Rock me Amadeus - Falco - 1985

Falco

Rock me Amadeus

Falco

Fonte: Wikipedia

Nato nel distretto viennese di Margareten, è l'unico ad essere sopravvissuto ad una gravidanza trigemellare a rischio. Molto presto mostra il suo talento musicale. All'età di 5 anni viene certificato - alla Wiener Musikakademie - il suo orecchio assoluto. Per il suo quarto compleanno riceve in regalo un pianoforte e un anno dopo un giradischi, col quale ascolta Elvis, Cliff Richard e i Beatles.

Nel 1963 Hans Hölzel viene iscritto dai genitori in una scuola privata cattolica a pochi passi da casa. Dal 1967 frequenta il Rainer-Gymnasium, sempre a Vienna. Nel 1973 lascia la scuola e comincia l'apprendistato presso l'ente austriaco per le assicurazioni pensionistiche degli artigiani.

Grazie a questo troverà dei lavori occasionali fino al servizio di leva (tra il 1974 e il 1975) durante il quale imparerà a suonare il basso. Seguirà anche un semestre al conservatorio cittadino, durante il quale esordirà nella sua prima band, gli Umspannwerk. 

Passerà poi ad altri gruppi, tra cui i noti Drahdiwaberl. Nel 1977 Hölzel abita per breve tempo a Berlino Ovest. Là decide di farsi chiamare Falco: il nome viene da quello di un saltatore con gli sci della DDR, Falko Weißpflog, che lo ha particolarmente impressionato. 

Il cambiamento della k in c è giustificato dal fatto che Falco vuole rendere più internazionale il suo nome, tanto da modificare anche il proprio cognome in Hoelzel.

Originariamente Falco pensò di affiancare al nome anche un cognome, "Gottehrer" (letteralmente, colui che onora Dio), ma lasciò presto cadere l'ipotesi. Il nomignolo "Hansi" - come la madre continuò sempre a chiamarlo - lo rifiutò per tutta la vita: "Chi usa quel nomignolo, non ha la più 

pallida idea di chi sia Falco", così diceva, "Ve lo dico una volta per tutte: Hansi non esiste più!". Dopo il ritorno a Vienna fu ingaggiato dagli Spinning Wheel, e suonò poi (1977-1979) con il gruppo rock - teatrale di avanguardia degli Hallucination Company. Già allora cominciò a riscuotere un certo successo, anche se limitatamente alla scena viennese.

Come bassista e saltuariamente cantante del gruppo punk rock molto impegnato politicamente dei Drahdiwaberl, Falco mostrò il suo talento musicale, ma anche il suo lato eccentrico, soprattutto nei costumi. Fu con loro che ebbe il suo primo successo da solista: la sua canzone Ganz Wien, inserita 

nei concerti come assolo per riempire le pause, lo porta alla ribalta come cantante. È il 1980 e la canzone, che parla del consumo di droga nella capitale austriaca, diventa una hit. Ma è anche la prima canzone di Falco ad essere boicottata dalle radio. Solo più tardi Falco la pubblicherà nell'album 

Einzelhaft e la suonerà regolarmente nei concerti. Nel 1980 Falco sottoscrisse un contratto per tre LP da solista. Col produttore viennese Robert Ponger produce il suo primo singolo, Der Kommissar che raggiunge il primo posto nelle classifiche di molti paesi europei. 

In Canada fu disco d'oro. Negli USA raggiunse solo il 73º posto, ma fu il primo ad entrare nelle classifiche statunitensi con un testo in tedesco. In totale, Der Kommissar vendette sette milioni di copie. Nel 1982 uscì l'album Einzelhaft dal quale furono estratti altri quattro singoli: Helden von Heute, Auf der Flucht, Hinter uns die Sintflut e Maschine Brennt.

Il secondo album fu Junge Roemer, anche questo prodotto da Ponger, nel 1984. Rispetto al primo non fu un grande successo commerciale, ma fu apprezzato dalla critica. Vendette comunque 120.000 copie in Germania, mentre in Austria fu disco d'oro. 

Minore fu il successo internazionale, ma da quest'album furono tratti i primi video, girati negli Stati Uniti. In questo periodo della sua carriera Falco può essere considerato un tipico esponente della Neue Deutsche Welle.

Source: Wikipedia

Johann (Hans) Hölzel (German: [ˈjoːhan (hans) ˈhœlt͡sl̩]) (19 February 1957 – 6 February 1998), better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper.

