Scorpions

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Scorpions is a German hard rock and heavy metal band founded in Hannover in 1965. Throughout their more than fifty-year career, they have released dozens of studio albums, singles, live albums, compilations and live DVDs. In addition, they have received several awards and decorations, which makes them the most successful rock band in Germany.

In the beginning they were called Nameless, then they changed to The Scorpions, and later at the end of 1969 they decided to call themselves simply Scorpions. Their first record production was Lonesome Crow (1972), with Klaus Meine on vocals, Rudolf Schenker and Michael Schenker on guitars, Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. However, during their promotional tour, Michael announced his retirement from the band to join the British band UFO, which caused a brief breakup in 1973. In the middle of the same year, Rudolf and Klaus reformed the band with some members of Dawn Road, among them them Uli Jon Roth and Francis Buchholz, with whom they published the albums Fly to the Rainbow (1974), In Trance (1975), Virgin Killer (1976) and Taken by Force (1977), with which they obtained great recognition in Europe and Japan.

In 1978 they released their first live album, Tokyo Tapes, which was the last with Roth since he resigned from the group to start a solo career. The following year Matthias Jabs joined, with whom they began the path towards the American market with Lovedrive, which also featured the participation of Michael Schenker in three of its songs. During the eighties, with Animal Magnetism (1980), Blackout (1982), Love at First Sting (1984) and Savage Amusement (1988) achieved great commercial success in much of the world, ranking at the top of the music charts and achieving several gold and platinum records.

With the arrival of the nineties they published Crazy World, which contained the song "Wind of Change", which would become an icon of the political-social revolutions that the world was experiencing at that time.. In 1993 they released Face the Heat, the first work with bassist Ralph Rieckermann who replaced Francis, who left the band in mid-1992. In the last part of the decade they published Pure Instinct (1996) and Eye II Eye (1999), with James Kottak as the new drummer replacing Herman Rarebell, which demonstrated a renewed sound with softer and electronic touches —especially in the last mentioned— and which brought with it a series of criticisms from the specialized press and from its own fans.

During the first decade of the new millennium, they published the symphonic project Moment of Glory (2000) and the unplugged Acoustica (2001), which once again positioned them on the music charts. Later with Unbreakable (2004) and Humanity: Hour I (2007), which were the first with Polish bassist Paweł Mąciwoda, they largely returned to their classic sound. In 2010 they began their "farewell tour" with what would be their last studio album, Sting in the Tail, which they announced on their website as the beginning of the end of the road and which took them to the five continents during the following years. However, in some interviews given in 2011 and 2012 they reported that they would continue with their career, focusing on the celebration of their fifty years with the release of the new album Return to Forever (2015).

Scorpions is recognized as the most important and successful rock band in Germany and continental Europe, whose sales are estimated to exceed 100 million albums worldwide, of which 10.5 million have been sold in the United States alone. Even so, in 2011 the German press estimated that the group's sales reached 160 million records around the world. On the other hand, during the official presentation of At the 2009 Echo Awards, it was mentioned that they had given, until then, more than 5,000 live concerts in more than eighty countries. Additionally, as of 2015, his albums had been certified with more than thirty-five platinum records and more than one hundred gold records.

History

Beginnings (1965-1970)

Guitarist Rudolf Schenker and drummer Wolfgang Dziony founded the band in 1965 in Hannover and called it Nameless because they could never agree on a nickname. The first lineup was made up, in addition to Schenker and Dziony, of Joachim Kirchhoff (bass) and Karl Heinz-Wollmer (lead guitar). In 1966, they renamed themselves The Scorpions, since according to Schenker it was a name that could be easily recognized at the level. national and international. Between 1965 and 1967 they gave several concerts in the north of what was then West Germany, covering The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, among other groups of the so-called British invasion, and opening concerts for The Lords, The Searchers and Dave Dee. During the first two years Schenker served as a vocalist in addition to being a rhythm guitarist, until at the end of 1967 Werner Hoyer joined. Six months after his arrival, Heinz-Wollmer had to perform military service, so his activities ceased for a time. Finally, in the autumn of 1968 and with the name reduced to the current one, Schenker and Dziony reformed it with Ulrich Worobiec (lead guitar), Lothar Heimberg (bass) and Bernd Hegner (vocals).

