Der Kommissar (song)

"Der Kommissar" is a German-language song first recorded by Falco in 1981, covered a year later by After The Fire and reworked in 1983 by Laura Branigan. Originally written by Robert Ponger and Falco, the Falco version reached the top of the Charts in many countries. The Falco version was the first hip hop song by a white rapper to be commercially successful.

After The Fire's version featured English lyrics by the band's Andy Piercy. The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

1 Story
- 1.1 Falco single
2 Cover versions and tributes
3 Chart positions (Falco version)
4 Chart positions (After The Fire version)
5 References

[edit] Story

Originally written by producer Robert Ponger for Reinhold Bilgeri, Bilgeri turned it down as he felt the song was too soft, so Falco reworked the song for himself instead.

Falco wanted to release "Helden von heute" as the main side (A-side), but the record company wanted "Der Kommissar" ("the commissioner," or police captain) to be released, because they felt it had more potential. The record company decided upon a double A-side release and were redeemed when "Der Kommissar" reached number one in German-speaking countries in January 1982. After this big success, Falco's management decided to release "Der Kommissar" (as an A-side) in other countries as well.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, Falco's hit didn't fare as well, despite topping charts throughout Europe and Scandinavia during spring and summer 1982. In the summer of 1982 the British rock band After The Fire recorded an English version of the song, also called "Der Kommissar", and released it as a single, but the record floundered. Coming off a tour opening for Van Halen, After The Fire was working on material for a new album when in December 1982 the group announced onstage during a concert that they were breaking up. Both the After The Fire and Falco versions were rising the Canadian charts at the time, but neither had cracked the U.S. pop charts.

Around that time, American pop singer Laura Branigan began working on her second album, and recorded a new song written over the melody and arrangement of "Der Kommissar", called "Deep In The Dark", which was prepared for release, when the After The Fire version finally hit the U.S. charts on February 22, 1983, and started rising. Though the UK band's version barely nicked their home country's Top 50, in 1983 the song ultimately rose all the way to #5 in the U.S., where their music video was an MTV hit.

Amidst all this renewed attention to the composition, Falco's own version, which had done well in some U.S. markets but not charted nationally, was re-released, but the German-language record remained essentially a novelty hit there, charting concurrently with the After The Fire version but not rising above #78. (In Canada, Falco's version had peaked at #11 the same late-January week After The Fire's version peaked at #12.) After The Fire's record company, CBS, pleaded with the band to regroup, but to no avail. While UK promos for "Deep In The Dark" were pressed (the After The Fire version missed the UK top 40 and the Falco version didn't even chart there), Branigan's record company, Atlantic, officially released "Solitaire" in the U.S., where that song went to #7.

[edit] Falco single

Der Kommissar/Helden von heute is a double-A-side single by Falco released in Austria and Germany in December 1981. "Der Kommissar" reached the top of the Charts in many countries. The record's B-side, the pop-rock "Helden von heute" (meaning "heroes of today"), is a tribute to David Bowie's "Heroes". Recorded in Berlin, Germany, Falco claimed in an interview that he went to Berlin to follow the "tracks" left there by David Bowie, with his albums Heroes and Low, which had been produced by Brian Eno.

In his official music video for "Der Kommissar", Falco flees from the police, with several police cars in the background. There is another, lesser-known video for the Falco single.^{[citation needed]}

"Der Kommissar (The Commissioner)" only reached #74 in the US-Cash Box Charts in 1983 ^[1] and did not even chart in the UK, but Falco would break through with major hits in those countries two albums later, with "Rock Me Amadeus" and "Vienna Calling" in 1986.

Updated remixes of "Der Kommissar" were released by Falco in 1991, 1998, and posthumously in 2008.

[edit] Cover versions and tributes

After the Fire recorded a 1982 English-language translation of "Der Kommissar" which was a Top 5 hit in the U.S.
Laura Branigan's "Deep in the Dark" from Branigan 2 is a 1983 English-language song written over the melody and hooks of Falco and Ponger's "Der Kommissar"
The Certainlies
Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung
Gimme 5
Lajos Túri's Hungarian cover "A felügyelő"
Option 30
Suzy Andrews; X Records, 1982 Produced by Peter Hauke, Distributed by Rocshire Records

[edit] Chart positions (Falco version)

Year	Singles	A	CDN	CH	GER	ES	F	I	J	N	NL	NZ	RUS	S	USA
1981, 1982, 1983	Der Kommissar	1	11	2	1	1	1	1	1	3	18	4	1	4	72

[edit] Chart positions (After The Fire version)

Year	Singles	CDN	UK	USA
1982, 1983	Der Kommissar	12	47	5

[edit] References

^ Cash Box Top 100 4/23/83

Hidden categories: Single articles with infobox field chart position | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since September 2007

Der Kommissar (song)

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Contents

[edit] Story

[edit] Falco single

[edit] Cover versions and tributes

[edit] Chart positions (Falco version)

[edit] Chart positions (After The Fire version)

[edit] References

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