Falco had several international hits, "Rock Me Amadeus", "Der Kommissar", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)" and posthumously, "Out of the Dark". "Rock Me Amadeus" reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts, 

making him the only artist whose principal language was German to score a vocal number-one hit in the United States (Bert Kaempfert reached No. 1 in January 1961 with the instrumental "Wonderland by Night"). According to his estate, he has sold 20 million albums and 15 million singles, 

which makes him the best selling Austrian singer of all time. Falco began to show signs of unusual musical talent very early. As a toddler, he was able to keep time with the drumbeat in songs he heard on the radio. 

He was given a baby grand piano for his fourth birthday; a year later, his birthday gift was a record player which he used to play music by Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, and the Beatles. At age five, he auditioned for the Vienna Music Academy, where it was confirmed that he had perfect pitch.[citation needed]

In 1963, Hölzel began his schooling at a Roman Catholic private school; four years later, at age ten, he switched to the Rainer Gymnasium in Vienna. Shortly thereafter his father Alois Hölzel left the family. From then on, Hölzel was raised by his mother and grandmother and remained very close to them all his life.[citation needed]

He left school at sixteen in 1973 due to absenteeism. His mother then insisted he begin an apprenticeship with the Austrian employee pension insurance institute, but this only lasted a short time. At seventeen, he volunteered for eight months of military service with the Austrian army.[citation needed]

He entered the Vienna Music Conservatory in 1977, but left after one semester to "become a real musician". For a short time, he lived in West Berlin while singing in a jazz-rock band and exploring the club scene. 

When he returned to Vienna he was calling himself "Falco", reportedly in tribute to the East German ski jumper Falko Weißpflog (he changed one letter to make the name more international), and playing in the Austrian bands Spinning Wheel and Hallucination Company.[citation needed]

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" ("All of Vienna"), which he would also include on his debut solo 

album, Einzelhaft (Solitary Confinement ). He also played bass with the space disco band Ganymed in 1981. At a Concert of Drahdiwaberl in 1981, Falco was discovered by austrian producer Markus Spiegel who offered him his first record contract. 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 US. 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, somewhat loosely based on Falco's lyrics and also called "Der Kommissar" (with "uh-oh", "ja, ja", "alles klar Herr Kommissar" and the shout "cha" the only other lyrics held over from the original). 

This time, the song shot to number five in the United States (their only major hit there) in 1983, though it failed to crack the UK Top 40. 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.

After a second album, Junge Römer (Young Romans) 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: Bolland & Bolland. 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 No. 1 in the US 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 peaked at the number three position on the Billboard album charts reached number six in the Billboard Top R&B Singles Chart. Falco 3 peaked at number 18 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 

charts. Ultimately, "Rock Me Amadeus" went to the No. 1 spot in over a dozen countries including Japan. Follow-up single "Vienna Calling" was another international pop hit, peaking at No. 18 of the Billboard Charts and No. 17 on the US Cash Box Charts in 1986. A double A-side 12" single featuring remixes of those two hits peaked at No. 4 on the US Dance/Disco charts.[citation needed]

"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 possible rapist and murderer. Several DJs and radio stations refused to play the ballad, which was ignored in the US, though it became a huge hit in many European countries, and inspired a sequel on his next album.

In 1986, the album Emotional was released, produced by Rob and Ferdi Bolland (Bolland & Bolland). Songs on the album included "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)", "The Kiss of Kathleen Turner", and "Kamikaze Capa" which was written as a tribute to the late photojournalist 

Robert Capa. "The Sound of Musik" was another international success, and a Top 20 US dance hit, though it failed to make the US pop charts.[citation needed] . In 1987 he went on the "Emotional" world tour ending in Japan. In the same year he sang a duet with Brigitte Nielsen, 

"Body Next to Body"; the single was a Top 10 hit in the Germanic countries. The album Wiener Blut (Viennese Blood) was released in 1988 but it did not get much publicity outside Germany and Austria.[citation needed]

In 1990, he wrote a song about Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz, "Tanja P. not Cindy C.", which appeared on the album Data de Groove.[citation needed]

After 1986 there were a number of European hits, but Falco was rarely heard in the US and the UK. His 1992 comeback attempt, the album Nachtflug (Night Flight) including the song "Titanic", was successful in Austria only.