At the end of 1969, Worobiec and Hegner were fired and to replace them Schenker invited his younger brother Michael (guitar) and Klaus Meine (vocals), both from the band The Copernicus, who joined on December 30, 1969. Soon they began to compose their own songs and chose to write them in English, since it was the only way to become known outside their country. In 1970, some of them were recorded with CCA Records for the soundtrack of the German film anti-drug Das Kalte Paradies, but although the independent label planned to publish them on an album, they never went on sale. Disillusioned by the above, they looked for other options to be able to release their debut album and to do so, In the same year, they participated in a band competition in Hannover, the prize of which was a recording contract with Brain Records. Even though they got first place with good reviews from the jury, they were disqualified for playing too loud. Fortunately, four weeks later, the first-place band had broken up and the prize was awarded to them.

Debut album and restructuring

With the support of the Brain label, in October 1971 they moved to Hamburg to meet with producer Conny Plank. In just one week they recorded their debut album Lonesome Crow at Star Studios, which went on sale on February 9, 1972. Critics considered it "a mix of Black Sabbath's heavy rhythm." and psychedelic loans", and even as "a bad combination of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones". The production received little reception according to Meine, since once published it sold around 10,000 copies. However,, their concert tour allowed them to play in several cities in West Germany, sometimes opening for Uriah Heep and Rory Gallagher. In mid-1972, Dziony retired and to fill his position they hired Joe Wyman, who replaced him six months later. Werner Lohr.

In June 1973 they were hired to open the UFO concerts, but once the British arrived in Germany, they ran the risk of being canceled because guitarist Bernie Marsden had forgotten his passport. After seeing Scorpions live in Hamburg, UFO vocalist Phil Mogg invited Michael to play with them and after two dates he finally offered him the position of lead guitarist. After discussing it with his brother, Michael accepted because he believed that settling in the United Kingdom would further enhance his career. In order to perform the remaining dates of the tour, Schenker invited his friend Uli Jon Roth, whose first concert with the band took place on June 29, 1973 at a festival in Vechta. Shortly after, Scorpions broke up and lost their contract with Brain Records. Enthusiastic about working with Roth, Schenker participated in the rehearsals of his band Dawn Road, which included also by Francis Buchholz (bass), Jürgen Rosenthal (drums) and Achim Kirschning (keyboards), as they did not have a vocalist he suggested Meine. Despite having more musicians from Dawn Road than Scorpions, they chose to continue using the latter name because it already had some recognition in the country.

The path to internationalization

Scorpions Logo since 1975

During the final performances of the Lonesome Crow Tour between February and April 1974, the band signed a five-album contract with RCA Records. Recording of their second album took place in Munich with the help of sound engineer Reinhold Mack and at first Scorpions was in charge of production. However, as he did not have enough experience, the label hired Frank Bornemann, Eloy's vocalist, as co-producer. Fly to the Rainbow, released on November 1, 1974, has been considered a hard rock album but with reminiscences of the style of its predecessor and even as a bridge between their initial sound and the one that made them known worldwide. This is the only studio work recorded with drummer Jürgen Rosenthal, since he had to retire to perform military service; Therefore they hired Dobbie Fechter. On August 17, 1974, the Fly to the Rainbow Tour began, which allowed them to play for the first time outside their native country with performances in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg, sometimes opening the performances of Sweet, Alice Cooper and Manfred Mann. Fechter was only in the group for a couple of months, because he resigned to spend more time with his girlfriend. Therefore, the vast majority of the remaining concerts in 1975 were performed with Belgian drummer Rudy Lenners. Parallel to the tour, at the beginning of that year they covered two Sweet songs in German for the single "Fuchs Geh'" Voran", published under the pseudonym The Hunters to differentiate them from his other works.

