Johann Hölzel was born on February 19, 1957 in Vienna. The musical talent seemed to have been in his cradle, quotes Peter Lanz in his Falconbiography of his mother as follows: “From the very first moment he roared very loudly. The midwife handed the child to me and said: Here, Mrs. Hölzel, there you have your choir boy.” She was to remain his most important person of trust for the rest of his life.
After his parents separated, Hans grew up under the care of his mother and grandmother. He left school at the age of 16 and supported himself with various odd jobs. His military service, which he completed early, was much more fun for him than a job at the pension insurance company that his mother had gotten him. The civil service career hoped for by the mother for the son was definitely not for him.
So he began to play the bass guitar, spent a short time at the Vienna Music Conservatory and later moved to Berlin. There the first music performances of the future star took place. Back in Vienna, at the end of the 1970s there was a period with the very successful commercial band Spinning Wheel, but also with the First Vienna Music Theater (later the Hallucination Company) and finally with Drahdiwaberl around Stefan Weber. At that time, the later influential stage name, which he discovered based on the GDR ski jumper Falko Weißpflog, was also established.
But not only the name Falcon should endure, and the matching art figure was soon created. That’s how he got into the limelight as a singer for the first time and ended up at the top: The song “Ganz Wien”, which was on the first solo record “einzelhaft” (1982), became a huge success. The single “Der Kommissar” made it to the top of the charts in several European countries, sold over seven million copies worldwide and has resulted in a wide variety of new versions and remixes to this day.
Young Romans, Vienna Calling, Jeanny
“Junge Römer” followed two years later, although the album sold a little weaker than the previous debut. But that should be forgotten by 1985: “Falcon 3″ meant the final breakthrough. Songs like “Vienna Calling”, “Jeanny” and above all “Rock Me Amadeus” are still popular and often heard radio and dancefloor classics. And in March 1986 there was also a premiere to celebrate : Landed with “Rock Me Amadeus”. Falcon as the first German-speaking pop musician to top the US charts.
With the following works such as “Emotional” (1986), “Wiener Blut” (1988) or “Nachtflug” (1992). Falcon however, no longer connect to this heyday. On February 6, 1998, Johann Hölzel finally died at the age of 40 after a car accident in the Dominican Republic. The album “Out Of The Dark”, released posthumously only a few weeks later, on which the falcon had been working until the end, became a sales hit again. With “Verdammt wir leben noch” (1999) and “The Spirit Never Dies” (2009) two more records with partly unreleased material were to be released.
Both as a musician and as a fictional character Falcon throughout his life inspire and polarize in equal measure. And so his songs are still on the menu of local and international artists when it comes to cover versions. Austrian acts often have to measure themselves against him, who rarely shied away from experiments and crossed genres at will. He also knew how to use the music video art form, which was young in the 80s, with virtuosity, which only benefited his image of the slightly affected Viennese Strizzis.
Who, on the occasion of today’s anniversary, is again involved in the creation falcons want to deal with, will be given the opportunity to do so. The coupling “The Sound Of Musik” was recently released, on which the greatest hits of the Viennese are collected for the first time chronologically from 1981 to 1998. There is also a new box with the three legendary albums “Individual Detention”, “Junge Römer” and “Falcon 3″ on vinyl with a bonus maxi single.
Anniversary releases
On “The Sound Of Musik” are some rare versions of Falconhits, such as a new mix of “Rock Me Amadeus” or the “Full Length Version” of “Data de Groove”, which was only available on a now rare German first CD edition of the album of the same name. For “Body Next To Body” they chose a mix from 1987 that was only used for a German promotional vinyl single. This version of the song contains more Falcon and less Brigitte Nielsen, most notably her moaning has been removed.
Collectors can also look forward to a “Jeanny” picture disc. All three parts of the “Jeanny” saga, i.e. “Coming Home” and “Bar Minor 7/11 (Jeanny Dry)” are combined on one EP for the first time. In addition, there is the ‘Extended Version’, which is almost nine minutes long, and a mix in which Falcon sings in English.
Source: Nachrichten
