Jeanny is undoubtedly one of the most controversial songs of Falco's, that had both fans and the media fascinated. There are numerous cover versions and parodies. Producers kept mentioning and promising a third version (after Jeanny and Coming Home). Interesting story that deserves special treatment. But let's start at the beginning :)
The scandal about Jeanny
Jeanny was the third singe from the successful Falco 3 album. After the world-wide success of
Rock Me Amadeus, he wanted to offer something exceptional. And Jeanny definitely has a thundering effect! The song produces a remarkable scandal. (for the (translated) text of the song, click here.
It all really starts when ZDF news speaker Dieter Kronzucker, who'd heard the song on the radio on the way to work. His daughter and a cousin had been kidnapped and held for ransom a couple of years earlier, and he was shocked that someone could make a song out of such a terrible topic. He was even more shocked to hear that the song was No1 in the charts. He voiced his concern in the news that night. (You can find a RealVideo Version of the extract on the Homebase)
This turned into a general outburst throughout the nation and several radio stations stopped playing the song. Others played it, but put a warning commentary at the start. Some people even
wanted to stop the sales, but the Bundesprüfstelle (the competent body) decided not to put it on the index. Thomas Gottschalk (TV person, kinda talkshow host) made negative remarks about him and said the song was 'rubbish.' Obviously the whole scandal only increased the sales.
Falco was away on holiday at the time and had no idea about the whole thing until he got back. Obviously he was the forced to comment and said he'd expected that the song wouldn't be accepted without any trouble, but hadn't expected this extent of indignation.
He also said: "Jeanny" is a love-song that is conceived in such a way that it surely becomes interpretative. Those few people, this minority, who believes to see a crime or whatever in the clip, have a far more horrible taste than it was my intention!"
There was a sort of anti-anti-Jeanny move, also promo for the song of course, which underlined that "Jeanny lives!" There were for instance buttons, like the one Falco's wearing on the picture (bigger version behind, I know you can't see much).
Falco also assured people that there would be a follow-up on the next album which would prove that Jeanny lives.
The Jeanny Songs - a trilogy?
And indeed, the next album, Emotional, contained the song Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2) (again, lyrics here). Whether the song actually proves that Jeanny is alive, is debatable. However, it is exactly that ambiguity that makes the songs so interesting. But there were rumous that there should be a third part on the next album to make up a trilogy. Falco himself spoke of a trilogy, eg in the show 'Backstage' in the late 80es. Possibly the trilogy idea was even at the back of people's minds from the very beginning. Fact remains that Falco ended up recording his next album with different producers. Some Bollands songs were later added, but the Jeanny idea was dropped. There was, however, a track on the Data de Groove album called Bar Minor 7/11 (Jeanny Dry) (Dry = drei, german for three), seen by some people as some kind of half-serious cut at the third Jeanny version.
 MAD had discovered Jeanny 3 quite early (Parody) |
The song the fans found there, was liked by some and disappointing to mane... download Where Are You Now (Jeanny 3) yourself! (rename the file zu .zip and unpack!). The track with the many jerks is nothing but a slightly modified version of the english Original-Jeanny with a new chorus and a different newsflash. (Lyrics here). Of course the re-arrangement cleverly gave the song a new message, namely: Jeanny lives.
At Libro, you could also download an interview with Thomas Rabitsch, where he said this:
"back then [around Coming Home times], they thought about doing a trilogy.... to use up the idea completely. But it has to be said, that it was only an attempt. Hans himself said 'let's try this', but I don't think he was eventually satisfied with it."
Whether the track will be released on CD, remains to be seen. We were told no, but the jumps in the track and the fact, that it's not available anymore at the Libro site, may indicate something different...
There is now a CD with all the different Jeanny versions which you can order from Arno:
| Tracklisting
Jeanny Part 1 |
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| Menno Kooistra has been so kind as to leave me his screenshots of both the original Jeanny clips. I will allow you to download them in a zipped archive as I do not have the time to put them all on the site individually. Please download here.
Thanks to Menno, who now has the groovy Station to Bowie site! Please visit if you like David Bowie ;)
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My thanks to Thomas Numberger, Tobias Steinke, Wolfgang Dorner, Menno Kooistra, Tina Hühn, Arno Bauer und Katharina for their help with the research! :)
