It’s Time For The Video You Deserve, Herr Kommissar…
The ’80s were a magical era of fun songs, creative videos and plenty of one-hit-wonders.
But it was pretty rare that a one-hit-wonder was written by a guy who would go on to have another hit that would be thought of as his own one-hit-wonder, but not have a hit with the original song that was covered by the first one-hit-wonder.
You follow?
No? Ok. Have a second cup of coffee, and come along with me into the world of “Der Kommissar”…
The song was originally written by the Austrian artist Falco in 1981, and covered a year later by After the Fire. The Falco version would become a huge hit in Europe, topping the charts in over a dozen countries, but it was the After the Fire version which would become much better known here in North America, peaking at number five on the U.S. charts in spring of 1983 and hitting number 12 in Canada on literally the same week that the Falco version hit number 11 there.
Oddly enough, After The Fire didn’t have a follow up hit because the band had already broken up when the song became a hit, announcing their demise in late 1982 onstage following a tour opening for Van Halen.
And while Falco didn’t strike gold in the U.S. with his own song (his own “Der Kommissar” only peaked at 74), he would make up for it later, having a massive hit with the song “Rock Me Amadeus,” securing his own status as being known as a one-hit-wonder act in the U.S. (even though technically he had another decent-sized hit with the follow up, “Vienna Calling,” and a minor hit with the third single from that album, “Jeanny.”)
Got it?
Good. Now here’s your Video You Deserve…
