Song
No. 1 Song
Running time
3:57 Minutes
Time of origin and release
1989 (production, officially unpublished)
Music, lyrics and production
Music: Ide Hintze
Lyrics: Falco, Ide Hintze
Producer: Ide Hintze
About the song
This sampling song was produced in 1989 when Falco became acquainted with the lyricist, performance artist, performance and multimedia poet Christian Ide Hintze, who shortly afterwards began mixing Falco’s recordings from his telephone answering machine into music he had written.
As with all of these spngs, the relentless drum machine determines the sound, but not much happens musically; a shy melody can be heard in the background. Hintze’s vocals dominate over Falco’s samples; there is even a kind of chorus in this track.
In terms of content, samples were used that probably came from attempts at an appointment between the two artists. There is also a self-deprecating sentence from Falco about the public perception of him ("About the man with the number one song"); here Falco is clearly alluding to the success of Rock Me Amadeus in the US charts. And of course there is also a touch of melancholy in this self-description, as Falco did not want to be perceived as a one-hit artist throughout his life. Hintze addresses this level of meaning in his text (“We all want to hear a number one song, we all want to live a number one life, you don’t know how to live a number one life in Vienna”), he also emphasizes the difficulty of living as a pop star in Vienna, often mentioned by Falco himself. Especially when, at the time the telephone answering machine was recorded, Falco was struggling with the problem of years of unsuccessfulness and was certainly constantly feeling the vitriol and malicious glee from Vienna.
This sampling song was never officially released; it can only be found on a CD-R that Hintze produced in 1989 and which was later in the hands of Peter Ernst, the literary scholar who worked with Falco and his as part of the book Falco’s Many Languages texts.
Although this number is primarily a musical and lyrical experiment, in contrast to the other Hintze sampling numbers it has at least the beginnings of a regular song structure.
Lyrics
Nummer, Nummer, Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer, Nummer Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer, Nummer Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer, Nummer
Yeah, I’d like to meet you tomorrow
But where and when?
Ich bin mir nicht so ganz sicher
You’ve been not paid?
Vielleicht kommst du auf mich zu
Yes, but what’s gonna happen?
Yeah, sure!
It’s been a strange kind of message
Yeah, yeah
Von
Von dem Mann
Von dem Mann
Von dem Mann mit dem Nummer Eins Song
What?!
Von
Von dem Mann
Von dem Mann
Von dem Mann mit dem Nummer Eins Song
Yeah
I got it, babe
We all wanna hear a number one song
Nummer, Nummer Eins
Nummer Eins
Nummer Eins
Voll korrekt
Voll korrekt
We all wanna live a number one life
Nummer, Nummer
Nummer, Nummer Eins
Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer
Nummer Eins
I’d love to
Nummer
I’d love to
Nummer
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
Prater
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
Kleine Cafe, yeah?
I don’t know if you know how to sell us on a will
How to sell us on a will
I am sure you know that
Is it sex, is it crime, is it poetry style?
Is it poetry at all?
Ich bin mir nicht so ganz sicher
I’m sitting here at the Kleine Cafe
Yeah
At the Kleine Cafe in Wien
Yeah
You don’t know how to live a number one life in Wien
Yeah
Nummer , Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer, Nummer
We all wanna hear a number one song
Nummer, Nummer Eins
Nummer Eins
Nummer Eins
Voll korrekt
Voll korrekt
We all wanna live a number one life
Nummer, Nummer
Nummer, Nummer Eins
Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer
Nummer Eins
I’d love to
Nummer
I’d love to
Nummer
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
Prater
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
Kleine Cafe, yeah?
At the
At the
At the
At the
At the
Nummer, Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer
At the
Prater
Nummer Eins
Nummer, Nummer
Nummer Eins
At the
Kleine Cafe, yeah?
We all wanna hear a number one song
Nummer, Nummer Eins
Nummer Eins
Nummer Eins
Voll korrekt
Voll korrekt
We all wanna live a number one life
Nummer, Nummer
Nummer, Nummer Eins
Nummer
Nummer Eins
Nummer
Nummer Eins
I’d love to
Nummer
I’d love to
Nummer
Voll korrekt
Nummer
Voll korrekt
Nummer, Nummer, Nummer
I’d love to
Nummer
I’d love to
Nummer Drei?
Nummer Drei?
Nummer Appartmenthaus?
Nummer Appartmenthaus?
Nummer Drei?
See you tomorrow
Nummer
See you tomorrow
Nummer Drei?
Nummer Drei?
Nummer Appartmenthaus?
Nummer Appartmenthaus?
Nummer Drei?
Nummer Appartmenthaus?
I’d love to
Nummer
Note: Falco sings in the text blocks shown normally, Ide Hintze sings in the text blocks shown in italics.
The samples with Falco’s voice come from mini-cassette recordings that Ide Hintze’s answering machine made of Falco’s telephone messages in 1989.
My text version is based on the text supplements of the official releases (booklet, inlay, cover etc.), if available. However, all lyrics were tapped and corrected according to the sung word. For songs where no lyric supplements are available, my version is based solely on the sung word or also on lyrics circulating on the Internet. Text passages sung in dialect are in moderate transliteration. Spelling errors, both German and English, were corrected in glaring cases. The spelling is based partly on the spelling valid at the time (text supplements), partly on the new spelling (own interceptions). Punctuation marks have generally been omitted. I am grateful for any suggestions for improvement.