Johann Hölzel was born in Wien Margareten (Vienna, okay?) on the 19th of February 1957. From a very early age, his musical talent became obvious. He was even called "a new Mozart".

His parents separated early, and he remained with his mum and grandmother. He left school at 16, and after trying a couple of jobs, he decided that music would be the right thing for him after all. He enrolled at the Music Conservatory in Vienna and started playing in different bands, in Vienna as well as in West Berlin. It was in 1977 that he decided to change his name to Falco, after an East German skier, Falko Weisspflog.

This was the beginning of an extraordinary career. He felt that playing in bands like Drahdiwaberl and Spinning Wheel or the Hallucination Company could not entirely satisfy him; even though his song "Ganz Wien" (about the local drug scene) was a huge hit at the Drahdiwaberl gigs, he was mainly acting in the background, playing the bass guitar. So when marcus Spiegel from GIG records offered him a solo contract, he accepted.

"Ganz Wien" was included on his first solo album, Einzelhaft (1982), and was his first song to be banned from the radio, because of its controversial lyrics. His first single, "Der Kommissar", became an international hit. Falco's music, which was inspired by the arising New Wave style and by the first rap artists from the States, combined with his funny and often sarcastic lyrics in a German-English-Italian mixture where something completely new in the German speaking countries (and anywhere else too). Der Kommissar sold over 7 million copies (including cover versions). The album Einzelhaft, produced by Robert Ponger, was a huge success too.

It would be hard to produce a worthy follow-up album, and Junge Römer (Young Romans), released in 1984, turned out to be quite a flop, though highly appreciated by most critics. It was too refined, too far ahead of its time.

It was in 1986 that Falco had his huge break-through. For the album Falco 3 (1985), he had chosen the brothers Bolland from the Netherlands as producers. The first single "Rock Me Amadeus" jumped to Number 1 in Austria, Germany, the US, England and many other countries. It remained at the top of the US-charts for 4 weeks. The other hit single from the album, "Jeanny", was also the source of a huge scandal, since many people interpreted rape and murder into the song. "Jeanny" was banned from numerous radio stations and shops, but still found many fans.

Falco was at the top. Although of course he had reason enough to be happy with his success (and the money he was making), he felt the huge pressure this worldwide hit had put on him. Although he was world famous and had lots of money, his private life was more or less troubled.

The next album, Emotional, was released in 1986, and singles like "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home" (follow-up to "Jeanny") and "Emotional" were more or less successful. After that, Falco had to cope more and more with his private problems (marriage to Isabella Vitkovic, divorce, later finding out that his "daughter" Katharina was not actually his...) and with alcohol problems. The albums Wiener Blut (1988) and Data de Groove (1991), produced with Robert Ponger again, remained more or less unrecognized, though they're masterpieces (hehe).

In 1992, he made a mid sized comeback with Nachtflug, which went to Number 1 in Austria. The single "Titanic" remained in the charts for 18 weeks, the album for 17. For the first time in 6 years, Falco went on tour again. After that, he again concentrated more on his private life for a couple of years, until he had another hit with the Techno-style single "Mutter, der Mann mit dem Koks ist da" (1995), which was especially successful in Germany.

In 1996, Hans decided to leave his beloved Vienna behind and moved to the Dominican Republic, fleeing from the ever indiscreet media in Austria. After another single release in 1996 ("Naked"), he worked on his next (and, as it turned out, final) album. It was almost finished and supposed to be released under the title "Egoisten".

Sadly, Hans Hölzel died in a fatal car crash in the Dominican Republic on February 6th 1998. A coach ran into his Mitsubishi Pajero while he was coming out of a parking lot. The new album was released post-humously as Out Of The Dark. So far, two singles have been released: Out of the Dark" and "Egoist", both of them entered the charts.

In order to make the most of the temporary craze, there have been quite a few releases of Falco-related stuff: a couple of books, videos, a previously unreleased single in January 1999 (Push Push) and yet another Best Of album (The Final Curtain), as well as a collection of video clips (check the News page for details on that). A biographical film is planned for release in the near future, as a follow-up to a fictional-biographical book by the DoRo guys that caused a lot of controversy earlier this year. A musical seems to be in the making as well.

Falco's tombstone was finally inaugurated on the 2nd of September, and our idol may even find his way back into the charts with the 'new' album Verdammt wir leben noch. There is also talk about a live album.

