99 Luftballons (album)

The most widely known cover of this album is identical to the one used for most versions of the single "99 Luftballons" or "99 Red Balloons".[4] The album was also released as Nena or International Album; this version used the same cover, but with "99 Luftballons" removed, and sometimes with additional sticker at upper left that says "International Album incl. Club-Mix ›99 Red Balloons‹".[5] The Japanese version was released as 99 Luftballons: First America. The alternate cover features the band pictured on a white background,[6] which photo in various releases is the same or similar to the one on the single "Rette mich".[7]

The album is composed of tracks released on the band's two previous albums, Nena (1983) and ? (Fragezeichen) (1984), five of which are English-translated versions. "99 Red Balloons" ("99 Luftballons"), "Just a Dream" ("Nur geträumt"), "Kino", "Leuchtturm" and "99 Luftballons" were taken from Nena (1983), while "? (Question Mark)" ("? (Fragezeichen)"), "Hangin' on You" ("Ich häng' an dir"), "Let Me Be Your Pirate" ("Lass mich dein Pirat sein"), "Das Land der Elefanten", "Rette mich" and "Unerkannt durch's Märchenland" were taken from ? (Fragezeichen) (1984).

The lead single, "99 Luftballons", is the band's or even Nena's most successful song to date. It reached number one in several countries worldwide,[2] but is considered a one-hit wonder[8] as other singles and albums performed poorly outside of Europe. "Just a Dream" reached number 70 on the UK Singles Chart. "Kino" was initially released on the album in German, but was translated into English titled as "Kino (At the Movies)". Like its predecessor, "? (Question Mark)", the single failed to chart.[2][3] The song was later included as a bonus track on a re-release of the band's second English album It's All in the Game (1985).[9]

Side A contains tracks 1 to 5 and side B contains tracks 6 to 11.

Notes

• Some releases erroneously printed "Das Land der Elefanten" as "Das Lang der Elefanten" and "Unerkannt durch's Märchenland" as "Unerkannt durch's Marchenland"[10]
• The spelling of "durch's" instead of "durchs" in title that should be "Unerkannt durchs Märchenland" is an obvious error, too
• The track list of the Spanish version is translated into Spanish
• The track list of the Japanese version is partially written in katakana
• CD versions of the album replace the single version of "99 Red Balloons" (Track 1) with a "Club Mix" (length 4:44). This change has been noted on some international pressings, but not on others. The correct version is available on the iTunes Store.

Credits adapted from Allmusic[11] and Discogs.[6]

• International Album / 99 Luftballons at the official Nena website
• 99 Luftballons (album) at Discogs (list of releases)