"Rock Me Amadeus" was unique in music history in the U.S. for several reasons, not the first of which is that it's the only song in German to reach No. 1 in the U.S., according to Cassava Films. Further, "Rock Me Amadeus" joins "Sukiyaki" (Japanese), "Dominique" (French), and "La Bamba" (Spanish), among a small handful of others, on the very short list of foreign-language songs to become a pop hit in the U.S. Falco also recorded an English-language version of "Rock Me Amadeus."
Falco also broke musical ground in another, niche way. In 1990, Vanilla Ice would make history when "Ice Ice Baby" became the first rap single to reach No. 1 in the U.S., according to Complex. But a decade earlier, Falco wrote and recorded "Der Kommissar," which is, for all intents and purposes, a rap song. Specifically, it's about street youths trying to score drugs and stay ahead of the cops, according to SongFacts – subject matter explored in multiple rap songs before and after. In the song, Falco raps in a mix of English, German, and Viennese street dialect, according to The New European, and although Falco version of the song went nowhere in the States, it was huge in Europe, making it one of the first commercially-popular rap songs.
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