Songful Style Link Party #50: “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco

About Songful Style

Songful Style is a style challenge series hosted by Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha of Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette.

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song.

Marsha chose this month’s inspiration tune, the 1985 novelty song, “Rock Me Amadeus” by Austrian musician Falco. I have to admit that I really kind of hate this kitschy song. Not only is it totally cringey, but the earworm effect is undeniable. It’s been stuck in my head for weeks. Arrgh, Marsha! LOL Despite the song’s corniness, it was still really fun to style!

The Video

The Lyrics

Rock me, rock me, rock me, rock me
Rock me, Amadeus
Do it, do it

Rock me all the time to the top

Er war ein Punker
Und er lebte in der großen Stadt
Es war in Wien, war Vienna
Wo er alles tat
Er hatte Schulden, denn er trank
Doch ihn liebten alle Frauen
Und jede rief
"Come and rock me Amadeus"

Er war Superstar
Er war populär
Er war so exaltiert
Because er hatte Flair
Er war ein Virtuose
War 'n Rockidol
Und alles rief
"Come and rock me Amadeus"

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Come and rock me, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus

Ey
Es war um 1780
Und es war in Wien
No plastic money anymore
Die Banken gegen ihn
Woher die Schulden kamen
War wohl jedermann bekannt
Er war ein Mann der Frauen
Frauen liebten seinen Punk

Er war Superstar
Er war so populär
Er war zu exaltiert
Genau das war sein Flair
Er war ein Virtuose
War 'n Rockidol
Und alles ruft noch heute
"Come and rock me Amadeus"

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Come and rock me, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Come and rock me, Amadeus

Now, come and rock me, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus
Come on, rock me
Come and rock me to the top
Amadeus
Ama-, Ama-, Amadeus
Now come and, now come and rock me, Amadeus
Amadeus

Rock me, rock me, rock me, rock me
Rock me, rock me, rock me, rock me

Rock me, Amadeus
Rock me, Amadeus

Do it, do it
Do it, do it
Rock me to the top all the time
Rock me all the time to the top
He was a punk
Er war ein Punker

And he lived in the big city
Und er lebte in der großen Stadt

It was in Vienna, was Vienna
Es war in Wien, war Vienna

Where he did everything
Wo er alles tat

He was in debt because he drank
Er hatte Schulden, denn er trank

But all women loved him
Doch ihn liebten alle Frauen

And everyone shouted
Und jede rief

"Come and rock me Amadeus"
"Come and rock me Amadeus"
He was a superstar
Er war Superstar

He was popular
Er war populär

He was so exalted
Er war so exaltiert

Because he had flair
Because er hatte Flair

He was a virtuoso
Er war ein Virtuose

Was a rock idol
War 'n Rockidol

And everything was calling
Und alles rief

"Come and rock me Amadeus"
"Come and rock me Amadeus"
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus

Come and rock me, Amadeus
Come and rock me, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Hey
Ey

It was around 1780
Es war um 1780

And it was in Vienna
Und es war in Wien

No plastic money anymore
No plastic money anymore

The banks against him
Die Banken gegen ihn

Where the debt came from
Woher die Schulden kamen

It was probably known to everyone
War wohl jedermann bekannt

He was a man of women
Er war ein Mann der Frauen

Women loved his punk
Frauen liebten seinen Punk
He was a superstar
Er war Superstar

He was so popular
Er war so populär

He was too exalted
Er war zu exaltiert

That was exactly his flair
Genau das war sein Flair

He was a virtuoso
Er war ein Virtuose

Was a rock idol
War 'n Rockidol

And everything is still calling today
Und alles ruft noch heute

"Come and rock me Amadeus"
"Come and rock me Amadeus"
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus

Come and rock me, Amadeus
Come and rock me, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus

Come and rock me, Amadeus
Come and rock me, Amadeus
Now, come and rock me, Amadeus
Now, come and rock me, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus, oh, oh, oh Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus

