So80s present Falco / remix 2CD

P.S. Referring to Canadian/American mix

Discovered this thread and started digging…On April 1st of 2016, US iTunes released a 30th Anniversary Rock Me Amadeus EP. Since label consolidation has occured since the original post discussion, this may be why it’s now available.

The Canadian single version of “Amadeus” can be found on MORE PURE 80’s (from 2000 on Universal) for less than $10. It is the real single version that you remember on US radio… essentially a shortened Salieri mix. I just compared my vinyl single to the CD, and it’s right on. As for the So80s release for Falco, I’m playing it as I type, and it sounds very good. No complaints at all.

Hi Piet,

I have to admit that the Sandra compilation does sound great, so I’m inclined to pick up this Falco compilation. Good to hear that you won’t be using those horrible masters from the recent Falco-reissues, those were indeed huge disappointments.

Like Stefano said, it’s too bad the best version of “Rock me Amadeus” isn’t included. Wish I’d known about the Teldec single (there’s one on eBay DE now, but €100 is a bit much).

It’s sad to see how major labels act carelessly WRT the cultural heritage they’re supposed to manage, while making it hard for those who want to do a better job.

Any chance of ordering from uk? Also noticed their are EMI remasters of nachtflug and ootd on there way

Thank you Piet for responding to the queries in so much detail, it really is interesting to hear about the kind of work that goes into these compilations.

i do see the point of stefano and will try to explain: it is really very difficult to deal with all these different master owners. with falco for example the situation is as follows: the first 3 albums are owned today by SONY, then albums 4-6 are owned by warner music..the later 90s albums are with EMI. so we had to license the songs from 2 different companys who both have their own interests. yes, there would have been time left on cd2, but this does not matter for the licensing partners. we had to sign a deal where we are limited to 24 tracks in total because otherwise the percentage of the income would be smaller per title if we have 25 or more….we are an indie label and are happy that the majors allow us to exploit their catalogue at all.
second problem about the amadeaus mix you are talking about: as you pointed out correctly, it was on the “satellite to satellite” release, which is owned by warner. but they don’t own “rock me amadeus”. so if we ask sony, they tell us: “sorry this was on a warner release, we don’t own it”. if we ask warner they say ” we don’t own the song, no matter which version”…so this is the dilemma…majors are very strict when it comes to legal issues and here, nobody wants to take the risk of licensing a version which they not own…after all it is not much money that will be paid with a special release like we do with so8os…this is not mainstream ; )
i hope these lines are not too confusing…

Piet, Love much of your stuff, thanks for your hard work and coming on here to answer thoughts about it!

In May 1985 ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ went sky high in the German language territories of Europe: Germany, Switzerland and of course Austria. The single contained the original album version (Ihn liebten alle Frauen) [3:22]. Why this dull flat album mix got so big in these countries is still an enigma to me.

In the beginning of 1986 it really hit other countries in Europe and surprisingly also the US, Canada and Japan. And thank God it got remixed! The US remix and the Canadian remix were combined to a new single mix, starting off with the English voiceover ‘rap’ by DJ’s Boris Granich and Chris Modig from LA. This Canadian/American 1986 Mix [3:59] is in my opinion the best version of ALL mixes made, although it only runs for about 4 minutes. It combines the best of the US and Canadian remixes. I personally don’t fancy the Salieri remixes. I think they are not very cohesive, somehow they lack a certain flow.

Strangely enough the Canadian/American 1986 Mix never made it to any Falco compilation, nor to any of the Falco 3 different album CD-releases. And no, you won’t find it on the 25th anniversary release. It got its only CD-release on the rare German Teldec CD-single ‘Satellite to Satellite’ back in 1988.

Blank & Jones are probably not really aware of this 1986 international single mix, because in the German language territories ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ by then had already left the charts. In the beginning of 1986 they were into the third single from the album 3 (‘Jeanny’), making it number one. Otherwise I’m sure that Blank & Jones would have included this excellent version on this new compilation (disc 2 has enough minutes left). Such a shame, because it would have been an outstanding moment to release this pearl in remastered format, and especially to the German language territories a great chance to (re)discover this mix.

Apart from this rather serious flaw, the 2CD compilation is another fantastic Blank & Jones release and combines the best 12 inches of Falco. Hopefully ALL the mixes were mastered from the original master tapes (the Sandra 12 inch compilation did contain some B-sides vinyl transfers). Furthermore I hope the music won’t be killed by an insane level of compression, like early Blank & Jones compilations suffer from unfortunately.

Can’t wait for this to come out! And very nice to see your worthy comments Piet. Keep up the good job! I am a fan…

yes, of course the Shep Pettibone Mixes were on top of our list, but it was the 80s and politics were different….as ROW did not want to pay for the mixes, until today, no other country than US or Canada can license rights to use these mixes….i know it really sounds crazy, but that was the answer we got from warner music…i can also understand that the one or the fans would have favoured 4 mixes of the same track just because they are rare, but afterall we also wanted to release a cd that you actually also want to listen to in one go, and not just put it in your collection and say “got 3 more mixes from my want list” ; ) there are so many versions and mixes that we had to focus on the main 12″ versions. we also decided to put the two “Jeanny” songs back to back as they belong together and were never available back to back…anyway, we hope you can enjoy this release as much as we do!

and once again thanks for chris for letting me know about this release (so I can spend again some money)

And indeed, the do it again mix is absent here, pitty..

wauw, one of those releases I never thought that would appear. I have a worn 12″ vinyl from der kommisar, bought once for hundred deutsch marks long ago. And now finally on cd. I’m very pleased that those early 90’s re-remixes are ignored, and even more pleased that some rare b-sides (the instr-mental version for example) are now finally available on cd. One minor omision, the midnight train to vienna b-side (ok, 3x a remix might be a bit overdone, but on the other side, will there ever be a more appropriate release or it), or an alternate emotional version (released in german and released in german-english language, both on 7inch and 12inch), so what version are we getting here?
And finally, are these taken from the master tapes or vinyl ripps (unfortunately I have many rare 80’s extended cd’s that are vinyl ripps)

It’s a shame this is missing the Shep Pettibone remixes of “Do It Again” from 1988, I don’t think these mixes have ever been released on CD and would have made this a must have.

hey bert, i know what you mean, but if you would take the time and listen to all our so8os releases between 2011 – 2012 i hope you can agree that we worked on this “loudness war” thing. of course it is all a matter of taste, but please listen to the artist editions of Hubert Kah, Billy Idol, Culture Club or Sandra. i hope you can enjoy the Falco selection as it was a big pleasure for us to bring all these mixes together from the archives. we did not take any of the 12″ version from the latest deluxe issues of “einzelhaft” or “F3” as they were terribly mastered and even much louder than our first so8os compilations from 2009 which you seem to refer to.

Too bad Blank & Jones have a habit of “overheating” those compilations, making them unlistenable due to loudness.

I wish there would finally be a compilation of all the different versions of “Der Kommissar”, “Rock Me Amadeus”, “Vienna Calling”, “Jeanny”, “The Sound Of Musik”,…