Scorpions – Wind Of Change

“Wind of Change” – Single by Scorpions from the album Crazy World
B-side “Restless Nights”
Released 21 January 1991
Label Mercury Vertigo
Songwriter Klaus Meine
Producers Keith Olsen, Scorpions
Charted No.1 Germany; No.1 in Austria; No.1 in France; No.1 Netherlands; No.1 Norway; No.1 in Sweden; No.4 in US, No.2 in UK.

The band wrote this during a visit to Moscow in 1989. The previous year, they became the first hard-rock band to play in Russia, and they returned to play the Moscow Music Peace Festival. At this show, they were inspired by the sight of thousands of Russians cheering them on even though they were a German band.

The “Wind of Change” that was blowing was the fall of the Soviet Union, which is what the song is about, but when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, the song became the unofficial anthem for the German Reunification, an event that politically lasted from the fall Wall to the official reunification on October 3, 1990. The music video plays to this interpretation, with footage of the Berlin Wall being dismantled.

“Wind of Change” was released as the album’s third single on 21 January 1991. The song became a worldwide hit, just after the failed coup that would eventually lead to the end of the Soviet Union. The song topped the charts in Germany and six other countries across Europe, and it also peaked at number four in the United States and at number two in the United Kingdom. It later appeared on the band’s 1995 live album Live Bites, their 2000 album with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Moment of Glory, and on their 2001 “unplugged” album Acoustica. The band also recorded a Russian-language version of the song, under the title “Ветер перемен” (“Veter Peremen”)[2] and a Spanish version called “Viento de Cambio”.

“Wind of Change” opens with a clean guitar introduction played by Matthias Jabs, which is played alongside Klaus Meine’s flat whistle. The song’s guitar solo is played by Rudolf Schenker.

Scorpions
Klaus Meine – lead vocals
Rudolf Schenker – lead guitar, background vocals
Matthias Jabs – rhythm guitar, background vocals
Francis Buchholz – bass
Herman Rarebell – drums

Additional personnel
Koen van Baal – keyboards
Russell Powell – guitar