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"Rock Me Amadeus"
#1 weeks: 3
weeks: 1986-03-29, 1986-04-05, 1986-04-12
genre: pop, hip hop, synth pop
artist: Falco
album: Falco 3
writers: Rob Bolland, Ferdi Bolland
label:
formats: 7"
lengths: 3:21

"Rock Me Amadeus" is a 1986 song by the Austrian pop musician Falco from his album Falco 3. It topped the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic. It was Falco's only major hit in the United States and one of only two singles to make the Top Ten in the United Kingdom, despite his popularity in Germany, his native Austria, and much of Europe. The song was written by Dutch music producers Bolland & Bolland.

With "Rock Me Amadeus", Falco became the first German-speaking artist to be credited with a #1 single in all mainstream U.S. pop singles charts: the Billboard Hot 100 and Cashbox Top 100 Singles. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 29 March 1986. Falco is erroneously often considered a one-hit wonder for this song in the United States. However, Falco had already had a minor U.S. hit in 1982 with "Der Kommissar" (a hit the following year there for After the Fire), and his follow-up single from Falco 3, "Vienna Calling", reached #18 on the Hot 100.

In the United Kingdom, the song hit number one on 10 May 1986, becoming the first single by an Austrian act to achieve this distinction. In the UK, where his "Der Kommissar" failed to make the charts, Falco is also often regarded as a one-hit wonder, despite the fact that "Vienna Calling" hit number ten and three subsequent singles briefly charted.

In Canada, the song reached #2 in March 1986. (There, "Der Kommissar" had reached #11 in January 1983, and "Vienna Calling" would hit #8 in April 1986.)

"Rock Me Amadeus" would later be ranked #87 in VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s and #44 in VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders.

The song, recorded in German and about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, talks about his popularity and his debts. A longer version (eight minutes), named the "Salieri Mix", appeared on the initial U.S. release of the album Falco 3. The song was inspired by the movie Amadeus. For the U.S. release, the song was remixed with an English background overlay by L.A. DJ Chris Modig. There was never a full English version.

The song's music video mixed elements of Mozart's time with modern times; early on, Falco is shown in a modern dinner jacket walking past people in eighteenth-century formal wear. Later, he is shown dressed as Mozart, with wild colored hair, being held on the shoulders of men dressed in modern motorcycle-riding gear. At the end, the two crowds mix together.

The song has been lampooned and paid tribute to by many: