Songoftheday 11/17/17 - I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park...
from the album Crazy World (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16
Today's song of the day comes from the German heavy metal band Scorpions, who had made a splash in American pop radio in the spring of 1984 with their fist-raising anthem "Rock You Like A Hurricane". After a live album reached the top-20 on the chart in America, the group released their Savage Amusement album in 1988. While it turned out to be their highest-charting album in the U.S., peaking at #5, pop radio stayed mostly away, with lead single "Rhythm Of Love" stalling down at #75 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, although on Mainstream Rock radio it climbed to a respectable #6. Again, the Scorpions embarked on a world wide tour, including Russia, which at that time was a rarity for European bands.
In 1990 the band released their eleventh studio album Crazy World, leaving behind longtime producer Dieter Dierks and enlisting power-producer Keith Olsen (Fleetwood Mac, Starship). The first single from the record, "Tease Me Please Me", was co-written by Bryan Adams' collaborator Jim Vallance, and reached #8 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio tally, followed by "Don't Believe Her", also a Vallance co-write, which made it to #13 on that chart. Neither of them made a dent on the pop chart in America, though (the latter was a minor hit in the UK at #77). However, that changed with the third release, "Wind Of Change". Written by lead singer Klaus Meine, the reflective ballad was inspired by the grand and swift changes happening in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe as the communist regimes were collapsing. It especially carried weight in their German home, as the Berlin Wall coming down would lead to the reunification of their country...
"Wind Of Change" became the Scorpions' biggest hit in America, reaching the top ten on the pop chart in August of 1991. The single also spent three weeks at #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio tally, and even slipped onto their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list for three weeks, topping out at #43. Internationally, the record was a massive success, topping the charts in France, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany, where it spent eleven weeks at #1. The song also reached the top ten in the UK (#2), Belgium (#2), Ireland (#2), Australia (#7), and Canada (#10).
The Scorpions' next single, "Send Me An Angel", made it to #8 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart, but just barely missed the pop top-40 at #44. A fifth release from Crazy World, "Hit Between The Eyes", which also appeared in the movie Freejack, reached #24 on that rock radio list. Francis Buchholz, who had been the band's bassist since their second album in 1973, left after the tour behind the album, leaving Meine and guitarist Rudolf Schenker the only remaining long-time members from their seventies heyday in Europe.
In 1993, the band released Face The Heat, and while three of its tracks got into the top 20 on the Mainstream Rock chart, including "Alien Nation" which peaked at #10 and reaching #18 in Germany, none made it to the American pop Hot 100. Three years later, Pure Instinct arrived, and "Wild Child" reached #19 on the rock radio list in the States, while the power-ballad "You & I" became their most recent top-40 hit in their home of Germany at #22. They attempted a sound rework in 1999 when their dance-rock experiment Eye II Eye was released, which had their last Mainstream Rock radio chart hit, "Mysterious" (#26). It was their first studio set since their American breakthrough record Lovedrive in 1979 to miss the albums chart altogether. After the sour reception to the album, they returned in 2000 with a collection of their older songs (including "Wind Of Change") performing with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on Moment Of Glory. From it the title track got to #67 in Germany. They've sporadically released new music, with 2010's Sting Of The Tail climbing into the top-40 on the albums chart in the U.S., with single "Raised On Rock" hitting #8 on Billboard's Heritage Rock genre radio chart. Their most recent studio record, Return To Forever, came in at #2 on the German albums sales chart and #65 in the U.S. list. They still tour, with both Meine and Schenker at 69 years old.
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Here's the band live around the time of the Crazy World album...
and again in 2000 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra...
A year later, they included it in their live Acoustica record...
and lastly, again taking it soft on their 2013 MTV Unplugged appearance in Athens Greece...
Up tomorrow: A female rapper with a toy name is not down with monkey business.
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