At a concert in Essen (Germany) they met producer Dieter Dierks, who liked how they won over the public and saw their potential to become a great band. Until then, they had a successful career working with artists from Krautrock and progressive rock, but not hard rock. Despite that, Scorpions signed an agreement with him to produce their next albums. Popularly known as the "sixth member" of the group, Dierks helped boost the band's career, in an extensive working relationship that lasted until 1988. With some suggestions from the producer, such as shortening the length of the songs and eliminating the influences of psychedelic rock, on September 17, 1975, In Trance was released. Their third production presented to its characteristic logo, as well as its first cover that generated controversy in some markets. According to Eduardo Rivadavia of Ultimate Classic Rock, the album helped establish "the characteristic combination of hard rock and heavy metal that came to define the sound of Scorpions. Thanks to Dierks' new approach, which sought to promote them in international markets, In Trance managed to be the album of the best-selling RCA label that year in Japan. Their respective promotional tour called In Trance Tour (1975-1976) featured dates in several German cities, as well as allowing them to play for the first time in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland., while in some presentations between May and June 1976 they accompanied Kiss on their first tour of Europe.

Virgin Killer and success in Japan

On October 9, 1976 they released Virgin Killer, which consolidated their "(...) metallic sound that would become a great influence" according to Jason Anderson of Allmusic. In turn, Steve Huey of the same website, cited it along with Rising by Rainbow and Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest as emblematic albums for the remodeling of heavy metal in that year. Their fourth production received positive attention in Japan, as it reached number 32 on the national chart and the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) awarded it a gold record representing 100,000 copies. sold, only a week after its release. Virgin Killer generated controversy in several countries due to its controversial cover, since it features a naked girl with a broken glass effect on her pubes.. Added to the erroneous meaning that the press gave to the lyrics of the song of the same name, the cover was censored in several places and in certain markets it was replaced with a photograph of the band.

A week before the official release of the album they began the Virgin Killer Tour, which from October 1976 to May 1977, gave sixty-nine performances in seven European countries, including Scotland. Once finished, drummer Rudy Lenners had to resign due to heart problems and to fill his position they hired German Herman Rarebell, who officially joined the band on May 17, 1977. On December 4 of the same year, Taken by was released. Force, which maintained the band's popularity in Japan, because only in a matter of days the RIAJ certified it gold. Unlike his predecessors, during its recording Roth did not put all his enthusiasm, because By then he had already decided to leave the band and start a solo career. Although the guitarist did not like some elements of the album, such as the lyrics of its only single "He's a Woman She's a Man», Taken by Force received positive reviews from critics; Billboard called it "another winning [album]" and Joe Divita of the website Loudwire named it the best album of 1977, on the list of the best metal albums every year since 1970, for example.

On October 14, almost two months before the release of the album, they began the Taken by Force Tour with performances in their country and in France for the rest of 1977. Due to their success in Japan, at the end of April In 1978 the band made their first tour of that country, with three shows in Tokyo, one in Nagoya and another in Osaka. At first, Roth was not enthusiastic about doing them, but once they confirmed the recording of their first live production, Meine convinced him to participate in the album to, in a way, celebrate the "end of an era." Recorded in two of the shows given in the hall of the Nakano Sun Plaza hotel in the Japanese capital, Tokyo Tapes entered the music charts of Germany, France, Japan and Sweden.

Lovedrive and the arrival to the American market

Uli Jon Roth resigned after the concerts in Japan, which meant canceling the eventual first tour of the United States. To hire a new guitarist they placed an advertisement in the British magazine Melody Maker, but none of the 140 applicants convinced them. For that reason, Buchholz suggested the German Matthias Jabs, who after an audition by Schenker, joined as lead guitarist in June 1978. In the second half of that year, Scorpions recorded their sixth studio album Lovedrive, which was released on February 25, 1979 through Harvest/EMI for Europe and Mercury for the United States. For its recording they had the presence of Michael Schenker, who played the guitar solos on "Loving You Sunday Morning", "Another Piece of Meat", "Lovedrive" and the instrumental "Coast to Coast". Although there is a difference of opinion between Michael and the rest of the band about their real contribution, < i>Lovedrive marked a major commercial breakthrough for Scorpions; especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, as it debuted on the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Charts at positions 55 and 36, respectively. By For its part, it received excellent reviews from specialized critics, to the point that it is considered one of the best heavy metal and hard rock productions.

