HISTORY

     Singer Meine first performed in a band called the Mushrooms. His budding musical career was interrupted, however, by a stint in the German Army. Upon his return to civilian life at age 23, he met a 16-year-old guitarist named Michael Schenker who, four years earlier, had started playing guitar for a young German band (nearly becoming an alcoholic in the process). Meine approached Schenker's father, a violin teacher and retired construction engineer, about starting a rock band. Meine was forced to prove his responsibility and seriousness before the elder Schenker relented and allowed Michael to join the band.

     Shortly after Meine and Schenker formed the band, named Copernicus, Michael got an offer from his brother Rudolf to join a band called the Scorpions. Although Rudolf was the Scorpions original singer, he extended the invitation to Meine after seeing his work with Copernicus. On December 31, 1970, rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker, lead guitarist Michael Schenker, and singer Meine kicked off what would become an international rock and roll force for decades.

     The group's determination never wavered. They struggled playing the clubs, driving their own truck and moving their own equipment (Meine made his living as a window dresser). After more than a year of hard work, they released their first album, Lonesome Crow, on the German label Metronome Records. The Scorpions recorded the LP in producer Conny Plank's studio in Hamburg; He offered them a chance to write and record the music for a movie soundtrack.

     In 1972 the band went on to a 136-date tour of Europe, opening for various major acts. In April of 1973, Michael Schenker left the band to join the English hard rock group UFO, whom the Scorpions had supported on the tour. After Michael's departure, the Scorpions broke up, but the separation was not permanent. Rudolf Schenker and Meine re-formed the band later that year with guitarist Ulrich Roth, bassist Francis Buchholz, and drummer Jurgen Rosenthal. The reconfigured group signed with RCA Records and released Fly to the Rainbow in 1974. Once they had released this second effort, Rosenthal left the Scorpions, and Rudy Lenners stepped in on the drums.

     Despite their steady growth, the Scorpions continued to manage themselves--from booking concerts to dealing with the record company--because personal management of artists in Germany was illegal. In 1975 the band released In Trance on RCA Records. This marked the first LP produced by fellow German Dieter Dierks and the beginning of a 15-year association. Realizing that it was time to try their luck outside of their homeland, the Scorpions made their concert debut in England by opening at the Cavern in Liverpool. The group subsequently toured Britain, France, and Belgium. In Trance became a best-selling album in Japan, so the band headed for the Far East. By the time Virgin Killer was released the following year, the Scorpions had reached headline status in Europe and Japan. Within a week of its debut, the album had already gone gold in Japan. Virgin Killer also started the Scorpions' trend of controversial album covers; RCA Records rejected their first cover design.

     When the Scorpions hit the road in 1977, critics lauded them as Germany's top rock band. At the conclusion of their extensive tour of Britain, drummer Rudy Lenners left the band because of heart trouble. Yet during the band's tour of England, they had met fellow countryman and drummer Herman Rarebell in a London speakeasy. So when Lenners left the band, Rarebell stepped in as his replacement.

     Once Rarebell took over the drums, the Scorpions recorded and released Taken By Force. Although they were winning more and more fans with their German-based brand rock and roll, the group still had to disprove the misconception that the only successful German bands were practitioners of electronic pop- rock.

     In 1978 the Scorpions played a sold-out, five-day tour of Japan. Deciding that the time had come for a live recording, the band released excerpts from their two performances at Tokyo's Sun Plaza on The Tokyo Tapes. Later that year, lead guitarist Ulrich Roth quit the band to pursue a solo career in progressive rock. The remaining members of the Scorpions auditioned 170 guitarists in London to find a replacement for Roth. Eventually they decided on Matthias Jabs, a guitarist from Hannover who was playing in a band called Fargo.

     With their new guitarist in place and a new record contract with Mercury/PolyGram Records in the United States, the Scorpions started work on their 1979 Lovedrive LP. The band continued to have trouble keeping a steady guitarist. Michael Schenker contributed half of the guitar solos on the record after he left UFO to rejoin the Scorpions. Jabs left the band, but stayed on permanent stand-by during the Scorpions' tour. Because of personal reasons, Schenker again quit the group. Finally, Jabs returned as the group's lead guitarist.

