To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Crazy World”, SCORPIONS have released a one-minute “fact video” for their classic album. Check it out below.
Earlier in the year, SCORPIONS members Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs gave extensive and exclusive interviews to Rock Candy magazine for a huge 16-page cover story feature. Together with respected musician and lyricist Jim Vallance — who co-wrote seven of the album’s 11 tracks — Meine, Schenker and Jabs open up like never before to reveal in forensic detail how the “Crazy World” project came together.
“If I’m honest, nothing we’ve done in the past three decades matches ‘Crazy World’,” says vocalist Meine with admirable candor. “I think it’s a classic, and any SCORPIONS fan would agree. It’s the last album from what I’d say was our golden period.”
The bandmembers recount the story of the album’s creation, from splitting with long-standing producer Dieter Dierks (“We’d been together for too long and we felt we needed new energy,” says guitarist Schenker), to a false start with Bruce Fairbairn, and then finding the perfect producer in Keith Olsen.
The writing and recording process is described in detail, including the story behind the groundbreaking “Wind Of Change” single.
“The record company was very concerned about the whistling on it, because they thought it would hurt sales,” explains Meine. “I insisted that it should stay, because, to my mind, it was a vital part of what made the song work so well.”
“At first, even I didn’t like it,” admits Schenker. “I didn’t think it was a good thing for a rock band to do, but we tried something else and it just didn’t work. The song only worked with the whistling.”
Of course, “Wind Of Change” went on to become the SCORPIONS‘ biggest ever hit, becoming a worldwide anthem for the changing political times of 1990 when the Soviet bloc collapsed.
SCORPIONS recently released a standalone single called “Sign Of Hope”. The band penned the song as a positive message amid all that is going on in the world at the moment and during the recording sessions for SCORPIONS‘ upcoming 19th album. Tentatively due in 2021, the disc will mark the German hard rock legends’ first release since 2017’s “Born To Touch Your Feelings – Best Of Rock Ballads”, which was an anthology of SCORPIONS‘ new and classic material.
SCORPIONS‘ new album will be produced by Greg Fidelman, who began his career as the guitarist and songwriter for RHINO BUCKET before launching his career as a producer, engineer and mixer, finding an early mentor in Rick Rubin.
SCORPIONS‘ last full-length collection of new recordings was 2015’s “Return To Forever”, partially comprising songs the band had in the vault from the ’80s. It was the final recorded appearance of SCORPIONS‘ longtime drummer James Kottak, who was dismissed from the band in September 2016. He has since been replaced by Mikkey Dee, formerly of MOTÖRHEAD.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, SCORPIONS were scheduled to take over the Las Vegas Strip in July with their exclusive headlining residency show at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.
The band previously played a Las Vegas mini-residency in May 2016, consisting of five shows at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