Amadeus, Amadeus
Amadeus, Amadeus

Come on, rock me
Come on, rock me

Come and rock me to the top
Come and rock me to the top

Amadeus
Amadeus

Ama, Ama, Amadeus
Ama-, Ama-, Amadeus

Now come and, now come and rock me, Amadeus
Now come and, now come and rock me, Amadeus

Amadeus
Amadeus

About the Artist and the Song

Born in Austria on February 19, 1957, Johann “Hans” Hölzel, known professionally by his stage name Falco, was the son of Maria (née Saurer), a laundry branch manager, and Alois Hölzel, a machine factory foreman. His mother had a dizygotic pregnancy with triplets. Two identical twins formed in one ovum while Falco was a singular fetus in a separate ovum. Three months into the pregnancy, Maria miscarried the twins but Falco survived to full term.

In 1963, Falco began his education at a Roman Catholic public school but was switched to the free public school system four years later. Sometime during his early childhood, his father left the family and his mother raised him on her own.

Showing very early signs of unusual musical talent, Falco was able to keep time with the drumbeats he heard on the radio as a toddler. He was gifted a child’s grand piano for his fourth birthday followed by a record player for his fifth birthday. His new record player gave him consistent access to his favorite musicians: Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, and the Beatles.

Wanting to become a pop star from an early age, Falco enrolled in the Vienna Conservatoire at the age of 16, but quickly became frustrated and disenrolled. His mother then insisted that he begin an apprenticeship with the Austrian employee pension insurance institute. This also lasted only a short period of time. The 17 year old Falco then joined the Austrian army, remaining in service for just 8 months.

Using pseudonyms like “John Hudson” and “John DiFalco”, Falco became involved in the Viennese nightlife in the late 1970s, performing music, striptease, performance art, and political satire as well as celebrating chaos. From 1977 through early 1979, Falco was the bassist for an Austrian rock group, the Hallucination Company. It was during this time that he formally adopted his stage name which was inspired by East German ski jumper Falko Weißpflog.

His uncharacteristically clean cut appearance stood in stark contrast to the shabbier fashions of the Viennese underground club scene. Falco’s short hair was inspired by his time in the military and he often wore Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses with his polished suits. In 1979, he was invited to leave the Hallucination Company and join Drahdiwaberl, a Viennese Anarcho-punk band that used shock tactics and stage antics in their performances. After leaving the Hallucination Company, Falco also became a member of Spinning Wheel which was a side project of Drahdiwaberl. This side project is where he began singing, making the transition from bass player to vocalist and developing his distinct personal singing style.

In 1979, Falco recorded his first demos and sketches in a recording studio. These recordings resulted in only one single being released posthumously 28 years later. In 1981, he was invited to sign with manager Markus Spiegel. With a giant ego that was interfering with his group’s performances, Falco became the solo artist that he was destined to be.

During his solo career, Falco continued to compose his own music and hired songwriter Robert Ponger to assist him lyrically. In 1981, he brought his intended first single to manager Horst Bork who felt it wasn’t strong enough and pushed for his B-side song, “Der Kommissar“, to be released as a single instead. Falco was hesitant because the B-side song was about drug consumption and combined rap verses with a sung chorus. Although it was becoming huge in America, rap music was still rare in Western Europe at the time. However, Bork insisted that this song should be released as Falco’s first solo single. While it didn’t break through in the UK or the US, the song did chart high in many nations, achieving number-one success in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan.

Under pressure to match their previous success, Falco and Ponger returned to the studio in 1983 to record their second album, Junge Roemer, which was released in 1984. This second album charted at number one in Austria but failed to reach the charts in any other country, prompting Falco to consider experimenting with English lyrics to broaden his appeal.

Partially inspired by the 1984 film, Amadeus, Falco recorded “Rock Me Amadeus” for his third studio album, Falco 3, released on October 15, 1985. Reaching number one in over a dozen countries, “Rock Me Amadeus” became a worldwide hit in 1986, peaking at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on March 29, 1986, and remaining there for three consecutive weeks.

