The 80s One HIT WONDER that BROKE UP Before They Had THEIR 1 HIT! | Professor of Rock

Coming up, it’s the story of the 1983 Hit Der Kommissar that had two very different lives. First released by a German-speaking 80s star, named Falco, the song went Top 5 in at least 10 different countries. But It crashed and burned in America… Although Falco would have his revenge with a different hit called Rock Me Amadeus a few years later….But then an American ‘prog-rock band gone new wave pop called After the Fire’ got their hands on this song. They translated most of it into English except for a few mysterious lines and released it as a single that same year. And it Crashed and Burned Again!… Deeply in debt, burned out, and at odds with their record company, they decided to break up the band. Then out of nowhere, this track made a run for the top of the US charts just two months later. Was the song’s sudden success enough to get the band back together? Also, what did the mysterious chorus mean when translated into English? Find out next on Professor of Rock.
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It’s time for another edition of our series Bottled Lightning where we celebrate a song or album that was king for a day. Here we honor artists and bands that rocketed up the charts… but for reasons unknown weren’t able to sustain that success. Called by some ‘one-hit wonders’, we celebrate them as lightning in a bottle. On previous episodes we have covered Too Shy by Kajagoogoo, I Melt With You by Modern English, and 99 Luftbalons by German sensation Nena.
Today, we’re featuring another German-language song that was actually a hit twice in the 80s… by two different acts. The first time it didn’t take in America, though its writer would have a huge smash later on in America…. It’s a crazy story… I’m talking about the international smash Der Kommissar, first made famous overseas by Falco and then later here in the US by prog rockers gone pop… After the Fire. So let’s get into it.
One of the most successful pop artists ever to come out of Austria, Johann Hozel, aka Falco, was a musical prodigy. As a child, he received formal classical training. Later he joined the punk band Drahdiwaberl in 1978. But where he really made his mark was as a solo artist. Like in Hinted to earlier, he is best known to American audiences for his 1986 #1 hit Rock Me Amadeus.
But before Amadeus, there was Der Kommissar… which in English translates to “The Commissioner.” Written with the help of songwriter Robert Ponger, Falco actually wasn’t all that confident about the song’s commercial appeal. He thought it would best serve as a b-side for another track he thought was much stronger… ‘Helden von heute’ or ‘Heroes of Today’.