Wind of Change (song)

"Wind of Change"
Single by Scorpions
from the album Crazy World
B-side	"Tease Me Please Me"
Released	April 1991
Format	CD single, CD maxi, 7" single
Recorded	1990
Genre	Rock
Length	5:10
Label	Mercury Records
Writer(s)	Klaus Meine
Producer	Keith Olsen
Scorpions singles chronology
"Passion Rules the Game" (1989) "Wind of Change" (1991) "Send Me an Angel" (1991)

"Wind of Change" is a 1990 power ballad written by Klaus Meine, vocalist of the German rock band Scorpions. It appeared on their 1990 album Crazy World, but did not become a worldwide hit single until 1991, when it topped the charts in Germany and across Europe, and hit #4 in the United States and #2 in the United Kingdom. It later appeared on the 1995 live album Live Bites, on their 2000 album Moment of Glory, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 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) and a Spanish version called Vientos de Cambio.

The song is currently the 10th best-selling single of all time in Germany.^[1]

Worldwide, this single sold over 6 million copies, making it one of the top fifty best selling singles of all time. The Scorpions hold the record for the best-selling single by a German artist and band.^[2]

[edit] Background and writing

The lyrics celebrate the political changes in Eastern Europe at that time – such as the Polish Round Table Agreement and fall of the Berlin Wall, the increasing freedom in the communist bloc (which soon led to the fall of the USSR), and the clearly imminent end of the Cold War.

The Scorpions were inspired to write the song on a visit to Moscow in 1989, and the opening lines refer to the city's landmarks:

I follow the Moskva

Down to Gorky Park

Listening to the wind of change

The Moskva is the name of the river that runs through Moscow (both the city and the river are named identically in Russian), and Gorky Park is the name of an amusement park in Moscow.

[edit] Legacy

In 2005 the viewers of the German television network ZDF chose this song as the song of the century. It is the highest ever selling song in Germany, reputedly selling over 6 million copies in that country alone, and is frequently played on television shows presenting video footage of the fall of the Berlin Wall^{[citation needed]}. In Germany it is remembered as the song of German reunification (and fall of communism in Eastern Europe generally)^{[citation needed]}, even though it only rose to popularity two years later.