During the first European leg of the Lovedrive Tour, Michael served as lead guitarist, but the band opted to fire him due to his lack of commitment; although the guitarist stated that he resigned to continue his career with his own group. With Matthias as a permanent member, the tour allowed them to play for the first time in the United States, first as the opening act for Ted Nugent (between July and August) and later with Sammy Hagar and Pat Travers (between November and December). Their concerts were so well evaluated by Mercury and the agency Leber & Krebs, who forced them to record a new album as soon as possible, because the latter had already considered them for a new tour during the summer of 1980.

Recorded in three months in Studio 2 of Dierks Studios, Animal Magnetism was released on March 31, 1980. With Rarebell's greater participation in the songwriting process, The album introduced two new elements in Scorpions' music: the talk box on the song "The Zoo" and the orchestral arrangement on the power ballad "Lady Starlight." With more than one hundred performances, the promotional tour was focused on Europe and North America. The dates in North America during the end of May until the first days of August 1980, in which they opened Ted Nugent's concerts again and shared the stage with Judas Priest and Def Leppard helped the band position itself in the American and Canadian markets.

The loss of voice of Klaus Meine and Blackout

At the beginning of 1981, while they were in Grasse working on their new production, Klaus Meine began to have problems with his voice; He could not reach high tones or maintain his register and as the days went by the situation worsened to the point that he could no longer speak. Although he initially underwent an operation, in May 1981 they found nodules in his vocal cords. Even when he thought about quitting Scorpions, his colleagues motivated him to look for other specialists and thus he found a doctor who was an expert in singers in Austria. After a second operation and a long retraining, the vocalist emerged triumphant from the problem. For their part, the other musicians took advantage of taking vacations and met again in September or October at the Dierks studios to start recording Blackout. As Meine was not yet fit, producer Dieter Dierks asked Don Dokken to help him sing the high tones of the chorus on certain songs. However, at the end of 1981, Meine—with his voice recovered—recorded all the songs. vocal parts, so the American pointed out that it is difficult to know if his voice remained in the recording or not.

Published on March 29, 1982, Blackout received positive reviews from the specialized press and is considered one of the best albums of the band, and also of hard rock. and heavy metal, in general. At the same time, the album consolidated them as a reference in the main world markets, particularly in the United States, where they established important statistical data: it was his first album to enter the top ten on the Billboard 200 list; the first of his career to receive a gold record from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and, After achieving platinum status in 1984, it was estimated that he was the first German artist to achieve this since these certifications were established in 1976. A similar situation occurred with "No One Like You", because it reached first place in the Mainstream. Billboard magazine's Rock Tracks - the first and only Scorpions song to achieve that feat - while it was their first single to enter the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 65 on July 17. from 1982.

Love at First Sting and Savage Amusement

The band's total takeoff came in 1984 with Love at First Sting, which went triple platinum in the United States, and which contains some of their biggest hits such as "Rock You Like a Hurricane", a song that spent more than 26 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and Rolling Stone magazine charts. The song "Still Loving You" also stood out, a key exponent of the style. power balladand which sold 1,700,000 copies in France alone, obtaining platinum status a few days after its release in that country. Other songs such as "Bad Boys Running Wild" and "Big City Nights" received excellent reception by fans, turning them into classics of heavy metal and hard rock. Also and within this period the albums Animal Magnetism, Blackout and Love at First Sting were at the top of the music charts worldwide. international.

