5 German Songs That Dominated The US Charts In The '80s

In the mid-1980s, the American pop charts welcomed a number of lively hits from artists with a common sound and a shared heritage. These acts made frequent use of keyboards and incorporated elements of new wave, synth-pop and hard and heavy rock. The major connective tissue: They all got their start in the country known at the time as West Germany. As the songs by these German acts climbed Billboard's major charts, music writers of the time may have wryly nicknamed it all "the German Invasion," likening it to the British Invasion of the 1960s.

Non-English singles are rarely hits in the U.S., but there was something irresistible about German music in the 1980s. These songs became synonymous with the decade's sound, and they just so happened to have been at least partially recorded in German by musicians from that particular region of Europe, where rock seemed to come so naturally to its young musicians. Here then are five songs from Germany, or in German, that ran up the U.S. charts in the '80s.

Born, raised, and educated in a classical music fashion in Austria, Falco (real name: Johann Holzel) decamped to the German metropolis of Berlin and played with jazz and punk bands before emerging as a synth-pop musician in 1982. The single "Der Kommissar," in which Falco rapped in German, hit the Top 10 of Billboard's dance club chart in early 1983 and later that year became a Top 5 hit in the U.S. when covered and translated into English by After the Fire. More than three years later, Falco returned to mainstream American music in an even bigger way with "Rock Me Amadeus." 

Performed primarily in German and only a little bit in English, Rock Me Amadeus was a tribute to his fellow Austrian and legendary classical composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It went all the way to No. 1 for three weeks in 1986, while the also bilingual follow-up, "Vienna Calling," was a Top 20 hit. Falco tragically died in 1998, but "Rock Me Amadeus" is to date the only German song to sit atop the American pop chart.

Nena Kerner started her self-named group Nena in Berlin in the early 1980s, and the dance-music-embracing rockers became mega-successful off their first single ever, at least in Germanophone nations, where "Nur Geträumt" hit No. 1 on those countries' pop charts. In 1984, Nena released "99 Luftballons," a seamless blend of breathy vocals, rock guitars, shimmering synths, and an insistent drumbeat. The bouncy music belies the themes and story of the lyrics: It's a Cold War fright about an innocuous balloon mistaken for a weapon, leading to nuclear attack and untold devastation, inspired by a real-life release of balloons at a West Berlin Rolling Stones concert.

Relatively few Americans could understand the song's words or nuances, but of course, that didn't matter. Nena's "99 Luftballons" spent a week at No. 2 in March 1984. The German version was actually more popular than Nena's hastily recorded and loosely translated English remake, "99 Red Balloons."

In the mid-1980s, a German band called Alphaville scored a hit in predominantly English-speaking countries with a tune about the desire for popularity in Japan. After finding one another in an artistic enclave in Berlin, the musicians of Alphaville, whose name was inspired by a French film, released their first single outside of West Germany in 1984: "Big in Japan." Loaded with synthesizers, drum machines, and effects, the gently chugging "Big in Japan" weaves visually evocative and poetic English lyrics about snowflakes, summer heat, silhouettes, and mannequins. Running through the song is a sentiment about how nice it must be for a rock star to find international acclaim, particularly in Japan.

The curious and unique "Big in Japan" reached No. 1 on the Billboard dance chart, was a Top 10 smash in the U.K., and a minor, No. 66 hit on the Hot 100 in 1984. Alphaville's next single, "Forever Young," was a more traditional soft rock ballad and was barely embraced in the U.K., peaking at No. 98, but outperforming "Big in Japan" in America with a No. 65 chart placement.

German new wave musician Peter Schilling made an international splash in 1983 by aligning himself with a global rock superstar and one of his most captivating hits. Back in 1969, David Bowie's first hit "Space Oddity" told of Major Tom, an astronaut who drifts into the darkness of the universe after losing touch with Ground Control. In his 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes," Bowie explains that all the space stuff was metaphorical. Nevertheless, Schilling ignored the twist ending offered by "Ashes to Ashes," and co-wrote and recorded his own English sequel, "Major Tom (Coming Home)." 

After restating the events of "Space Oddity," Schilling decides to have Major Tom attempt a triumphant homecoming voyage. Providing hope and closure to those affected by "Space Oddity" and with lots of '80s-era synthesizers, fake instruments, and drum machine beats, "Major Tom (Coming Home)" peaked at a respectable No. 14 in the U.S. and No. 42 in the U.K. The English song followed Schilling's original German recording, "Major Tom (Völlig losgelöst)," by less than a year.

While so many German acts took the synth-pop route to fame and fortune in the United States, Scorpions went another direction: heavy rock. When melodic metal had its big cultural moment in the first half of the 1980s via acts like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, Scorpions arrived with their own sound that could fill arenas and blow out speakers. Formed in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker, Scorpions broke out internationally only after the addition of singer Klaus Meine. In 1982, the riff-based shredder "No One Like You" became the first Scorpions song to grace the Hot 100 in the U.S., and less than two years later, along came "Rock You Like a Hurricane."

An English-language Scorpions song that defines rock history, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" opens strong, immediately fulfilling the title's promise. It's fast, loud, and full of show-offy guitar tricks from the get-go. Then it gets a little quiet, if only to build anticipation and show off Meine's metal crooning, before the anthemic chorus kicks in. A quintessential gem of '80s head-banging metal, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" was a certified pop hit in 1984, peaking at No. 25 on the Hot 100 while also flying to No. 5 on Billboard's mainstream rock list.