Scorpions are a German rock band
formed in 1965. Since the band's inception, their musical style has ranged
from hard rock to heavy metal. The band's only constant member is guitarist
Rudolf Schenker, although Klaus Meine has been lead singer for all their
studio albums. They are known for their 1980s rock anthem "Rock You Like a
Hurricane" and many singles, such as "No One Like You", "Send Me an Angel",
"Still Loving You", and "Wind of Change". The band was ranked No. 46 on
VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock program. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" is
also No. 18 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. The band is
one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time, with claims of sales
around 75 million to 100 million records worldwide.
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Formation and early history (1965–1973)
Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm guitarist launched the band in 1965. At
first, the band had beat influences and Schenker himself did the vocals.
Things began to come together in 1970 when Schenker's younger brother
Michael and vocalist Klaus Meine joined the band. In 1972 the group recorded
and released their debut album Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on
bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. During the Lonesome Crow tour,
Scorpions opened for upcoming British band UFO. Near the end of the tour,
guitarist Michael Schenker accepted an offer of lead guitar for UFO. Uli
Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then called in to finish off
the tour. The departure of Michael Schenker led to the breakup of the band.
In 1973, Uli Roth, who had helped Scorpions complete the
Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the role as lead guitarist, but
turned the band down, preferring instead to remain in the band Dawn Road.
Rudolf Schenker eventually decided that he wanted to work with Roth, but did
not want to resurrect the last Scorpions lineup. 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). 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 in 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 of Scorpions 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 he was being drafted into the army. In 1976, he
would join a German progressive rock band called Eloy recording three
albums. He was replaced by a Belgian drummer, Rudy Lenners. In 1975, the
band released In Trance, which marked the beginning of Scorpions'
long collaboration with German producer Dieter Dierks. The album was a huge
step forward for 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". In 1976, Scorpions released Virgin Killer. The
album's cover 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 RCA Records, their label at the time. The cover brought the band
considerable market exposure but was subsequently pulled or replaced in
other countries. The album itself garnered demographic praise for its music
from select critics and fan base. In 2008 this image was blacklisted from
the English wikipedia by the Internet Watch Foundation, see Internet Watch
Foundation and Wikipedia. The following year, Rudy Lenners resigned for
personal reasons and was replaced by Herman Rarebell. 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, Scorpions recruited guitarist Matthias Jabs. READ THE FULL STORY
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