Scorpions

What people remember most about "Wind of Change" is the whistling at the start, and almost everything told about it is wrong.

It was not recorded by a guitarist or a keyboard player. Klaus Meine did it with his mouth, precisely because he does not play lead guitar and it was the only way for that melody to exist.

The band tried to replace it. They tried it with guitar and they tried it with keyboard, and in both versions the song lost something.

The one who had to be talked into keeping it was the record label, which did not want a whistle opening a single.

Where it came from

The song was born on a boat.

In August 1989, during the Moscow festival, Meine took a trip along the Moskva river with musicians from half the world. He told it this way: the whole world was in that boat speaking the same language, which was music.

His manager, Doc McGhee, says he heard him whistling the melody on the bus back.

Meine wrote almost the whole song in a day. It came out on the album "Crazy World", in 1990, and ended up selling some fourteen million copies: number four in the United States, number two in the United Kingdom, number one in Germany.

Two corrections about Russia

The first: the 1988 shows were not in Moscow.

Five concerts were scheduled in Moscow and five in Leningrad, and they ended up doing all ten in Leningrad, because the authorities were afraid of what might happen in the capital.

They reached Moscow in August 1989, at the Peace Festival at the Olympic Stadium, alongside Bon Jovi and Ozzy Osbourne, in front of some hundred thousand people.

The second: they were not the first Westerners to play there.

Uriah Heep had done ten concerts at that same Olympic Stadium in Moscow in December 1987, a year earlier. They were the first foreign hard rock group authorised in the Soviet capital.

What Scorpions did was not open the door. It was to turn that opening into a symbol, which is another thing and in their case mattered more.

The Kremlin

And there is the detail the story usually leaves out, which is the best of all.

Mikhail Gorbachev invited them to the Kremlin to play him the song.

Meine described it as the Beatles meeting the Queen. Some Germans of the post-war generation, playing in the Kremlin a song about the end of the Cold War, invited by the man who was ending it.

The line from Rudolf Schenker that the band has repeated ever since — that they did not arrive with tanks but with guitars — has its literal proof right there.

The CIA business

In 2020, a podcast investigated the rumour that the song had been written by the CIA as propaganda to weaken the Soviet Union.

Meine answered it better than any denial could: he said it is a fascinating idea, and an entertaining idea, but that it is not true at all.

That the suspicion existed says something about the song. It fitted the historical moment so exactly that many people found it hard to believe it was coincidence.

Where they are now

The band formed in Hanover in 1965. That is sixty-one years, not "almost sixty".

James Kottak, their drummer between 1996 and 2016 — the one who held the job longest — died on 9 January 2024, at sixty-one. He had been replaced in 2016 by Mikkey Dee, who came from Motörhead.

Last year was not easy: they postponed their Las Vegas residency because of Dee's sepsis, and cancelled three concerts in April and May because laryngitis left Meine without a voice.

They carry on. They have a European tour in 2026 and they are back in Las Vegas between 17 September and 3 October this year. Meine summed it up by saying they have taken the word retirement out of their vocabulary.

What is worth remembering

Scorpions are the proof that a song can stick to a historical moment so well that afterwards it looks as if it was written to order.

Put on "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and you will hear one of the most effective hard rock anthems of the eighties. Put on "Still Loving You", which in France and in Latin countries was enormous to the point that it is credited, half in jest and half in earnest, with a rise in the birth rate. And put on "Wind of Change", which is something else.

And keep the corrections in mind. The whistle comes from the singer's mouth. In 1988 they played in Leningrad, not in Moscow. And Uriah Heep had been there before them.

Remember them like this: not as the ones who opened the Soviet Union to rock, but as the ones who were there on the exact day that meant something, with the song already written.

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Sources

Scorpions, a German hard rock and heavy metal band formed in Hanover in 1965 by the guitarist Rudolf Schenker, with Klaus Meine on vocals since 1969, and more than a hundred million records sold. In 1988 they had five concerts scheduled in Moscow and five in Leningrad, and in the end they played all ten in Leningrad; their first performance in Moscow was in August 1989, at the Moscow Music Peace Festival at the Olympic Stadium, alongside Bon Jovi and Ozzy Osbourne, in front of some hundred thousand people. They were not the first Western rock group authorised to play in the Soviet capital: Uriah Heep gave ten concerts at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow between 7 and 16 December 1987. "Wind of Change", included on the album "Crazy World" (1990), was written by Klaus Meine after a boat trip along the Moskva river during the festival of August 1989; his manager, Doc McGhee, has recounted that he heard him whistling the melody on the bus back. The opening whistle was performed by Meine himself, and the band discarded the alternative versions with guitar and with keyboard; the resistance to including it came from the record company. The track sold around fourteen million copies and reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, number two in the United Kingdom and number one in Germany; it was produced by Keith Olsen. Mikhail Gorbachev invited the band to the Kremlin, an episode Meine has compared to the Beatles' meeting with the Queen. In 2020, a podcast produced by Pineapple Street Studios and hosted by the journalist Patrick Radden Keefe investigated the rumour that the CIA was behind the song; Meine has denied it, calling it a fascinating and entertaining idea but not true at all. The drummer James Kottak, a member between 1996 and 2016, died on 9 January 2024, aged 61; since 2016 the drum seat has been held by Mikkey Dee, previously in Motörhead. In 2025 the band postponed its Las Vegas residency because of Mikkey Dee's sepsis and cancelled three concerts between April and May because of Klaus Meine's laryngitis. It has a European tour scheduled in 2026 and a Las Vegas residency between 17 September and 3 October 2026. The attribution to "Still Loving You" of a rise in the French birth rate is a popular legend with no statistical backing. Bon Jovi and Ozzy Osbourne have profiles of their own in this series. Externally authored text, edited and verified for Rebobinados. Interpretations of the meaning of their work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Ultimate Classic Rock, Louder, Wikipedia, the group's official site and other coverage.