20TH CENTURY MASTERS

By one-upping the 1989 best-of Best of Rockers ‘n’ Ballads, Scorpions’ 20th Century Masters makes the claim of being the hair metal band’s definitive single-disc best-of. It does so by adding “Send Me an Angel” and “Wind of Change,” the latter being one of Scorpions’ largest and most well-known hits ever. Since these two songs were released after Best of Rockers ‘n’ Ballads, they don’t appear on that best-of. Besides the inclusion of those two latter-day songs, not much else is different. All the big ’80s metal anthems are still here: “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” “Big City Nights,” “No One Like You,” “Still Loving You,” and so on. Once again, this album reminds listeners just how impressive Scorpions were in their prime, as most of the included songs date back to the early ’80s, with the earliest dating back to 1979. That, of course, means this best-of ignores Scorpions’ mid- to late-’70s output, but that’s no surprise since those recordings for RCA didn’t make their way onto Best of Rockers ‘n’ Ballads nor the double-disc Deadly Sting.