"Rock Me Amadeus" | ||||
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Single by Falco | ||||
from the album Falco 3 | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 1985 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:22 | |||
Label | A&M | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Bolland & Bolland | |||
Falco singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Rock Me Amadeus" on YouTube |
"Rock Me Amadeus" is a song recorded by Austrian musician Falco, for his third studio album, Falco 3 (1985). The single was made available for physical sale in 1985 in German-speaking Europe, through A&M. "Rock Me Amadeus" was written by Falco along with Dutch music producers Bolland & Bolland. To date, the single is the only German language song to peak at number one of the Billboard Hot 100, which it did on 29 March 1986. [3]
It topped the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic. It was Falco's only number one hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom, despite the artist's popularity in his native Austria and much of Europe.
Originally recorded in German, the song is about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his popularity and his debts. A longer version (eight minutes), named the "Salieri Mix", appeared on the initial US release of the album Falco 3 . The song was inspired by the movie Amadeus . The US release did not include an English translation, instead remixing the song with an English background voice-over [3] performed by Wie is de Mol? producer Rick McCullough, and presenting the following facts:
The song was released in Europe in 1985 in its original, German-language version. For the international markets (United States, UK, Japan, etc.), several different single and extended mixes were produced by Rob Bolland; none of them were solely an English-language version, but the international single versions reduced the German lyrics. However, the video, which featured the original European version, was used worldwide.
The song's music video mixes elements of Mozart's time with 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, with wild colored hair, being held on the shoulders of men dressed in modern motorcycle-riding attire. At the end, the two crowds mix.
The video for the 1991 remix is a much more sexualized version, starting with the refrain 'sugar sweet', with extra footage spliced throughout, including a similar black carriage riding at night with the driver covered in lights, escorted by police motorcycles, scantily clad girls; in black leather riding outside it, and bright neon fashions inside, resembling earlier-century formal wear. A different crowd in a more Mozart-era formal attire was excessively fraternizing at a party. This version also contains red line art of Falco, guitar riff clips, and a long car scene driving away at the end, to a saxophone solo over the added refrain.
With "Rock Me Amadeus", Falco became the first German-speaking artist to be credited with a number-one single on both mainstream US pop singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 Singles. Prior to Falco, "99 Luftballons" by Nena got to number one on Cash Box, but peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 29 March 1986. [4]
In the United Kingdom, where his "Der Kommissar" failed to make the charts, the song hit number one on 10 May 1986, becoming the first single by an Austrian act to achieve this distinction. "Vienna Calling" hit number 10 and three subsequent singles briefly charted.
In Canada, the song reached number one on 1 February 1986. (There, "Der Kommissar" had reached number 11 in January 1983, and "Vienna Calling" would hit number 8 in April 1986.)
"Rock Me Amadeus" would later be ranked number 87 in VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s and number 44 in VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders .
Weekly charts
| Year-end chartsOriginal version
Canadian/American '86 mix
All-time charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [40] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada) [41] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
Germany (BVMI) [42] | Gold | 500,000^ |
Japan | — | 50,000 [43] |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [44] | Gold | 10,000* |
United Kingdom (BPI) [45] | Gold | 500,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [46] | Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Johann "Hans" Hölzel, better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian singer and musician. He had several international hits including "Der Kommissar" (1981), "Rock Me Amadeus", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home ", and posthumously "Out of the Dark".
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Austrian singer Falco released nine studio albums, four live albums, 13 compilation albums, and 38 singles.
If anything, "Rock Me Amadeus" sounds like the kind of leftfield synthpop jam that couldnt've broken through a few years earlier.