     The Scorpions made their concert debut in the United States opening for hard rocker Ted Nugent at the World Series of Rock in the Cleveland Municipal Stadium in Ohio. Following that performance, Lovedrive entered the U.S. charts and stayed for 30 weeks.

     Hoping to build on their worldwide following, the Scorpions didn't waste any time returning to the studio; they released Animal Magnetism in March of 1980. Featuring the hit single "Make It Real", Animal Magnetism became the Scorpions' first U.S. gold album. Once again their album's cover design--this one depicting a woman kneeling in front of a man's clothed legs and a Doberman thrusting out its tongue--incited controversy. Deliberations concerning the cover aside, the Scorpions launched an extensive tour of the United States, Britain, and continental Europe the following year.

     Misfortune struck the German group when Meine developed nodes and a polyp on his vocal cords, making it impossible for him to sing. The Scorpions were forced to cancel tour dates and put their ninth album on hold.

     Two operations and six months of vocal training later, Meine had restored his singing voice. In 1982 the Scorpions released Blackout. The discussion-generating cover featured a Gottfried Helnwein painting of a lobotomy patient with bent forks clawing out his eyes. The album became the group's first Top Ten and platinum album in the United States and reached gold status in many other countries throughout the world. The band embarked on a seven-month world tour, played 150 concerts, and entertained a total of 1.5 million people. They wrapped up their tour in 1983 as co-headliners for the world's biggest rock festival, the US Festival, where they played to 300,000 fans in southern California.

     The group's tenth album, Love at First Sting, hit the stores the following year with yet another battle concerning its cover. The original design featured fashion photographer Helmut Newton's photograph of a leather-clad man embracing a mostly nude woman with a scorpion tattoo on her thigh. When some retail stores refused to carry the album with its existent packaging, PolyGram Records marketed an optional cover. The second design--also photographed by Newton--was a black-and-white shot of the band that was meant as the record's inner sleeve.

     "Rock You Like A_Hurricane," the first single from the album, hit the Billboard Top 40 and lasted on the chart for seven weeks with a peak at the 15th spot. The second single, "Still Loving You," broke first in France and then continued to spread throughout Europe and the United States. "I'm Leaving You" made the third single and video. Love at First Sting thus became the runaway success that elevated the Scorpions to international superstar status.

     The band's success inspired the release of a live album and a one-hour video movie about the tour titled Worldwide Live. They took part in a record-breaking rock festival in Brazil called Rock in Rio, where they played for 350,000 people. Jabs had a Gibson guitar custom made for the event in the shape of Brazil. After their performance, Jabs presented the guitar to the concert promoter to express the band's collective gratitude for the opportunity to play the show. The German rockers went on to play behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest in 1987, thus becoming one of the first Western bands to venture into the Eastern Bloc. They also performed in the Monsters of Rock open-air concert in Europe.

     Savage Amusement, the Scorpions' final album produced by Dieter Dierks, entered the Billboard Top Ten in the third week of its release in 1988. The band's tour included a performance in Leningrad, Russia, making them the first major hard rock band to play in the former Soviet Union. Supported by the Russian hard rock band Gorky Park, the Scorpions played ten concerts to 15,000 people each night. They returned to the United States to play the Monsters of Rock festival with fellow rockers Van Halen. Eighteen years after their inception, the Scorpions agreed that they should release a greatest hits album. The Best Of Rockers N' Ballads included both popular hits and personal favorites of each band member. (In fact, the album's tentative name was The Best of Scorpions' Favorites.)

     The Scorpions continued to break international, geographical, and political boundaries. They band returned to the Soviet Union in 1989 to play in the Moscow Music Peace Festival at Lenin Stadium. They performed in front of 100,000 people, and the experience provided the inspiration for their megahit single on the Crazy World album--"Wind of Change".

     Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Keith Olsen, Crazy World sold nearly seven million copies worldwide. The Scorpions launched the album with the single "Tease Me, Please Me", but it was "Winds of Change" that took Crazy World to megaplatinum status. During the Persian Gulf War, troops adopted "Winds of Change" as an anthem; the song also served as an inspiring soundtrack to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the repressive Communist policies it embodied. The single reached Number One in 13 countries, including Israel and Chile, and won the ASCAP Award as one of the most performed songs of 1992. Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev was honored with an acoustic performance of the song at the Kremlin. Soon after the Berlin Wall fell, the Scorpions played to more than 350,000 fans in the Roger Waters's production of  Pink Floyd's The Wall--Live in Berlin '90. And at the Artists for Freedom, Equality and Humanity peace rally in 1992, the band once again performed an acoustic version of "Wind of Change". By 1994, Crazy World stood as the best-selling rock album ever in Germany.

     This level of success led the Scorpions full force into their second decade, but personnel changes struck again in 1992. Bassist Francis Buchholz parted ways with the band after an 18-year association.

     Although the members of the Scorpions tried to convince Buchholz to stay with the band, they realized that his goals for the groups's musical direction differed from their own. Another German band, Bonfire, recommended Ralph Rieckermann to fill the void on bass guitar. Without any further auditions, the Scorpions had a new member and, by 1993, their next album, Face the Heat. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn, Face the Heat launched the band into another stage of musical variety. Beginning with the first single, "Alien Nation", the band took a sonic trip through various influences ranging from punk metal to jazz and blues. The ballad side of the band still existed, as evidenced by "Under the Same Sun". It shows that the Scorpions truely know how to adapt in this society of changing music interests.

     In April of 1995, a new live album entitled Live Bites (1988-1995) is released for the fans. It has three new never before released tracks entitled White Dove, Heroes Don't Cry, and Edge Of Time.The song "White Dove" was recorded to help the starving people in Rwanda. They donate all of the money generated by this song to Unicef.

     "Pure Instinct" was recorded with the Scorpions' engineer and producer, Erwin Musper, who was assisted by Peter Kirkman, the band's long time guitar technician. When the work in their own Scorpion Sound Studio was completed, they went to Holland's renowned Wisseloord Studios, where they recorded further tracks with producer Keith Olsen in December '95 and January '96. As such, "Pure Instinct" documents not only the Scorpions' new ideas, but also the entire spectrum of a style, of a rock'n'roll vision that has been making its way around the world since the beginning of the '70s. The Scorpions engaged former AC/DC manager Stewart Young, and it fell to him to call James Kottak and hire him as a drummer for the upcoming tour; James Kottak became the first american to play in the german rock band. On the Pure Instinct tour, the scorpions proved that they were still among the global players on the international rock scene. Not only did they perform in Europe, the USA and South America. In countries like Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, they continued to notch up well above average record sales and collect gold and platinum discs. In November 1996, the Scorpions were the first international hard rock band to play to fans in Beirut after the end of the civil war in Lebanon.

     The following year the double compilation album “Deadly Sting: The Mercury Years” is launched; it had a compilation of their best songs recorded for Mercury. It also included two new previously unreleased tracks, “Over The Top” and “Life Goes Around”, both of which were completed especially for this collection; being Matthias Jabs the composer of the first one.

     On the 1999 recording of “Eye To eye” produced by Peter Wolf, James Kottak worked in the studio with the Scorpions for the first time. The cover of “Eye To Eye” marked a change of image for the band; only the original lineup members of the band feature on the front cover. The album itself is a statement of the Scorpions’ awesome talents as songwriters and instrumentalists. Songs like “Mysterious”, “Mind Like A Tree”, “Eye To Eye”, “Yellow Butterfly” and “A Moment In A Million Years” show the band at the pinnacle of their creativity; with “Du Bist So Schmutzig” (You’re So Dirty), the Scorpions are heard for the first time singing a german lyric. As part of their 1999 Eye To Eye world tour, at the invitation of Michael Jackson, they played at the Michael Jackson and Friends benefit concert in Munich.

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