The Scorpions are a German hard rock/heavy metal band formed in Hanover in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker. The longest-running and most successful line-up of the band included Schenker, Klaus Meine (vocals), Matthias Jabs (lead guitar), Francis Buchholz (bass), and Herman Rarebell (drums), and lasted from 1978 to 1992. The Scorpions' only remaining original member has been Schenker, although Meine has been with the band continuously since 1969, while Jabs has been a consistent member since 1978 and bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee have been members since 2003 and 2016, respectively.
The band's debut album, Lonesome Crow (1972), featured Schenker's younger brother Michael on lead guitar, before he departed to join UFO. He was replaced by Uli Jon Roth, who played with the band on their next four studio albums, Fly to the Rainbow (1974), In Trance (1975), Virgin Killer (1976) and Taken by Force (1977), and their first live album Tokyo Tapes (1978). Following Roth's departure, the band recruited Matthias Jabs and began moving towards a more melodic rock style on their sixth studio album Lovedrive (1979), which also saw the Scorpions reunite briefly with Michael Schenker before he left again to begin a solo career. Over the next decade, the band achieved influence, approval from music critics, and significant commercial success with the albums Animal Magnetism (1980), Blackout (1982), Love at First Sting (1984), the live album World Wide Live (1985), Savage Amusement (1988), the compilation album Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads (1989) and Crazy World (1990), all of which are certified at least platinum in the United States.History of the group from the cover of the original edition Hurricane Rock (1990) on Connoisseur Collection. "... Scorpions climb to headline status all over the world during the '80s, with albums such as Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love at First Sting reaffirming their huge appeal ... With the release of the aptly-titled live album World Wide Live in '85 and the studio opus Savage Amusement in '88, Scorpions continued to underline their reputation as one of the world's top hard rock acts." Mark Putterford (October 1990). No. 5 015773 911809 The band has released thirteen consecutive studio albums that were in the top 10 in Germany, one of which reached No. 1, as well as three consecutive albums that were in the top 10 in the Billboard 200 in the United States. Their latest studio album, Rock Believer, was released in February 2022.
The Scorpions are estimated to have sold over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling hard rock and heavy metal bands of all time. One of their most recognized hits is "Wind of Change" (from Crazy World), a symbolic anthem of the political changes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it remains as one of the best-selling singles in the world with over 14 million copies. Two songs from their ninth studio album Love at First Sting, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Still Loving You", are regarded as some of the most influential and popular works, both in heavy metal music and among rock ballads, defined as "rock anthem" and "a true hymn of love", respectively.
History Formation and early history (1965–1973) Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm/lead guitarist, founded the band Scorpions together with three school friends, Wolfgang Dziony (drums) Karl-Heinz Vollmer (lead and rhythm guitar), and Achim Kirchoff (bass) in January 1965 as "the Nameless" before choosing "the Scorpions" as their moniker on December 26, 1965. Initially the band had Merseybeat influences and Schenker and Dziony who handled the vocals were influenced by the Everly Brothers.
Between 1966 and 1967 they gave several concerts in the north of what was then West Germany, performing versions of the Beatles, the Ventures, the Shadows, the Everly Brothers and the Rolling Stones, among other groups of the British Invasion. On occasion, they also opened for the Searchers, the Easybeats, the Lords and Dave Dee. In September 1966, they performed at the legendary Star-Club in Hamburg.
In 1967, they recruited 15-year-old Werner Hoyer as vocalist. Later that November, Karl Heinz Vollmer left the band due to his military obligations; military service prevented him from appearing at concerts and he was replaced by Ulrich Worobiec. Not long after, Werner Hoyer departed from the band to finish school and was replaced by Bernd Hegner while Rudolf finally finished school.
In 1968, Achim Kirchoff left and was replaced by Lothar Heimberg.
In 1969, Hegner and Worobiec also departed the band because they both wanted to finish school. Klaus Meine then joined as the new vocalist and apart from that, he invited Schenker's younger brother Michael to join the band as the new lead guitarist. Klaus and Michael had played together in the Led Zeppelin and Taste cover band Copernicus. With this line-up they won a music contest in 1972 and recorded two songs for a single that was never released on the CCA label, but the songs, "Action" and "I'm Going Mad" were later released on different compilation albums including Psychedelic Gems 2.
In 1972, the group recorded and released their debut album, Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums and re-recorded their CCA songs. During the Lonesome Crow tour the Scorpions opened for up-and-coming British band UFO. In October 1972, drummer Dziony left and an Israeli born American drummer who was visiting Germany, Joe Wyman, answered their ad requesting a new drummer. But since the band was barely making any money at the time, Wyman quit in December 1972. Dziony then came back to complete their tour. But for their January 1973 appearances with Rory Gallagher, they had Helmut Eisenhut on drums.
