67	-	42	4			13			**		6	11
1986	"Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2)"	4	1	3			-			4	1
1987	"Emotional"	8	50	-	85		-		11			13			-		-
1987	"Body Next to Body" (with Brigitte Nielsen)	6	22	-	-			35	37			9		-		-	1		44
1988	"Wiener Blut"	4	9	24			-		-			13			-		-
1988	"Satellite to Satellite"	-	-									11					7
1988	"Garbo"						-
1988	"Do It Again"														-
1990	"Data de Groove"	12	-												-
1990	"Charisma Kommando"	-	-				-
1991	"Rock Me Amadeus" (Remix 1991)	-	-
1991	"Der Kommissar" (Remix 1991)		-
1992	"Nachtflug" (Netherland only single)					-
1992	"Titanic"	3	47			-
1992	"Dance Mephisto"	17	-			-						2
1993	"Monarchy Now" (Austrian Promo only)	-
1995	"Mutter, der Mann mit dem Koks ist da" (as T>>MA)	3	11	30		-						3
1996	"Naked" (as Falco featuring T>>MB)	4	50			-
1998	"Out of the Dark"	2	2	3
1998	"Egoist"	6	4	19
1998	"Der Kommissar" (Jason Nevins and Club 69 Remixes)	39	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	49	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	"Push! Push!"	9	50
1999	"Verdammt wir leben noch"	26	-
2000	"Europa"	-	-
2007	"Männer des Westens" (T. Börger Version 2007)	14	55
2007	FALCOs 1. ("Chance To Dance"/"Summer")	-
2008	Der Kommissar 2008	49
2008	Die Königin von Eschnapur	-

• *#9 in U.S. Hot 100 Airplay
• **#19 in U.S. Hot Dance Club Play
• ¹ The Sound of Musik was placed #17 on the Dutch Tipparade (Bubbling under Top 50)
• - indicates the song did not chart.
• a blank box indicates that the song was not released.

References

External links

• Falco.at - Official site
• Official Falco - Promotional site by Sony BMG
• FALCO - Der Kommissar 2000 - Info site with RealAudio previews
• Falcofinder - Falco Search Engine.
• Falco Billboard Single Charts Discography
• Falco-Singles in the French Charts
• Disco Museum - History of Falco's life and career
• Nummer 1 Hits in Schweden (Falcos 3x represented)
• Remixography - Detailed discography, including remixes and tributes
• Subaru commercial featuring "Rock Me Amadeus"
• Review of Falco's biopic
• Falco at the Internet Movie Database