The song was written by Falco and Dutch music producers Bolland & Bolland and to this day remains the only German language song to peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, “Rock Me Amadeus” was Falco’s only number one hit in the US and the UK despite his growing popularity in Austria and most of Europe.

Originally recordeed in German, the song is about Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his 18th century popularity, and his extensive debts. Instead of an English translation for the US release, the song is remixed with an English background voice-over, performed by producer Rick McCullough. The song would go on to be ranked number 87 among VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s and number 44 on VH1’s list of 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders.

The music video features elements of Mozart’s time combined with 1980s contemporary society. Falco appears wearing a 20th-century-style dinner jacket as he walks past people dressed in 18th century formal attire. Further on in the video, Falco is dressed as Mozart himself, with wildly colored hair, being carried on the shoulders of a modern motorcycle gang. By the end of the video, the two contrasting groups unite in a chaotic celebration of sorts.

People who knew Falco described him as having a complex personality, viewing him as ambitious, eccentric, caring, egotistical, and deeply insecure. As an aspiring teenage pop star, Falco was a quiet young man and a precise bass player with a very high opinion of himself. Others who knew him cited that he also had a touch of imposter syndrome, always fearful that he would be exposed as a subpar musician. As his success grew, he became a known womanizer as well as a difficult artist to work with. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Falco developed alcohol and cocaine dependency that made him unreliable and abusive, yet he stubbornly refused to seek help.

Falco’s relationship with Isabella Vitkovic resulted in the birth of a daughter, Katharina, in 1986. The couple married in 1988 but the union was short-lived amidst their self described love-hate relationship. In 1993, through paternity testing, Falco discovered that then 7 year old Katharina was not his biological daughter. Although they kept in contact, the father-daughter relationship became strained and Katharina eventually took her mother’s surname, claiming she was written out of Falco’s will. Katharina was 12 years old when Falco died on February 6, 1998, from severe injuries due to a car crash. He was driving his Mitsubishi Pajero when he collided with a bus in the Dominican Republic where he lived as a tax exile since the early 1990s. He was 40 years old. He was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery and his gravesite remains one of the most visited graves there. In 2008, his daughter published a memoir called Falco war mein Vater (Falco Was My Father).

About My Outfit

For my outfit, I wanted to combine elements that reflected the contrasting styles that appear in the music video. On the one hand, you have all the beautiful 18th century gowns and suits in all their ornate frilly glory. In contrast, you get the edgier casual styles of the 1980s motorcycle gang.

My idea took some thinking and a whole lot of creativity but I think I nailed this challenge!

I started with a long ivory lace dress topped with an old thrifted brocade blazer. The blazer is a brownish tone with the brocade design in a pastel blue. I added a brown ruffled ribbon scarf to mimic the giant frilly collars of the 18th century garb, a pair of pearly earrings, and a pile of pearl necklaces in various lengths. Finally, to include some contrasting biker elements, I wore my very old black motorcycle boots and a tan messenger hat with a black sparkly band.

At first I thought this song would never result in an outfit suitable for actually wearing in public. But I was wrong because I absolutely love how this look came together and I would definitely wear it in public when the opportunity arises!

What would you wear to accurately reflect such a weird song?

I hope you have enjoyed this Songful Style challenge as much as I have! Won’t you check out how my musically inspired friends have interpreted this song into an outfit. Just click the links to their blogs below for more fashion inspiration. 

Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #49: “Build Me Up Buttercup” by The Foundations

Come back again on July 27, 2026, to see how we style outfits inspired by my next song choice. I decided to go way back in time before the modern rock music era when classical music was modern! I chose “Mondnacht” (Moonlight Night) by German composer Robert Schumann. His most famous song, it is the 5th song from his 1840 Liederkreis, Op. 39.

If you are interested in joining us for the next round and need the lyrical inspiration along with the music, you can find the original German words with the English translation here. The lyrics are as beautiful as the music. I am excited to see what kinds of outfits come from this 186 year old poetic opus.

Happy styling!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee