Rate Your Music score: 3.54 out of 5!
This memorable lost hit was one of few songs sung in German ever to make the top 40 of the Hot 100. (The Beatles' "Sie Liebt Dich" only got to #97.)
In addition to this distinction, "Vienna Calling" has other interesting characteristics. It's one of few top 40 hits that includes part of a classical piece. Some versions of "Vienna Calling" - like that in the video - open with a few seconds of Johann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube." However, I'm not sure if the single included that piece. I believe the version on the 45 may have opened with a slice of a different piece. Falco's vocals may have also been rerecorded for the 45.
"The Blue Danube" brings to mind an advertising campaign of several years later. It was for Borden dairy products. Borden advertised heavily during American Top 40 circa 1989. One of its radio ads sounded like it was for some diet chocolate milk it had (which I don't remember anyone ever drinking). The commercial featured a children's chorus singing the jingle, which was set to the tune of "The Blue Danube."
In another Borden ad, the children's chorus sang a different jingle...
Borden, it's light and sweet
Borden, it's good to eat
Borden, it's yummy for my tummy
If it's Borden (gulp, gulp)
It's got to be good
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, we made a parody of it called "Gordon", which was about Gordon from Sesame Street. That was also around the same time we went to Florence Mall on the same evening Gordon happened to be there. A bunch of little kids were gathered around him as he sang in the seating area that had the stone animals.
I remember hearing "Vienna Calling" on the car radio on I-275 one weekday evening as we were wasting time and fuel going to a ridiculous appointment - instead of living. Yet I feel "Vienna Calling" may be one of the greatest lost hits of the 1980s to be eligible for this blog.
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