The music of "Der Kommissar" was written by producer Robert Ponger and intended for Reinhold Bilgeri.

After Bilgeri rejected it, as he felt the song was too soft, Falco reworked it for his 1982 album Einzelhaft by adding his text to the partly mixed down instrumental track.

Falco would have preferred to release "Helden von heute" as the main side (A-side), because the melody hook of "Der Kommissar" seemed too similar to the bass hook of Rick James' "Super Freak" from which Ponger had borrowed it after its release earlier in 1981, but the record company wanted "Der Kommissar" to be on the A-side, because they felt it had more potential.

The record company decided on a Y- vs. X-side release for Austria and an A-side for Germany, which was vindicated when "Der Kommissar" reached No.

[3] In the European official music video, he is sitting in a kind of interrogation room wearing a white suit and smoking.

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 disbanding.

While UK promotional singles for "Deep in the Dark" were pressed (the After the Fire version missed the UK top 40 and the Falco version failed to chart there), Branigan's record company, Atlantic, officially released "Solitaire" in the United States, where that song peaked at No.