From '' Suzy Andrews ''
Label: X Records (Germany) -- 6.25387
Format: Vinyl, LP, Clear Pink
Country: Germany
Released: 1982

Tracklist
A1 Teenage Iceage
A2 Scandal
A3 Tango 2000
A4 Der Kommissar
A5 Born To Bleed
B1 Da, Da, Da, I Don't Love You
B2 Goldener Reiter
B3 Coming At You
B4 Dreiklangsdimension
B5 King Kong
B6 Monotony In Germany

Engineer -- Andy Lunn, Carmine Di, Jon Caffery
Mixed By -- Andy Lunn
Producer -- Ingeborg Hauke, Peter Hauke

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"Der Kommissar" is a song first recorded by Falco in Austria in 1981, covered a year later by After the Fire and reworked in 1983 by Laura Branigan. Originally written by Robert Ponger and Falco, the Falco version reached the top of the charts in many countries.

After the Fire's version featured English lyrics by the band's Andy Piercy.
The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Story

Originally written by producer Robert Ponger for Reinhold Bilgeri, Bilgeri turned it down as he felt the song was too soft, so Falco reworked the song for himself instead.

Falco wanted to release "Helden von heute" as the main side (A-side), but the record company wanted "Der Kommissar" ("the commissioner" or police captain) to be released, because they felt it had more potential. The record company decided upon a double A-side release and was redeemed when "Der Kommissar" reached number one in German-speaking countries in January 1982. After this big success, Falco's management decided to release "Der Kommissar" (as an A-side) in other countries as well.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, Falco's hit didn't fare as well, despite topping charts throughout Europe and Scandinavia during spring and summer 1982. In the summer of 1982 the British rock band After The Fire recorded an English version of the song, also called "Der Kommissar", and released it as a single, but the record floundered. Coming off a tour opening for Van Halen, After The Fire was working on material for a new album when in December 1982 the group announced onstage during a concert that they were breaking up. Both the After The Fire and Falco versions were rising on the Canadian charts at the time, but neither had cracked the U.S. pop charts.

Around that time, American pop singer Laura Branigan began working on her second album, and recorded a new song written over the melody and arrangement of "Der Kommissar", called "Deep In The Dark", which was prepared for release, when the After The Fire version finally hit the U.S. charts (Hot 100) on February 22, 1983, and started rising. Though the UK band's version barely nicked their home country's Top 50, in 1983 the song ultimately rose all the way to #5 in the U.S., where their music video was an MTV hit.

The song entered the American Top 40 (AT40) on March 5, 1983, peaked at #5, and remained in the AT40 for a total of 14 weeks. The hit single was released under the Epic label, with a catalog number of 03559.

Cover versions and tributes

After the Fire recorded a 1982 English-language translation of "Der Kommissar" which was a Top 5 hit in the U.S.
Laura Branigan's "Deep in the Dark" from Branigan 2 is a 1983 English-language song written over the melody and hooks of Falco and Ponger's "Der Kommissar"
The Squids recorded a punk rock version of "Der Kommissar" in 1996 and titled it "Don't Turn Around".
The Certainlies
Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung
Gimme 5
Lajos Túri's Hungarian cover "A felügyelő"
Matthew Gonder recorded an English-language translation of "Der Kommissar" also in 1982, as well as a French version.
Trent Reznor's first band Option 30
Suzy Andrews; X Records, 1982 Produced by Peter Hauke, Distributed by Rocshire Records
Brazilian band Comunidade Nin-jitsu made a parody of the song, called "Rap do Trago".
Finnish industrial metal band Itä-Saksa (translates East Germany) made cover that can be found from their last album Man the Machines (2000).

In popular culture

The song was parodied in a promo for the TV-series Chuck.
The song was featured in the film Pineapple Express.
The song was used in the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates Rejection".
The song was used in the Friends episode "The One Where the Stripper Cries".
The song (though loosely), was featured in a The Suite Life on Deck episode "So You Think You Can Date" along with other 80s references.
The Song was used in the Family Guy episode German Guy.

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