“Wind Of Change” by Scorpions

"Wind of Change" is the power ballad that turned Germany's Scorpions into the soundtrack of a collapsing empire. Klaus Meine wrote words and music after the band visited the Soviet Union with perestroika in full swing and the chill between East and West starting to lift, and it landed on Crazy World, their 11th studio album, in 1990. Keith Olsen produced with the band at Wisseloord Studios. Meine sings it plainly over Rudolf Schenker's acoustic guitar and Matthias Jabs' electric and slide lines, with Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell steady underneath.

Out as a single in 1991, it hit just after the failed coup that set the Soviet end in motion, went to number one at home in Germany as well as in six more European countries, and sold an estimated 14 million copies, a record for a German act. That year the band handed Mikhail Gorbachev a gold record and $70,000 in royalties.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.