Heavy Hitters (Deluxe Edition)

Heavy Hitters is a covers project on which Michael Schenker brings in a different guest singer for each song. The original album came out on 12 July 2005 through Deadline / Cleopatra, produced by Bob Kulick, Brett Chassen and Brian Perera. This Deluxe Edition, released on 21 January 2026, adds five new bonus tracks to those ten for a fifteen-song programme; the Japanese pressing is a single SHM-CD, MICP-30219. The original ten read as a map of where Schenker came from. Joe Lynn Turner sings Elvis Presley's 'All Shook Up'; Leslie West sings Mountain's 'Blood of the Sun', his own song; Jeff Scott Soto takes UFO's 'Doctor Doctor'. Tim 'Ripper' Owens fronts Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs' and Tommy Shaw takes Pink Floyd's 'Money'. Gary Moore's 'Out in the Fields' is sung by Gary Barden, the Michael Schenker Group's first singer. Paul Di'Anno handles Nazareth's 'Hair of the Dog', Sebastian Bach takes Jimi Hendrix's "I Don't Live Today", and Jeff Pilson sings Cream's 'Politician'. Two of the five additions matter most. 'Save Yourself' is not a cover at all but Schenker reinterpreting his own song, first issued under the McAuley Schenker Group name. The other is Rush's 'Finding My Way', which brings Sebastian Bach back after his appearance on the original album. The remaining three are instrumental versions of 'Blood of the Sun', 'Doctor Doctor' and 'War Pigs', which leave the guitar with nothing to share the space.