In 2011 Scorpions started searching their archives for the unreleased songs. Those were the songs that didn’t make the album mainly because of the limited space on the vinyl records. Guitarist Rudolf Schenkerexplained: “We have a library in our warehouse where we have a lot of old songs, especially from the days where you had only the possibility of putting eight or nine songs on vinyl. We always recorded 13 or 14 songs, so (the rest) are hanging out somewhere in our warehouse”.

In the period between the January and March 2012., band has been working in the studio with the producers Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen on the 12 unreleased songs from the 1980s and early 1990s. Those were the demos from the Blackout, Love at First Sting, Savage Amusement and Crazy World era which were unfinished.

“Rock My Car” is one of the older songs and it’s about driving in a fast car on the German Autobahn. Rudolf Schenker explained that the moto of the song is “Rock the street, rock your car and rock yourself”.
“House of Cards” is also one of the older songs and it’s about love affairs, love and love turning to hate.
“All for One” is about the band’s philosophy. Klaus Meine explained: “We always believed that friendship is very important part of what we do and being in a band, being in a gang like Scorpions”.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Band” is a song that originates from a period around 1986-1987 and is about sex, drugs and Rock’n’Roll”. Klaus Meine was inspired to write this song by visiting clubs on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“Catch Your Luck and Play” is also a song that originates from a period around 1986-1987 and it was a song that was written for the album Savage Amusement (1988). Rudolf Schenker wrote a new chorus for the song with the collaboration of producers Mikael “Nord” Andersson and Martin Hansen.

“Eye of the Storm” is the song that was written for the album Humanity: Hour I (2007). Since the band members for that album worked with different composing teams and had many songs written for the album, this song couldn’t fit on it. Rudolf Schenker said about the song: “When we were listening back the same thing, we worked on it, it was starting to become fun and also the solo it’s amazing. We said: “Yeah, that’s the right song for this album””.
“Gypsy Life” is a song that was written for the album Acoustica (2001). It’s a song about lifestyle of the Scorpions. Rudolf Schenker explained: “We’re living a Gypsy Life, all our life, fifty years and longer”.

‘Return To Forever’ was released on February 20, 2015. and is available as a standard album, limited deluxe CD which contains four bonus songs “The World We Used to Know”, “When the Truth Is a Lie”, “Dancing With the Moonlight” and “Who We Are”, iTunesversion which contains same songs as limited deluxe edition plus song “Delirious”, double heavyweight vinyl and a limited edition collector’s boxset containing the deluxe album, an exclusive ‘Return To Forever’ t-shirt, a 7″ picture vinyl single, signed autograph card and a USB lanyard including a fan pass and an audiobook.

The album was officially released in North America in September 11, 2015. The first single “We Built this House” has reached the Top 10 on U.S. Classic Rock radio.

Fred Thomas from Allmusic gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars stating that is “embodying the same over the top celebration and hedonistic revelry of a much younger Scorpions.” Daniel Dias from Sputnikmusic gave 2.5 out of 5 stars by saying that album is “plagued by its inconsistency, but containing some strong moments, and show that they still have enough energy to keep going for years.” Dennis Jarman from PlanetMosh gave the album 5 out of 5 stars by saying that with the release of the new album.