Der Kommissar (song)

"Der Kommissar" ("the commissioner" or police chief) was originally written by producer Robert Ponger for Reinhold Bilgeri. Bilgeri rejected it, as he felt the song was too soft, so Falco reworked the song for himself instead.

Falco wanted to release "Helden von heute" as the main side (A-side), but the record company wanted "Der Kommissar" to be released, because they felt it had more potential. The record company decided upon a double A-side release and was vindicated when "Der Kommissar" reached No. 1 in German-speaking countries in January 1982. After this success, Falco's management decided to release "Der Kommissar" (as an A-side) in other countries as well.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, Falco's version did not perform as well, despite topping charts throughout Europe and Scandinavia in early 1982. In mid-1982, however, the British rock band After the Fire recorded an English version, also called "Der Kommissar", and released it as a single, but the record floundered. Coming off a tour opening for Van Halen, After the Fire was working on material for a new album when in December 1982 the group announced onstage during a concert that they were disbanding. Both the After the Fire and Falco versions were rising on the Canadian charts at the time, but neither had cracked the US pop charts. Around that time, American pop singer Laura Branigan began working on her second album, and she recorded "Deep in the Dark", a new song written over the melody and arrangement of "Der Kommissar" which was prepared for release. Then the After the Fire version finally hit the US charts (Hot 100) on 22 February 1983, and started rising. Though its version barely nicked their home country's Top 50, in 1983 the song's music video received extensive airplay on MTV propelling its popularity on US radio. The song entered the American Top 40 on 5 March 1983, peaked at No. 5, and remained in the Top 40 for a total of 14 weeks. The single was released under the Epic label, with a catalog number of 03559. Amidst all this renewed attention to the composition, Falco's own version, which had done well in some US markets but not charted nationally, was re-released, but the German-language record remained essentially a novelty hit there, charting concurrently with the After the Fire version but not rising above No. 78.

In Canada, Falco's version had peaked at No. 11 the same late-January week that After the Fire's version peaked at No. 12. After the Fire's record company, CBS, pleaded with the band to regroup, but to no avail. While UK promos for "Deep in the Dark" were pressed (the After the Fire version missed the UK top 40 and the Falco version didn't even chart there), Branigan's record company, Atlantic, officially released "Solitaire" in the U.S., where that song went to No. 7.

• After the Fire recorded a 1982 English-language version of "Der Kommissar" which peaked at No. 5 in the U.S.
• Pink Project sampled the guitar riff and chorus, mixed it with their electronic version of "Da Da Da" and launched it as "Der Kommissar" in 1982.[5]
• Laura Branigan's "Deep in the Dark" from Branigan 2 is a 1983 English-language song written over the melody and hooks of Falco and Ponger's "Der Kommissar"
• Dale Bozzio, the lead singer of Missing Persons, recorded "Der Kommissar" in 2007 for her solo project.
• Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung
• Gimme 5
• Trent Reznor's first band Option 30
• Brazilian band Comunidade Nin-Jitsu's "Rap do Trago"("Booze Rap") uses the song's arrangement and replaces the lyrics with satirical ones that sound similar in Portuguese.