FALCO: Mozart of the '80s?

FALCO: Mozart of the '80s?

With “one named” stars like Prince, Madonna and Sting in the spotlight of popular music, along comes another: Falco. Actually, the name Falco has been around for a number of years, but it’s the current hit singles—“Rock Me Amadeus” and “Vienna Calling”—from Falco’s new LP, Falco 3, that has the name reaching higher on the pop charts than ever before.

Johann Holzel was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1957 to parents that had the name Bridgette picked out for the girl they had anticipated. The name Johann would later evolve into John DiFalco, then John Hudson, and finally Falco. (The singular name came about when the singer was watching a ski jump competition on TV. A favorite skier, Falko Weisspflog, happened to be making his jump when Hans was struck by an inspiration: he could repace the “k” with a “c” and change his name to Falco.) So, after hanging out in bars as Falco Sturmer and Falco Guttehrer, he eventually settled on just Falco.

Falco went on to create “Der Kommissar” in 1981, a single that had great success worldwide and was hailed in the U.S. as “not only one of the first rap songs by a white artist, but easily the best.” Having gone through some tough years after the hit single, Falco remerged in 1986 as a dance music favorite. “Having this hit changed music from work into fun again; it turned depression into happiness,” he says of his re-born success.

And as for his hit single’s inspiration: “If Mozart were alive today, he would certainly be a Top 40 artist. He’d probably be a rock musician, hardly a classicist.

That’s why the song deals with him as if he were a punker.

“It wasn’t easy making this album,” Falco says. “It meant reliving and re-creating my experiences of the last three years, and they weren’t all good ones.

But I need to take risks in my life, and jump into cold water. That’s why I was totally involved in this project, and I think it paid off.”