Artist · chart history
Falco
Solo artist Wien Austria Austrian pop & rock musician
Falco is an artist from Wien. Falco has 24 chart appearances on 20 radio countdowns from 11 stations on RockLists, spanning 1983–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Rock Me Amadeus”, which appears on 11 lists with a best position of #12. The station that charted Falco most often is KROQ (Los Angeles, CA), with 10 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1986.
Falco was the stage name of Johann "Hans" Hölzel, born in Vienna in 1957, who borrowed his new name from Falko Weißpflog and went on to become the rare Austrian pop star the rest of the world actually heard. A singer who also played bass and guitar, he'd been part of the Viennese outfit Drahdiwaberl before going solo, and his debut album Einzelhaft carried "Der Kommissar", the first of his international hits, a slice of half-rapped, rubbery pop.
Falco 3 in 1985 went further. "Rock Me Amadeus" was all strut and cheek, and in 1986 it went to number one on the Billboard charts, making Falco the only artist ever to top the US charts with a song in German. "Vienna Calling", from the same album, kept the party going. Later hits included "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik" and "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)".
He died in a traffic collision in 1998, at 40, and "Out of the Dark" was released after his death. His estate counts 20 million albums and 40 million singles sold, which would make him the best-selling Austrian singer ever, and the Echo awards gave him an honorary prize in 1999.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Falco on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rock Me Amadeus | 11 | #12 | – | 1986 | |
| 2 | Der Kommisar | 7 | #70 | – | 1983 | |
| 3 | Der Kommissar | 3 | #334 | – | – | |
| 4 | Vienna Calling | 2 | #50 | – | 1985 | |
| 5 | Der Kommissar (Part 2) | 1 | #751 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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