Scorpions is a German rock band from Hanover. Formed in 1965. Since the beginning of the band, their musical style has ranged from hard rock to heavy metal. One of the band's early members was the guitarist Rudolf Schenker, though Klaus Meine was the vocalist for all of their albums.
They are better known for their 1980s rock song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and many other singles, such as "No One Like You", "Send Me an Angel", "Still Loving You" and "Wind of Change". The band was ranked 46th on All Time Greatest Artists VH1 (Video Hits One - now better known as MTV) on the Hard Rock program. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" also ranked 18th on VH1's list of 100 All Time Greatest Hard Rock Songs.
The band is one of the most successful bands in the world of all time, with sales claims around 75 - 100 million records worldwide.
Formation and early history (1965-1973)
Rudolf Schenker, the guitarist, launched the band in 1965. At first, the band had given its influence and Schenker himself acted as a vocalist. The band began to be formed together in 1970 when Rudolf's sister Michael and vocalist Klaus Meine joined the band. In 1972 the group entered the recording studio and released their debut album Lonesome Crow along with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. During the Lonesome Crow tour, the Scorpions concert was opened by British band UFO newcomers. Toward the end of the tour, guitarist Michael Schenker accepted the offer as lead guitar for UFOs. Uli Jon Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then called to complete the tour.
The departure of Michael Schenker caused the band to break out. In 1973, Uli Jon Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered a guitarist role, but it turned the band into a separate and vacuum, and Rudolf chose to create a new band called Dawn Road. Rudolf Schenker finally decided that he wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to evoke the last Scorpions formation. He eventually decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboard) and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums). Roth and Buchholz persuade Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join on vocals. They decided to use the Scorpions name because it was better known as the German rock band and Albumpun was released with that name.
Rudolf Schenker, the guitarist, launched the band in 1965. At first, the band had given its influence and Schenker himself acted as a vocalist. The band began to be formed together in 1970 when Rudolf's sister Michael and vocalist Klaus Meine joined the band. In 1972 the group entered the recording studio and released their debut album Lonesome Crow along with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. During the Lonesome Crow tour, the Scorpions concert was opened by British band UFO newcomers. Toward the end of the tour, guitarist Michael Schenker accepted the offer as lead guitar for UFOs. Uli Jon Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then called to complete the tour.
The departure of Michael Schenker caused the band to break out. In 1973, Uli Jon Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered a guitarist role, but it turned the band into a separate and vacuum, and Rudolf chose to create a new band called Dawn Road. Rudolf Schenker finally decided that he wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to evoke the last Scorpions formation. He eventually decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboard) and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums). Roth and Buchholz persuade Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join on vocals. They decided to use the Scorpions name because it was better known as the German rock band and Albumpun was released with that name.
Rising to fame (1974-1978)
In 1974, the new formation of Scorpions released the album Fly To The Rainbow. The album proved to be more successful than Lonesome Crow, and songs like "Speedy Coming" and "Fly To The Rainbow", made the band sound more ferocious. Achim Kirschning decided to leave the band after the recording. Soon afterwards, Jürgen Rosenthal also had to leave the band due to comply with conscription. In 1976, he (Jürgen Rosenthal) joined the German progressive rock band Eloy and recorded three albums. Next drummer Scorpions was replaced by Belgian drummer Rudy Lenners.
In 1975, the band released the album In Trance, which marked the beginning of a long Scorpions collaboration with German producer Dieter Dierks. This album is a big step forward for the Scorpions and solidifying their heavy metal. It managed to gather their fan base at home and abroad through singles such as "In Trance", "Dark Lady" and "Robot Man".
In 1976, Scorpions released Virgin Killer. Her album cover featured a nude preteen girl behind a broken glass panel. Cover art was designed by Stefan Bohle who was the product manager at the record company giant RCA Records, which was their label at the time. The cover of this album brings considerable market influence, but is later withdrawn or replaced in other countries. The album itself gained demographic praise for music from the critics of choice and fans. In 2008 the cover image was removed from the UK wikipedia by the Internet Watch Foundation.
Cover albums that have not escaped censorship in various countries
The following year, Rudy Lenners resigned for personal reasons and was replaced by Herman Rarebell.
