Hasselhoff has released a total of 15 studio albums, which found success mostly in German-speaking parts of Europe, where he has garnered multiple gold and platinum awards, with the single "Looking for Freedom" achieving number one in Germany and Switzerland.

He launched his singing career with guest appearances on the first season of children's program Kids Incorporated, performing "Do You Love Me".

"[12] He describes the acting he has done as "a little more difficult than if you had a regularly well-written script – like, if I was going to be in, say, Reservoir Dogs, or The Godfather, or Dances with Wolves or Lawrence of Arabia or ER -- I had to talk to a car.

"[13] His role in the show led him to win Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Program at the 9th People's Choice Award in 1983.

Although it was canceled after only one season, he believed the series had potential, so Hasselhoff revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991, investing his own money and additionally functioning as executive producer.

His contract stipulated royalties to be paid to him from the rerun profits, which gave him the financial liberty to buy back the rights to Baywatch from NBC.

It ran for a total of 11 years and, from the 1990s until its series finale in 2001, was watched by almost 1 billion viewers across 140 countries, solidifying his status among the world's foremost television personalities of the said period.

[19] In November 2006, Mel Brooks announced Hasselhoff would portray Roger DeBris, the director of the Nazi musical Springtime for Hitler, in the Las Vegas production of The Producers.

[22] He was a celebrity cast member on the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars which increased in ratings by 36% from the previous year and served as a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent from 2006 to 2009.

[27] He was the subject of an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a result of his support for the re-opening of Morecambe Winter Gardens.

[31] In October 2010, it was announced that he would be playing Captain Hook in the New Wimbledon Theatre production of the pantomime Peter Pan from December 2010 to January 2011.

On October 28, 2019, Dolly Parton announced that David Hasselhoff would star in 9 to 5: The Musical at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End from December 2, 2019, until February 8, 2020.

The focus of the campaign shifted to "Jump in My Car", when that was actually released as a single, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills lent his support.

[54] In 2014, UK channel Dave announced that it had commissioned Hoff the Record, a sitcom series in which Hasselhoff plays a fictionalized version of himself.

Hasselhoff's lines were generated by a neural network artificial intelligence (called Benjamin) using a statistical model trained on his own 80s and 90s television performances.

[65] In 1984, Hasselhoff made a guest appearance on the first season of Kids Incorporated, performing "Do You Love Me", which became the lead single from his upcoming debut studio album, Night Rocker, which was released in January 1985.

In 1987, Hasselhoff released his second studio album, Lovin' Feelings, which reached the top-twenty in Austria and West Germany, and being certified Gold in the former country.

That same year, due to the popularity of Knight Rider in Europe at the time, Hasselhoff embarked on his first headlining tour across Austria, with a special guest appearance from KITT.

[66] In 1988, Hasselhoff released the song "Looking for Freedom", which became a hit in Europe, especially in West Germany, where it reached number one for eight consecutive weeks.

The album was a commercial success, reaching the top-five in Austria, West Germany and Switzerland; and being certified three-times Platinum in Europe.

Wearing a piano-keyboard scarf and a leather jacket covered in motion lights, Hasselhoff stood in a bucket crane and performed the song along with the crowd.

In November 1993, Hasselhoff released his seventh studio album You Are Everything, which also met with moderate success in Europe, though it reached the top-ten in Austria and was certified Gold.

Viewership of the concert was significantly lower than expected due to the live coverage of the chase, and the event was ultimately a $1.5 million loss.

As attempting to launch his singing career in the US, both the album and the single "Fallin' in Love" were commercially unsuccessful, as failed to enter any Billboard chart.

In May 2006, Hasselhoff was mentioned in an interview of Dirk Nowitzki, an NBA star playing for the Dallas Mavericks and a native of Germany.

Shortly thereafter, Hasselhoff attended the May 26, 2006, Mavericks home playoff game where they faced the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Western Conference Finals.

In The 2006 NBA Finals, fans of the Miami Heat in the American Airlines Arena held up facial photos of Hasselhoff and chanted his name when Nowitzki went to the foul line.

In 2015, he recorded the single "True Survivor", accompanied by a music video, which featured as the lead track for the 2015 Swedish short film Kung Fury.

Hasselhoff claimed that he had received the offer to record the song and the video by a request from Sweden Universal to "sing a tribute to the '80s".

[100] In the wake of the leaked clip, Hasselhoff issued a statement saying it was recorded by Taylor Ann so that he could see how he behaved while intoxicated and the footage was deliberately released.