After its release, they began the Love at First Sting Tour, which lasted a little more than three years and took them around the world, becoming one of the most successful tours of their career. This featured several guest artists. such as Bon Jovi and Fastway in North America and Joan Jett in Europe. In addition, and thanks to their performances, they broke several records, such as playing three consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden in New York, being the first German band to perform this feat before more than 60,000 people in total. and they also filled the Rosemont Horizon venue in Rosemont, Chicago for three consecutive nights, also being the only band from Germany to achieve this, among others.

In 1985 they participated in the largest festival in Latin America, the first Rock in Rio, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, performing before more than 350,000 people and where they shared the stage with AC/DC, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne, among others. As a fact, Matthias Jabs used a guitar similar to the festival logo with small Brazilian flags printed on it. After the success of the extensive tours of Blackout and Love at First Sting, the time came to release the second live album which they called World Wide Live (1985), which managed to position itself for more than 52 weeks on the popularity charts around the world again. After this the band took a break for a couple of months. In between the break in 1987, they led a festival in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, which allowed them to enter the eastern bloc ruled by communism for the first time.

Later in 1988 they released Savage Amusement, the last album produced by Dieter Dierks, which obtained first place in Europe and fifth place in the United States. This album contained the song «Rhythm of Love", which reached number 6 on the American Mainstream Rock Tracks. Within the Savage Amusement Tour they visited the Soviet Union, being the second group in the history of rock to enter that country. still dominated by the communist regime. This tour originally contained ten presentations in Leningrad and others in more than eight cities of the USSR, but the latter were forced to cancel by the communist authority after considering them as generating freedom and excessive euphoria for young people. Soviets. However, the ten concerts in Leningrad were a resounding success, performing in front of 350,000 fans in total. In the same year a video titled To Russia With Love And Other Savage Amusements was released on the one in which the history of these concerts was captured.

The barriers were already broken by Scorpions, in 1989 the band invited several groups to organize, together with the communist authority, a festival for peace in the USSR, the Moscow Music Peace Festival. In which Ozzy Osbourne, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Mötley Crüe and Cinderella stood out, among others, performing at the Lenin Stadium in Moscow before 260,000 people. His stay in the Soviet Union inspired Klaus to compose one of his greatest hits. great and recognized, “Wind of Change” written in September, two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Crazy World

At the beginning of the new decade they released Crazy World on the world market, an album co-produced with Keith Olsen and recorded in Los Angeles (California). This work demonstrated hard rock still from the eighties but with some evolved and improved sounds for the time and which has been the band's most successful album to date, being double platinum in the United States.

In this, "Wind of Change" was included, an iconic song of social movements in Eastern Europe. This ballad was number 1 in 21 countries around the world and received the ASCAP Awards in 1992 for being the most played song in the world during 1991, the year it was released as a single. In addition, it obtained a gold record in the United States by selling more than 500,000 copies. In 2009, the German specialized press placed the sales of this song at more than 14 million copies in the world. Other songs that stood out from the album were "Send Me An Angel" and "Hit Between the Eyes", the latter being included in the soundtrack of the film Freejack by director Geoff Murphy, in which Mick Jagger, Emilio Estévez, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins acted. After the success of the album and especially "Wind of Change", in 1991 they were invited by Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader at that time, to perform this song in the Kremlin Square, being a unique event in the history of the former USSR and also in history. of rock.

Within this period they were invited by former Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, to participate in The Wall live concert in the German capital, where they performed the opening song "In the Flesh?", which was recorded in the album The Wall - Live in Berlin.

In 1992 the band won the World Music Award for being the most successful German band. However, after the Crazy World Tour, the band suffered the departure of one of its most important bassists in its history Francis Buchholz for personal reasons, but certain critics mentioned that he was fired for fraud and swindling towards the band. His replacement was also German Ralph Rieckermann on the recommendation of the band's drummer, who remained in the group until the end of 2003.

