Jeanny

"Jeanny, Part I"
Single by Falco
from the album Falco 3
Released	December 22, 1985
Format	CD single, 7", 12"
Recorded	1985
Genre	R&B, Hard rock
Length	5:53
Label	GIG
Writer(s)	Rob and Ferdi Bolland, Falco
Producer(s)	Rob and Ferdi Bolland
Falco singles chronology
"Vienna Calling" 1986 "Jeanny, Part I" (1986) "The Sound of Musik" 1986

Jeanny is a song by the Austrian musician Falco, recorded in 1985 for Falco's album Falco 3. It was the third song released as a single out of the album in 1986. Controversial due to its lyrics, it nonetheless became a number one hit in numerous European countries.

In 2008 the song re-entered the Austrian Single Charts.^[1]

Lyrics

The song is about a relationship between a man and a girl named Jeanny. At the time when it reached number one, critics said that the song glorifies rape. German TV and radio personality Thomas Gottschalk made various negative remarks and called the song "rubbish". An outcry in German language markets caused the song to be banned by some radio broadcasters or played with a preceding warning by others. Typically, the scandal only helped to increase the sales of the single.

The song is sung in a slightly unhinged voice, but the lyrics don't actually contain any direct reference to the act of rape or abduction. It is left to the listener's imagination. Falco argued that it is about the musings of a stalker.

The part of the Newsflash in the track is spoken by a German newsreader; The newsflash has obvious parallels to the case in the song, but doesn't explicitly mention the girl's name.

Boycott

Several feminist associations called for a boycott of the song. Some TV and radio stations in West Germany agreed and didn't play the song "for ethical reasons", while others just played it on their charts shows. In East Germany the song was not on air and playing it in dance clubs was prohibited.

There were also demands to prohibit the song in West Germany, but officials denied the application in April 1986. This angered Dieter Kronzucker, the news anchorman of the Western German public TV station (whose two teenage daughters had been kidnapped along with their cousin and were held captive during several weeks before being released), and he talked about it in the daily news TV show Heute Journal. Following this, further radio stations followed the boycott. In the German federal state of Hessen the song was aired accompanied by a warning. In the popular music show Formel Eins cutscenes were aired, as long as the song topped the charts.

Chart performance

Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2, One Year Later)

In 1986, Falco published the single Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2, One Year Later) on his album Emotional, in which the possible point of view is strongly relativized. The song was also released as a single and reached the top of the charts in several countries, including for example, Germany and Sweden. Against expectations, in Austria, Falco reached 4th place in the charts. Musically, the song is more towards ballads and pop music. On the flip side of the single the song Crime Time is found, which is also from the album Emotional.

Chart performance

The Spirit Never Dies (Jeanny Final)

Although marketed as the third part of the Jeanny Trilogy there is no evidence that this song was ever to be planned as the final part. It seems that Horst Bork (Falco's ex-manager) had the idea that the subtitle would help to sell this song, which was originally recorded in 1988 for the "Wiener Blut" album. There is no hint in the lyrics that this song ever had anything to do with the Jeanny saga and therefore the subtitle "Jeanny Final" can be considered a clever marketing gag.

The album "The Spirit Never Dies" was released posthumously in 2009 as a compilation of unpublished Falco songs. The title track, "The Spirit Never Dies (Jeanny Final)", was also released as a single and it scored in the top ten in Austria and Germany. The track was found by chance after a water-pipe burst in the archives of the recording studio Mörfelden-Walldorf that was used by Falco's producer Gunther Mende in 1987. After the closing of the archives, the tapes were sent to Mende personally, who then had a look at the material, all of which had originally been rejected by Falco's recording label Teldec; this was explained by Horst Bork in an interview mentioning that Falco had tried to use a different style of music at the time that the label did not want to support.^[3] After digital remastering of the tape the song was edited and published under the claim that it was the official third part of the Jeanny trilogy.

The melancholic song is fully melodic without any spoken word poetry that had been characteristic for Falco's earlier two songs in the supposed trilogy. The video for the song is an assembly of cut scenes from earlier Falco music videos along with photos and video clips of Falco's final girl friend Caroline Perron, during the singing done by the female voice at the end of the song.

Chart performance

Other Trilogy versions

Although the Jeanny theme was planned as a trilogy, only "Jeanny" (Part 1) and "Coming Home" (Part 2) were officially included in the series by Falco. "The Spirit Never Dies" (Jeanny Final) is considered a spurious third installment in the trilogy, which Falco died before completing according to his own plans.

