Music Review: Best of Rockers and Ballads (1989) by Scorpions

Perhaps Scorpions is a rock band mostly famous for their ballad songs. That might be true, although actually they also produce some fast and rocking songs. Many music lovers may consider Scorpions as a "classic" rock band due to their productivity in making many hit songs. OK, let's take a look a while to their background history. 

This hard rock band was formed in Hanover (German) by guitarist Rudolf Schenker. They changed their lineup many times from the beginning. The lineup from 1978 to 1992 is the most successful one: Klaus Meine (vocal), Rudolf Schenker (guitar), Matthias Jabs (guitar), Francis Buchholz (bass), and Herman Rarebell (drums).

I bought a cassette titled Best Of Rockers 'n' Ballads in late 80's, when I was still in first year of college (I'm already old, then... haha). To be honest, the attractive artwork of the cassette was the main reason I bought it. As far as I can remember, I bought this album twice for I like it so much. 

There're 15 tracks on this album: 1. Rock You Like a Hurricane (04:10), 2. I Can't Explain (03:19), 3. Rhythm of Love (03:47), 4. Big City Nights (03:52), 5. Lovedrive (04:50), 6. Is There Anybody There? (04:16), 7. Holiday (06:50), 8. Still Loving You (06:25), 9. No One Like You (03:54), 10. Blackout (03:49), 11. Another Piece of Meat (03:21), 12. You Give Me All I Need (03:37), 13. Hey You (03:43), 14. The Zoo (05:29), and finally... 15. China White (06:56). Please take note that the second track was originally written by Pete Townshend from The Who band. 

This album also got good charts in many countries, for example: no 92 (Dutch Albums Top 100), no 12 (Official Finnish Charts), no 14 (Offizielle German Albums Top 100), no 35 (Sverigetopplistan Swedish Albums), no 21 (Schweizer Hitparade Swiss Albums), no 43 (US Billboard 200). Not only that, this cool album also received many certificates, such as: Gold (Music Canada) for more than 50.000 copies sold out, Gold (Finland) for more than 25.000 copies sold out, Gold (BVMI, Germany) for more than 250.000 copies sold out, Gold (IFPI, Switzerland) for more than 25.000 copies sold out, and... platinum (RIAA, United States) for more than 1000.000 copies sold out. Wow...

This album was released under label EMI Records (in Europe) and Mercury Records (in US). The total length or duration/running time is also different: 61:28 in Europe and 55:08 in US. That's because some tracks are not included in US release for some marketing reasons. OK... how about me? 

What tracks I like best from this album? Good question, although I ask that myself... haha. Let me see. Yes, all of the tracks are their hit songs. Since I like metal better than rock, I think I like Scorpions' fast and rocking tracks much better than their slow ones. From this album, my favorite tracks are: Rock You Like a Hurricane, Big City Nights, No One Like You, and absolutely... Blackout. Lastly, no band is perfect. Not all of Scorpions' songs or albums are considered good. Some are not success and even forgotten.