Face the Heat and sound experimentation

In 1993 the band released Face the Heat, an album co-produced with Bruce Fairbairn and which has been considered one of their heaviest works, not only of this decade but of their entire history. From this recording, the hits "Under the Same Sun" stood out, which served as the central theme of Steven Seagal's film Under the Siege, and the songs "No Pain No Gain" and "Alien Nation." ». Continuing with the political-social causes, they later published "White Dove", a song intended to support Unicef to benefit refugees from the civil war in Rwanda. After the Face the Heat Tour was completed and they performed in front of more than a million people at Throughout the entire tour, they received the World Music Award again in 1994. During that same year, the band was invited by Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson to participate in the commemorative concert, Elvis Presley Memory Concert, held in Memphis, Tennessee, performing the song "His Latest Flame."

After a break of months, they published the third live album Live Bites in 1995, which obtained a regular balance in popular reception probably due to the rise of grunge. The following year they returned to the studio and recorded Pure Instinct, with session drummer Curt Cress, since Herman Rarebell resigned from the band after a few weeks for personal reasons. What became very clear in this recording is that the band entered a stage of experimentation that apparently left very good results for themselves, but not for their followers, since it was not well received due to the musical change and that It was relatively successful, although they still received gold and platinum records in certain countries. As a fact, during the album tour they played in Beirut, capital of Lebanon, which positioned them as the first international band to set foot in that territory. After the After Herman's departure, his manager hired American drummer James Kottak to play solo on the promotional tour, but the band eventually accepted him as an active member.

In 1999 they released the album Eye II Eye, which presented electronic and more pop sounds, moving away from the classic Scorpions sound, except for songs like "Mysterious" and "Mind Like A Tree." The album contained the song "To Be Number One", which was number 1 for 9 consecutive weeks in Japan. With this production and as part of the Eye II Eye Tour, they were invited by Michael Jackson to play at the Michael Jackson charity show. Jackson & Friends in Munich, Germany. In the same year, the band was invited to perform the song "Wind of Change" at the Brandenburg Gate, along with 166 cellists for the celebration of the first ten years of the demolition of the Berlin Wall.

Moment of Glory and Acoustica

Since 1995, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was looking for a globally successful band to create an exclusive project, where they could mix classical music with popular music. After reaching an agreement with Scorpions, the group together with the Austrian conductor, Christian Kolonovits, began to compose the orchestral arrangements for some of their songs, with the aim of presenting it at EXPO 2000 held in Hannover. Finally in August of the same year Moment of Glory was published, with which they once again achieved success. The album contained orchestrated versions of "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Wind of Change" and "Send Me an Angel", among others, and even a medley titled "Deadly Sting Suite".

The following year, in 2001, the unplugged project, Acoustica, appeared, recorded in the Convento do Beato building in the Portuguese city of Lisbon during February and within the first part from the Acoustica Tour. The arrangements were made by Christian Kolonovits and the band and included new songs and covers by other groups, such as "Love of My Life" by Queen and "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas.

Rebirth: Unbreakable and Humanity: Hour I

In 2002, they began the Scorpions World Tour 2002 together with Deep Purple and Dio in the United States, where they promoted the compilation album Bad for Good: The Very Best of Scorpions, which included two new study topics; "Bad for Good" and "Cause I Love You." Within this tour they played for the first time in the cities of the Volga Valley and other Russian locations, even playing in the remote city of Vladivostok. The following year they began a new tour called Scorpions World Tour 2003 with Whitesnake and Dokken. the United States and participated in other major events, such as the Moscow anniversary.

In 2004, bassist Ralph Rieckermann left the group and was replaced by the Polish Paweł Mąciwoda, with whom they recorded the album Unbreakable, with which they returned to their classic sound. On April 17 In 2004 they began the promotional tour, which was captured on the DVD Unbreakable World Tour 2004: One Night in Vienna. In 2006 they participated in the German festival Wacken Open Air, where they had Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker and Herman Rarebell as guest artists. This concert was recorded and later released on the DVD Live At Wacken Open Air 2006.