(All Music Guide Profile) Falco was the most internationally successful pop artist ever to come out of Austria, best known for his 1986 chart-topping hit "Rock Me Amadeus." Born Johann Holzel in Vienna on February 19, 1957, he was a classically trained child prodigy, but after graduating from the Vienna Conservatoire, he relocated to West Berlin and began fronting a jazz-rock band. Rechristening himself Falco in honor of the German skier Falko Weissflog, he returned to Vienna in time to play bass on the punk outfit Drahdiwaberl's 1979 album Psycho Today, penning their best-known song, "Ganz Wein." Falco began his solo career in 1982 with the LP Einzelhaft; his "Der Kommissar," which fused techno-pop with rapped German lyrics, became a major European hit and a club favorite in the U.S., with a cover version by the group After the Fire reaching the Top Five in 1983. The follow-up, "Jeanny," was banned outright by radio as a result of its theme of prostitution, but nevertheless went on to top the German charts. While 1984's Junge Roemer attracted little attention, in 1986 Falco issued Falco 3, highlighted by the single "Rock Me Amadeus," a campy blend of classical music and synth pop which topped both the American and British charts. While the rock ballad "Vienna Calling" was a minor hit, Falco's subsequent efforts, including 1986's Emotional and 1988's Wiener Blut, fared poorly; he had been long out of the spotlight when he died in a car accident on February 6, 1998 at the age of 40. Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Falco's first hit was "Der Kommissar" ("The Commissioner") 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 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 2.

After a second album, Junge Roemer (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. 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. The Austrian singers climbed to the upper reaches of the Billboard Top R&B Singles Chart (once called the "Black Singles" chart), peaking at number 6, becoming the first major hit by a white artist since Blondie's chart-topping "Rapture" six years earlier. 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 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., though 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). Songs on the album included "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2)," "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 U.S. dance hit, though it failed to make the U.S. pop charts.

In 1987 he went on "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.

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.

After 1986 there were a number of European hits, but Falco was rarely heard in the U.S. and the UK. His 1992 comeback attempt, the album Nachtflug (Night Flight) including the song "Titanic", was successful in the German speaking territories, but failed to chart internationally.

n the album Hooray for Boobies of the group The Bloodhound Gang, the song "Mope" is a tribute to Falco, and he is referred to as a "money making player that ain't with us no more" and a "gang banging thug that never seen it coming."

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".

The film Falco – Verdammt, wir Leben Noch! was released in Austria on 7 February 2008, ten years and one day after Falco's death. This title is also the name of a posthumously-released album by Falco which translates to "Damn, we're still alive!" Written and directed by Thomas Roth, the movie features musician Manuel Rubey as adult Johann 'Falco' Hölzel.[3] The end credits include the line "With love, Ferdi & Rob", his frequent collaborators the Bollands.

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

Although "Der Ko
More frequently "Rock Me Amadeus" has been interpolated for comedic effect. In 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song in his song "Polka Party". In The Simpsons episode "A Fish Called Selma" (1996), an offbeat variation is featured in a musical presentation of Planet of the Apes with the repeated tag of "Amadeus, Amadeus" transferred to "Dr. Zaius, Dr. Zaius". A similar usage appears in another satirical U.S. cartoon series, Family Guy (season 4 episode 6, 2005). The Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured a parody, "Iraq Me Dave Petraeus", as a musical intro to a briefly recurring segment involving the U.S. General's doctrine regarding the war in 2007/2008.

In 1985 a parody version of "Rock Me Amadeus" entitled, "Rock Me Jerry Lewis" was credited to Bud Latour and fellow Phoenix, Arizona disc jockey, Mike Elliott. To the dedicated parody community, LaTour is mostly only known as 'Bud' LaTour. "Rock Me Jerry Lewis" climbed to Number 1 on The Dr. Dememto's Funny Five chart and grew to a notoriety that prompted mentions and airplay on Casey Kasem's Top 40 Radio Show as well as a call from Jerry Lewis himself. Furthermore, Jerry Lewis would begin to use the song at his personal appearances and stage shows. While in Phoenix, Arizona for a muscular dystrophy benefit at a bowling alley, Jerry Lewis invited 'Bud' LaTour and Mike Elliott to bowl with him. He was kind enough to sign 500 copies of the "Rock Me Jerry Lewis" 7" record.

A later episode of Fox TV's The Simpsons, "Behind the Laughter", features Willie Nelson saying, "Thank you, Taco, for that loving tribute to Falco," within another fictional tribute. Falco has been referenced in the U.S. satirical cartoon series American Dad and The Tick. In an episode of Family Guy entitled "German Guy", Falco's song "Der Kommisar" was used when Franz Gutentag made a Chris look-alike puppet and it sung and danced to the song. Chris later states "that was the German-est thing I've ever seen", however Falco was Austrian.

alco died of severe injuries received from a collision with a bus in his Mitsubishi Montero on the road linking the towns of Villa Montellano and Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic on 6 February 1998, just two weeks before his 41st birthday. It was initially reported that the autopsy showed high blood levels of alcohol and cocaine, however this was later dismissed. At the time of his death, he was planning a comeback. He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna,

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