Oh, oh, oh Amadeus 

​Today we want to share a little story with you about the history of our dad as a studio owner and producer, long before “MonaLisa Twins” or even Mona and Lisa ever existed. The MLT Club seems like the perfect place to reveal a bit more about that!As some of you might know, our dad (or “Papa Rudi” as we like to refer to him here) used to run a very successful recording studio in Austria in the 80’s and 90’s. He recorded and produced a host of national and international artists but the best known Austrian one is Falco.

​Many of you will know his biggest hit “Rock Me Amadeus” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1986 and made him the most internationally successful Austrian singer to this day and a legend to most Austrians …

​Falco is often considered “the first white rapper” and was revolutionary in many ways. Love or hate his style of music, he certainly was a one of a kind character, and he certainly left an important mark through his music but also through his image and “persona”.He had a way of criticizing the Viennese upper-class decadence by portraying a quite unlikeable and douchy character, by which he touched on a lot of social issues in his music. Personally, we think he played an extremely important role in Austrian culture, and his lyrics hold up to this day.”Rock Me Amadeus” wasn’t recorded at our dad’s studio but in 1991 the Bingoboys (another one of the few internationally successful Austrian acts) produced three remixes with Falco of some of his other big hits at our house: Wiener Blut, Junge Römer and Der Kommissar.

​Because the original tapes got lost or at least were untraceable at that time Falco had to record all three songs again.Going by our dad’s anecdotes and those of other people who knew him, Falco was a very different person in day-to-day life than the over-the-top character he portrayed on stage, in his music and videos. He was kind, funny and laid back. However, he also seemed to have a very troubled personal life, struggled with the traps of success, wrong “friends” and consequently drugs & alcohol. Unfortunately, he passed away way too early in 1998, in a car crash after which they found high amounts of various substances in his blood.He had an enormous fan following in Austria by this point and left behind a huge legacy. So it was quite funny to us when we were driving home from one show in London last year when we suddenly heard this on the radio …

LISTEN: “The World Cup Of 1 Hit Wonders” – BBC Radio 2 with OJ Borg

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In the clip above you can hear a segment on BBC Radio 2 – “The World Cup Of One Hit Wonders” – and “Rock Me Amadeus” was nominated (and won)! Funny how an artist can be a “one hit wonder” in one country and a cultural legend in another!We decided to send a text message to DJ Borg during his show, which he read out on air. We were thoroughly entertained by the whole show, which made the 4 hour trip infinitely more fun and go by much quicker!Here is a question to you – Have you heard of Falco before? If so, do you know any other songs by him?Those of you who own a copy of the album MonaLisa & Band Live in Concert 2007 will have heard our 13-year old selves sing a version of the Falco song “Der Kommissar” for which our dad produced the backing track from scratch. 

We kind of forgot about the video for it until we wrote this post. When we re-watched it we found ourselves laughing so hard that we weren’t sure whether to include it here. Michaela convinced us that it is mainly “cute” and that it’s fun seeing us perform such a song at that age. Talk about a blast from the past and teenage awkwardness. But hey, we were trying to channel our inner Falco 😉 Coool man!Here it is …

Now, as some of you probably know, personally we’re not big fans of the Eighties sound in general. All in all, it is probably even our least favourite decade of the 20st century, and even Papa Rudi wasn’t really into the type of music and the remixes he was doing back in the day.

But for us, the appeal of Falco has less to do with his music and is more strongly tied to the social impact he had in Austria, as well as his lyrics. He was someone who didn’t easily put up with nonsense and through his wit and music addressed very unpopular issues like corruption, child abuse, and hypocrisy.

So, we totally get how someone, who didn’t grow up in Vienna and doesn’t understand the meaning behind the lyrics or the type of dialect he’s putting on, could listen to him and label the music as rather cheesy 80’s pop.

What’s your impression?

​Soon dad and Michaela will go back on a short home visit to Austria, and they will look for some old slides from dad’s studio days. Maybe we can dig some of Falco’s visit out to show you.

Unfortunately, the whole thing of dad recording Falco happened 3 years before we were born, so we never got to meet him, not even as toddlers. Still, it makes for a good story  🙂

We hope you’re all doing well and enjoyed this little blast from the past,
Mona & Lisa