Scorpions – Born To Touch Your Feelings - Best Of Rock Ballads (2xLP)

New York City 2017, one day in the fall. The Scorpions kick off their US tour in the most legendary of all legendary rock arenas, Madison Square Garden. Over twenty thousand fans. Completely sold out for weeks. Some have paid up to $600 for a ticket. And then, after just under an hour of hard rock sounds, something strange happens: Klaus Meine, the Scorpions' singer, announces a song that the band has not always had in their set in the USA. A ballad. "Wind of Change". And twenty thousand people start to sing along. A capella, confident, empathetic.

"The ballad is the top class of rock today," says Meine. "If it's good, it goes straight to the heart of the fans." Ballads are the diamonds in the chain of songs, the elementary particles of rock music. Ballads float lightly and weightlessly. And go straight to the emotional center of the brain, the hypothalamus. The Scorpions, on the other hand, are regarded worldwide as the grand masters of the ballad. "Even if we didn't prefer to listen to Mozart or Haydn in our early youth, but rather Elvis, the Stones or Little Richard," says Scorpions founder Rudolf Schenker, "it's the serious music that practically imprinted us with our mother's milk. You can't deny that." Kirk Hammett from Metallica once said: "The difference between us and the Scorpions can best be seen in the ballads. We have the blues in our blood - they have classical music."

The Scorpions have now compiled their most beautiful, their most legendary ballads on a sampler and crowned it with three current ballad songs: Born to touch your feelings. The credo of Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, Pawel Maciwoda and Mikkey Dee and at the same time a song from the band's origins. Klaus Meine: "With the ballad, the message goes deep and it's not surprising that 'Wind of Change', for example, is being celebrated so euphorically in the USA at the moment. The fans don't identify the song with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, but with their situation today, the desire for change and the hope for a world without nuclear threats or civil wars and the longing for peace."

When compiling the songs for the current album, the Scorpions once again realized how timeless their ballads are. It was not for nothing that they gave the compilation the title of a song from 1977: "Born To Touch Your Feelings". "Over the decades," says Matthias Jabs, "the fans identify us with our great ballads such as 'Send Me An Angel', 'Still Loving You' and 'Holiday'. And that is very honorable." In ballad-obsessed France, the '84 super-seller "Still Loving You" led to babies being given the name Sly, the abbreviation of the song in which their parents made love. In addition to the great Scorpions ballads, the album also features secret treasures: "Gypsy Life", "Eye Of The Storm", "When The Smoke Is Going Down"... With three wonderful current ballads, the Scorpions redefine their musical foundation: "After my solo performance of 'Follow Your Heart' at our MTV Unplugged Concert in Athens," says Klaus Meine, "I hoped to record an official band version of this song at some point. That happened in August - and we ended up with a strong rock ballad, a song that gives courage in difficult times with a message to the young generation to realize their dreams and take the future into their own hands. Believe in yourself and follow your heart."

"Always Be With You" is Rudolf Schenker's brand new song, a deeply emotional declaration of love to the love of his life. A story of change, it is no coincidence that the exceptional guitarist and composer wrote this song after the birth of his youngest son.

"Melrose Avenue", Matthias Jabs' latest song entitled "The Most Famous Mile in Los Angeles", is the perfect musical expression of California's enchanted attitude to life - close your eyes, listen and dream: an invitation to a cool trip to the west coast of the United States.

it has been 50 years since the first Scorpions formation roamed the villages in a rickety red VW bus, unpacking their equipment and rocking out in pubs, garages and backyards in Lower Saxony. The band had two - almost apocalyptic - goals right from the start: "Firstly, we limit ourselves to English lyrics because - secondly - one day we'll be one of the best rock bands in the world." The rest is music history: from the "ECHO" for lifetime achievement (2009) and best national group (1992) to the "World Music Award" (1994) and the "Rock Walk Of Fame", there are not many other awards worth mentioning that the Scorpions have not received. Even the cataloging of their gold and platinum awards defies any reasonable calculation: there are simply too many worldwide. And new ones are added every year. Only the record sales are known...they are somewhere beyond the 100 million mark. Looking back, it seems astonishing how, seemingly by chance, wheel after wheel came together, how an imaginarium of rhythms, lyrics and melodies with the band's charisma became a collective hit. Stylistically confident and unmistakable.

And there was another thing that always accompanied the Scorpions' success story: Outstanding artwork with collector's appeal. Whether it's the super-realistic art of Gottfried Helnwein ("Blackout") or Helmut Newton's legendary cover photo for "Love At First Sting" - the cover on the packaging of the musical content has always been worth its weight in gold. For "Born To Touch Your Feelings", the band has once again pulled off a major coup: Ellen von Unwerth, the great woman of contemporary photography, is responsible for the cover. "I'm very happy," says Klaus Meine, "that I didn't have to persuade Ellen for long to give us this fantastic picture for the new album."

The album production was once again in the capable hands of Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen. The song "Born To Touch Your Feelings" was first released 40 years ago. Now it has become the title track of a wonderful album. The emotional reminiscence of a great band. 40 years. Half a lifetime. A whole world career.

This 2LP compilation brings together 17 of the Scorpions' most emotional rock ballads - from newly recorded versions such as "Still Loving You" and "Wind of Change" to remastered classics such as "Holiday" and "Always Somewhere" or "Follow Your Heart" in the 2017 version. Complemented by intimate MTV Unplugged edits, the set offers a high-quality, powerful-sounding selection of her greatest ballad moments.

Almost ten years after its release, the album is being reissued for the first time on 180g vinyl, in a gatefold cover and with printed inner sleeves, produced and distributed by Sony Music.