Next came the album Taken by Force. RCA Records strives to promote this album in stores and on the radio. Single, "Steamrock Fever" was included in the promotion of RCA radio. Roth was unhappy with the commercial direction the band had taken, though he had been on a tour in Japan, he went on to form his own band. Roth has previously completed the Electric Sun single for Tokyo Tapes double live album. Tokyo Tapes itself was released in the United States and Europe six months after its release in Japan.
At that time in mid-1978, after auditioning about 140 guitarists, Scorpions recruited guitarist Matthias Jabs.
ka returned to the studio in 1990. Crazy World was released in the same year and featured a little rough sound. The album was boosted largely by the great success of the "Wind of Change" ballad. The song reflects on the socio-political changes taking place in Eastern Europe and in other parts of the world at the end of the Cold War. After Crazy World tour, Francis Buchholz bassist who has been with Scorpions long, finally left the group.
In 1993, Scorpions released Face Heat. Bass is handled by Ralph Rieckermann. For the recording process, Scorpions was brought by producer Bruce Fairbairn. The sound of the album was more metal than melodic. Whether on the heavy metal single "Alien Nation" or on the ballad song "Under The Same Sun" whose success almost matches the success of "Wind of Change". Face The Heat is a moderate success.
In 1995, the new album Live Bites was produced. While the album has a clean sound through technology, but when compared with their best-selling live album, World Wide Live, the album is not very successful.
Before recording their 13th studio album in 1996, Pure Instinct, drummer Herman Rarebell left the band to set up a record label. In this album Scorpions collaborated with songwriters from Indonesia Titik Puspa and James F Sundah on "When You Came Into My Life". Curt Cress took over the drumsticks for this album before James Kottak drummer born in Louisville-Kentucky took over permanently. This album has a lot of ballad tembang. However, the single album "Wild Child" and the ballad song that swept away "You and I" achieved success.
1999 Scorpions released Eye II Eye and made significant changes in the band's playing style, mixing in pop and techno elements. While the album is slickly produced. The video clip for the first European album single, "To Be No 1", featured a similar actress Monica Lewinsky who did little to increase her popularity.
Scorpions together in the latest formation
The following year, Scorpions has an artistic collaboration with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra which produces 10 songs that fill an album called Moment of Glory. The album helped rebuild the band's reputation after strong criticism of the Eye II Eye. However, critics accuse them of making collaborations similar to Metallica (S & M) with the San Francisco Symphony that had been released in the previous year, although the orchestra first approached the Scorpions with an idea in 1995.
In 2001, Scorpions released Acoustica, a live acoustic unplugged album featuring the band's biggest hit, plus a few new songs. Meanwhile, the fans, the lack of a new studio album, are frustrating for some, and Acoustica is reaping much of the spotlight.
In 2004, the band released Unbreakable, an album commended by critics as the long-awaited return of the prodigal son. This album is the band's toughest album that has been released since Face Heat. Whether the result of a little promotion by the band label or due to the long distance between studio releases causes Unbreakable to get a bit of airplay airplay and sales charts that are not good enough. Scorpions toured intensively and played as a 'special guest' with Judas Priest during the 2005 British tour - this is Scorpions 'first' date in the UK since 1999. In early 2006, Scorpions released a DVD, "1 Night in Vienna" which included 14 live songs and complete rockumentary. In LA, the band spent about four months in the studio with producers James Michael and Desmond Child and worked for an album entitled Humanity: Hour I, released in late May 2007, and followed by the "Humanity World Tour".
In 2007, the band collaborated with video game producers featuring two of their tracks in the video game series, "Guitar Hero". "No One Like You" is featured in the "Rocks of the 80s" version of the game, while "Rock You Like A Hurricane" is released on "Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock"
On May 14, 2007, Scorpions released Humanity - Hour I in Europe. The album was also available in the US on August 28 at New Door Records and topped the Billboard charts at the 63rd step.
In an interview in September 2007, Meine said the album did not contain a special concept, but a collection of songs with a common theme. "We do not want to make another recording with songs about guys chasing girls," Meine says.
Asked in 2007 if the band plans to release Humanity - Hour II, Meine replied: "That's what everybody asks Maybe there is, but who knows? We're at the beginning of the world tour." It is interesting to play new songs and all went very well and classically.This is interesting, because there are new audiences out there.There are many old fans but there are also lots of young people.We only play in London and in Paris and there are young kids who sway when the song was written before they were born.It's amazing.I do not want to think about Hour II right now because I enjoy it very much nowadays It's very inspirational to see how many viewers enjoy this new music. "