#ThrowbackThursday – Born on this day (February 19), Falco (Johann Holzel), who had the 1986 chart-topping single Rock Me Amadeus. Falco was the first-ever Austrian act to score a Nº1 hit single in both the US and the UK. In fact, the song was a Nº1 hit in 10 countries and a Top 10 hit in 7 others.
Falco became the first German-speaking artist to be credited with a Nº1 single in all mainstream US pop singles charts : the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 Singles. (Prior to Falco, 99 Luftballons by Nena got to Nº1 on Cashbox, but peaked at Nº2 on the Billboard Hot 100). Rock Me Amadeus would later be ranked Nº87 in VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s and Nº44 in VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders. Falco was a flash in the pan in the US, and after this major hit he sort of faded away – but he was a major star in Europe and a source of fascination for many.
Naturally, the song is about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), also an Austrian, who performed his first ‘tour’ at the tender age of five. The basic concept of the song is the suggestion that Mozart was the rock’n’roll rebel of his day – some of the lyrics reflect this:
He was the first punk ever to set foot on this earth.
He was a genius from the day of his birth.
He could play the piano like a ring and a bell
And everybody screamed: Come on, rock me Amadeus
With a bottle of wine in one hand and a woman in the other
His mind was on rock and roll and having fun
Because he lived so fast he had to die so young
But he made his mark in history
Still everybody says: Rock me Amadeus
The music video mixes things up a bit – using elements of Mozart’s time along with the 1980s contemporary society. Falco is shown in a 20th-century-style dinner jacket, walking past people in eighteenth-century formal wear. Later, he is shown dressed as Mozart being held on the shoulders of men dressed in 1980s-style motorcycle-riding attire. At the end, the two crowds mix.
Falco died in a car crash on 6 February 1998, just a few days before his 41st birthday.
(Creation 5 users: you will find this video in Playlists > Throwback Sessions)
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