In 1990, the album "Data de Groove" was published and it contains the song "Bar Minor 7/11 (Jeanny Dry)". The song uses the setting of a bar with Falco talking to a female bartender but one can only hear Falco's verses not the response from three bartender. A background singer repeats "Give it up!" and the song ends with the text "Tell me, who told you your name was Jeanny? ... That, well, that must have been the boss of my record company then." Except for chart positions in Austria, the album was unsuccessful and the Jeanny-themed song was not noticed widely.

After Falco's death, an Internet company offered a song named "Where Are You Now? (Jeanny Part III)" for download in 2000. The company officials said that the tape with the song was sent to them anonymously; because it was unauthorized the Webpage providing the ability to download the song was taken offline shortly later. The music is taken from a period in 1988 when Falco had returned to work with Bolland & Bolland. Soon the theory sprang up that the song was actually a demo tape mixed by Bolland from other studio material in which Falco sung lyrics that had been proposed by Bolland to Falco, but the production of a studio version of the song was abandoned and it was not included on the Falco album for which it had been planned. This explanation was first offered by Falco's fellow musicians Richard Pettauer and Thomas Rabitsch and it was later confirmed by Bolland & Bolland in a TV show on 5 February 2007.

Given the three possible successors to Part 1 and Part 2, the timeline can be given in different dimensions:

• enumeration by recording year
  • 1. Jeanny (1985) 2. Coming Home (1986) 3. Where Are You Now (1985/1986) 4. The Spirit Never Dies (1987) 5. Bar Minor 7/11 (1990)
• enumeration by production year
  • 1. Jeanny (1985) 2. Coming Home (1986) 3. The Spirit Never Dies (1987+2009) 4. Where Are You Now (1988) 5. Bar Minor 7/11 (1990)
• enumeration by publication
  • 1. Jeanny (1985) 2. Coming Home (1986) 3. Bar Minor 7/11 (1990) 4. Where Are You Now (2000+2007) 5. The Spirit Never Dies (2009)

Depending on the enumeration each version may be pointed out as the third part in the series of a total of five different songs related to the "Jeanny trilogy".

Other Cover versions

• 1986: Jeannie Part 13 (Jennys Rache) - Drahdiwaberl
• 1986: Jeannie (Die reine Wahrheit) - Frank Zander
• 1986: Freedom (Jeanny, Die Antwort) - Jeannie
• 1987: Where Are You Now ? (Jeanny Part 3) - Mix with Falco's voice ^[4]
• 1996: ...und wer fragt nach Jeanny? (Jeanny Part 4) - Peter Orloff
• 1996: Jeanny - Ich Troje
• 1998: Chi-là (七仔, lit. "Hooker") - the Taiwanese cover by Taiwanese singer Wén-bīn Shīh^[5]
• 1999: Jeanny - Stahlhammer (on the album Feind Hört Mit)
• 2001: Jeanny - Reamonn and Xavier Naidoo
• 2001: Jeanny (Part 1) - Sara Noxx
• 2004: Jeanny - Mandaryna
• 2005: An Tagen wie diesen by Fettes Brot and Finkenauer covers the melody of Jeanny
• 2010: Hurts feat. Falco on the 25th anniversary edition of "Falco 3
• 2011: The Hungarian rap band the Children of Distance and hungarian singer Oláh Ibolya use the sample of the song for their latest single, "Még utoljára".^[6]

Trivia

• In Part-I the Jeanny character is portrayed by the 15-year old Theresa Guggenberger, a student from the dance school associated with the Theater an der Wien. She was selected from those taking part in a formal job casting prior to the video shoot. Despite the public outcry, she never felt uneasy about her appearance and she played the role again in Part-II.^[7]
• The video of Part-I contains a number of references to crime scenes both real and fictional. The "news break" part refers obliquely to Jack Unterweger who was still in jail at the time. The "F" on Falco's trenchcoat in the video refers to the 1931 film M (1931 film) in which a blind man marks the murderer with a chalk sign in the same way. The location in the underground canal is the same as in the film The Third Man.
• The main location in the video of Part-I is the Opernpassage in Vienna. The main location in the video of Part-II is the Gasometer in Vienna.

References

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics