There’s an old adage in baseball that claims that you can’t tell the players without a scorecard. That applies to the wild circumstances surrounding the song “Der Kommissar”, a US Top 10 hit in 1983.
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Three high-profile artists all recorded songs with the music of “Der Kommissar”, each of them featuring different lyrics. And the act that scored the biggest US hit with the song was already defunct by the time it rose up the charts.
Falco First
We begin the strange tale of “Der Kommissar” with Falco. That’s right, the same Falco who would rule the US charts with “Rock Me Amadeus” in 1985. The Austrian artist wrote the song with Robert Ponger, singing in German about trying to enjoy a romantic tryst in the face of government oppression.
Falco initially resisted releasing the song as a single. He was concerned that the music owed too much to Rick James’ hit “Super Freak”. But his fears were unfounded. “Der Kommissar” gave him a No. 1 hit in both Germany and Austria.
The song didn’t gain much traction in the United States initially, which wasn’t all that surprising considering that the lyrics weren’t in English. But it caught the attention of others, leading to a kind of land rush to record an English-language version of the song.
Fire’s Final Fling
After The Fire was a British band already a decade into their career when “Der Kommissar” came into their orbit. They began as a prog-rock outfit in the early 70s, then tightened their approach to fit in with New Wave. Andy Percy of After The Fire wrote the English lyrics for the song by loosely translating what Falco had done.\
The single was released in 1982, but initially didn’t make much headway. Meanwhile, Laura Branigan, of “Gloria” fame, recorded a song on her second album called “Deep In The Dark”. That song featured the same melody as “Der Kommissar”, albeit with a new set of lyrics.
In December 1982, After The Fire, sensing that their race had been run, announced their dissolution during a live performance. A few months later, the video for their version of “Der Kommissar” found traction at MTV. The oft-recorded song enjoyed a surprising run to No. 5 in America, all while the band that did that version had closed up shop.
Behind the Lyrics of “Der Kommissar”
After The Fire’s version of “Der Kommissar” closely follows the blueprint of the Falco original. The lyrics are quasi-rapped and filled with somewhat clunky street jargon. For example, “She said sugar is sweet, she come a-rappin’ to the beat/And I knew that she was hot.”
The couple at the heart of the song seem to be caught up in the decadent life of urban youths: “They’re all slipping on the same snow.” Looming over it all is the prospect of a crackdown by government officers. “And if he talks to you, then you’ll know why,” the narrator warns. “The more you live, the faster you will die.”
As if things weren’t confusing enough surrounding this song, Falco’s original version started getting US airplay upon the success of the After The Fire take. “Don’t turn around,” the song warns. But if you did turn around in 1983, you heard “Der Kommissar” coming from many different directions.
Photo by Peter Noble/Redferns
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