Johann Hölzel was initially devastated in 1985. His career as Falco, which had just begun, seemed to be over after the flop of his second album JUNGE ROEMER. He had written “The Inspector” with his producer Robert Ponger, but they fell out because of Hölzel’s whiskey consumption. Hölzel’s manager Horst Bork found new producers in Rob and Ferdi Bolland. They suggested a song for the “Amadeus” hype surrounding MilošForman’s hit film at the time. Hölzel initially thought it was nonsense, but then wrote brilliant lyrics and impressed with his performance on the recording. “Amadeus” was released in May 1985, becoming a worldwide hit and saving his pop star status.
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In September, “Team Falco” added FALCO 3. The Bollands produced eight tracks for the album, including the successful Amadeus follow-up single “Vienna Calling”. There were also the two USA songs “America” and “Men of the West”, for which Hölzel wrote ironic but profound lyrics. “America” was originally called “Videot”, an ironic allusion by the Bollands to Hölzel, who was constantly watching TV. He turned it into a text about the superficiality of Americans and performed it in the Viennese dialect. In “Men of the West,” on the other hand, he searched for the soul of the USA in the Cold War (“That the good forces of this world gather together, anyone who still believes in that is wrong…”).
The current new edition for the 40th anniversary really contains everything that was previously missing
For the first time, this album also contains two cover versions. Falco edited the song “Looking For Love” by the band The Cars, which he wrote “Munich Girls”
was called. He also interpreted Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” as naturally as if it had been written especially for him. He changed both texts slightly so that they became unmistakably Falco pieces. The Bollands called this “Falconizing.”
The song “Jeanny” was released as the third single in December 1985. Falco plays a role-playing prose as a kidnapper, rapist and murderer in the best Oskar Werner style. Numerous radio stations boycotted the song. That’s probably why this single became a huge hit. In March 1986, “Amadeus” reached number one in the US and UK charts. Falco thus became the most internationally successful artist of Austrian origin of all time.
There was already a deluxe edition for the 25th anniversary. The current new edition for the 40th anniversary really contains everything that was previously missing: all the remixes that were made for the album as well as the songs that were unreleased at the time. Also included is Falco’s appearance on Opus & Friends, where he sang “Amadeus” and the Opus hit “Flying High.” The knowledgeable liner notes were once again written by Falco archaeologist and expert Michael Rager.
This review first appeared in Musikexpress 11/2025.