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Member Number: 4155
Musical career
Born in Vienna, as the only survivor of a triplets birth, he studied at the Vienna Music Conservatory. In 1977 he lived for a short time in Berlin (Germany). When he returned to Vienna he was playing in the Austrian bands Spinning Wheel and Hallucination Company. Before becoming an international rock star, he was bass player in the Austrian hard rock band Drahdiwaberl (from 1978 until 1983). With Drahdiwaberl he performed the song Ganz Wien, which was later a track on his first own solo album Einzelhaft.
As a solo artist (from 1980 on), Falco had taken an interest in the sounds and rhythms of rap music, and was one of the first Europeans to incorporate rap stylings into pop and rock music. He is best known internationally for the rap-styled "Rock Me Amadeus" (inspired in part by the Oscar-winning film Amadeus) from his album Falco 3, which became a worldwide hit in 1986 and reached #1 on the US charts (arguably the first "rap" song to achieve this feat, notwithstanding Blondie's success with their 1981 hit "Rapture").
Falco's first hit was "Der Kommissar" (a partial rap song about drug consumption) from the 1982 album Einzelhaft. An English cover version of "Der Kommissar" by After the Fire became a Top 5 hit in the United States in 1983. Incidentally, the video for the song would later be dubbed by MTV as "The Worst Video of All Time". That same year, Laura Branigan recorded a version of the song with new English lyrics, under the title "Deep In The Dark," on her album Branigan 2. 16 years later, a new version "Der Kommissar 2000" and two new remixes of the original put the song back on the charts.
Other well-known international hits were "Vienna Calling" and "Jeanny" from the album Falco 3. "Jeanny" was somewhat controversial when it was released in Germany and the Netherlands, because it was told from the point of view of a rapist and possible murderer. Several DJs and radio stations refused to play the song, 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)", "The Sound of Music" and a song about Kathleen Turner and Robert Capa.
In 1987, he sang a duet with Brigitte Nielsen "Body next to Body". 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. The song was titled "Tanja P. not Cindy C.", and appeared on the Album Data de Groove.
After "Jeanny", there were a number of European hits, but Falco was rarely heard in the US and the UK. His 1992 US comeback attempt, 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 resort of Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic on February 6, 1998 at age 40. 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 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 2004, Mexican metal band Molotov released a tribute song for Falco called "Amateur (Rock Me Amadeus)" (in the Molotov comic style).
Austrian metal band Stahlhammer has covered several of Falco's songs, including "Der Mann mit dem Koks" and "Jeanny."
German rapper Fler quoted/copied the chorus melody of "Rock Me Amadeus" in his 2005 hit single "Neue Deutsche Welle 2005" (New German Wave 2005).
Rapper Tech N9ne did a rendition of the song called "I'm a playa"...the chorus line is the same as "Rock me Amadeus" but replaced with "I'm a Playa, I'm a playa"
There have also been numerous covers and parodies of "Rock Me Amadeus", including a cover by NDH band Megaherz. Artists from V/Vm Test Records have released a number of debauched "remixes" of various Falco songs.
The rap-rock formation of the Bloodhound Gang have a song called Mope which is a tribute to Falco. The song contains the chorus from ´Rock me Amadeus´.
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.
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