Near the end of the tour for Lonesome Crow, guitarist Michael Schenker had accepted an offer to play lead guitar for UFO, which he joined in June of 1973. Uli Roth, who had been suggested by Michael, helped the band finish their tour. But when Eisenhut died and Heimberg left in the summer of 1973, they briefly played with a rhythm section of Ewi (bass) and Hal Fingerhood (drums).
The departure of Michael Schenker eventually led to the breakup of the band. In 1973, Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the role of lead guitarist, but turned them down, preferring instead to remain in the band Dawn Road. Rudolf Schenker eventually decided he wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to resurrect the last Scorpions line-up. He attended some of Dawn Road's rehearsals and ultimately decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboards) and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums). Uli Roth and Buchholz persuaded Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join on vocals, which he soon did. While there were more members of Dawn Road than Scorpions in the band, they decided to use the Scorpions name because it was well known on the German hard rock scene and an album had been released under that name.
Rise to fame (1974–1978) In 1974, the new line-up released Fly to the Rainbow. The album proved to be more successful than Lonesome Crow and songs such as "Speedy's Coming" and the title track established the band's sound. Achim Kirschning decided to leave after the recordings. Soon after, Jürgen Rosenthal had to leave as well since he was drafted into the army (he later joined German progressive rock band Eloy, recording three albums). Rosenthal was replaced in July 1974 by Jürgen Fechter, but then in 1975 Rudy Lenners from Belgium became the band's next drummer.
That year, the band released In Trance, which marked the beginning of their long collaboration with German producer Dieter Dierks. The album was a huge step forward for the Scorpions and established their heavy metal formula. It garnered a fan base at home and abroad with cuts such as "In Trance", "Dark Lady" and "Robot Man".
Meanwhile, as "the Hunters", the band recorded "Fuchs geh' voran" and "Wenn es richtig losgeht", German language cover versions of "Action" and "Fox on the Run" by the Sweet for EMI's Electrola label.
In 1976, the Scorpions released Virgin Killer, the album cover of which featured a nude prepubescent girl behind a broken pane of glass. The cover art was designed by Stefan Bohle, who was the product manager for the West German division of RCA Records, their label at the time. The cover brought the band considerable market exposure as well as controversy and was subsequently pulled or replaced in other countries because of its imagery. The album itself garnered widespread praise for its music from select critics and fan base. In 2008, the cover art on the English Wikipedia was briefly blacklisted by the Internet Watch Foundation, before reversing their decision 4 days later.
The following year, Rudy Lenners resigned for personal reasons and was replaced by Herman Rarebell, an experienced musician who had recorded with the bands Missus Beastly and Onyx.
For the follow-up Taken by Force, RCA Records made a determined effort to promote the album in stores and on the radio. The album's single, "Steamrock Fever", was added to some of RCA's radio promotional records. Roth was not happy with the commercial direction the band was taking. Although he performed on the band's Japan tour, he departed to form his own band, Electric Sun prior to the release of the resultant double live album Tokyo Tapes. Tokyo Tapes was released in the US and Europe six months after its Japanese release. By that time in mid-1978, after auditioning around 140 guitarists, the Scorpions recruited Matthias Jabs, a veteran of the German rock scene who had played in the bands Lady and Fargo.
Commercial success (1978–1992) Following the addition of Jabs, the Scorpions left RCA for Mercury Records in the United States and EMI Records worldwide to record their next album Lovedrive (1979).
Just weeks after quitting UFO, Michael Schenker returned to the group for a short period during the recordings for the album. This gave the band three guitarists. Lovedrive was an album that some critics consider to be the pinnacle of their career. Containing such fan favourites as "Loving You Sunday Morning", "Always Somewhere", "Holiday" and the instrumental "Coast to Coast", it firmly cemented the "Scorpions formula" of hard rock songs mixed with melodic ballads. Although it had been widely believed for decades that Michael Schenker's contribution to the record was only limited to three songs, he vehemently maintained he appeared on the whole album during an interview with satellite radio host Eddie Trunk. The album's provocative artwork was named "Best album sleeve of 1979" by Playboy magazine, yet ultimately changed for American release. Lovedrive reached No. 55 on the US charts, demonstrating that the band was gathering an international following. After the completion and release of the album the band decided to retain Michael in the band, forcing Jabs to leave. However, in April 1979, during their tour in France, Michael quit again and Jabs was brought in permanently to replace him.
In 1980, the band released Animal Magnetism, again with a provocative cover this time showing a girl kneeling and a Doberman Pinscher sitting in front of a man. Animal Magnetism contained classics such as "The Zoo" and "Make It Real". Soon after the album's release, Meine began experiencing throat problems. He required surgery on his vocal cords and doubts were raised about whether he would ever sing again.