Later in 2007 they published Humanity Hour I, their first concept album whose central theme is humanity and its consequences on Earth. The album made it clear that the Germans are back like old times, with an extensive tour lasting a little over three years called the Humanity World Tour. With this same theme, the DVD was released, Amazonia: Live in the Jungle, recorded in the Brazilian cities of Manaus and Recife in conjunction with Greenpeace, where they sent a message to the world to protect the Amazon rainforest.

Sting in the Tail and the Get Your Sting and Blackout tour

On January 24, 2010, the band reported through their website that they would release their latest studio album called Sting in the Tail in March. This was promoted by an extensive series of concerts called Get Your Sting and Blackout World Tour, which would be the farewell tour and which until then was speculated to have confirmed dates until 2013. In mid-2011, they confirmed the extension of the concerts with The Final Sting tour, which took them to several countries until 2013. Over three years of performances around the world, they had several bands as support acts, including Ratt, Cinderella, Vince Neil, Dokken, Queensrÿche and Tesla, the Germans Edguy and Eisbrecher and the French Karelia and The Electric Ducks, among others.

In addition, in 2011, they released some album releases such as the album of covers and re-recordings Comeblack, published in November of the same year. and the live DVD of a presentation held in Saarbrücken, Germany, which was called Live 2011: Get Your Sting and Blackout, which was also released on blu-Ray and in 3D, becoming one of the first rock bands to release a material in this last format.

In February 2012 on their official website they announced the band's special exhibition at the Rock-Pop Museum in Gronau in Germany, which was called Rock You Like a Hurricane. An exhibition that showed their instruments, gold and platinum records, gifts from fans, clothing, photographs, films and the history of the band in a cinema with the latest technology and in 3D. On the other hand, on the 12th June 2012 and through an interview with the newspaper The Arizona Republic, Matthias Jabs confirmed that the band would not break up and that they already had new projects in mind. One of them was the live concert for MTV Unplugged, which they performed for three nights at the Mount Lycabettus amphitheater in Athens. This presentation was published in 2014 under the title MTV Unplugged - Live in Athens, which included acoustic versions of several of their songs, as well as some songs written especially for the production.

The 50th anniversary celebration

After completing the third part of the Get Your Sting and Blackout tour in 2014, which they called Rock 'n' Roll Forever Tour, announced that they would celebrate their 50th anniversary with a series of surprises for their fans during 2015. On February 20 of the same year they released their eighteenth studio album, Return to Forever, which included unfinished songs and demos from their previous albums, and new material written in 2011 and 2014. On the other hand, and since 2011, its members announced the recording of a documentary about the history of the band, which would initially be called Big City Nights: The Scorpions Story and which was expected to be presented at the 2013 Berlinale. It finally premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2015, under the name Forever and a Dayand which featured a red carpet where the band, Katja Von Garnier, director of the project, and some executives from Deutsche Welle, producer of the documentary, participated.

On May 1, 2015 they began the 50th Anniversary Tour, with which they celebrated their fifty years of career and which in turn served as a promotion for their album Return to Forever. For their part, in November of the same year they remastered eight of their albums released between 1977 and 1988, which included additional tracks, demos, live recordings and in certain cases, video recordings. On April 28, 2016, the participation of drummer Mikkey Dee was announced to play in 14 concerts in the United States, because James Kottak began medical treatment to improve his health. However, his participation was extended to the rest of the dates in 2016, until September 12 when the band announced on their social networks that James Kottak decided to resign from Scorpions to focus on the final phase of his healing. Due to this, Dee was announced as the band's new permanent drummer.

Crazy World Tour 2017-2020 and Rock Believer

On January 18, 2017, Scorpions was one of the first artists inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame, a division created by the American organization D.A.D, for their contribution to the musical genre. Later, in June of the same year they began the Crazy World Tour 2017-2020, which initially only included presentations until December 2017. However, due to its success, it was extended until March 2020. For July of the same year, a residency in Las Vegas was planned, but due to to the COVID-19 pandemic was canceled due to health restrictions. Inspired by the contingency of said pandemic, on April 28, 2020 they published the song "Sign of Hope" through their YouTube account. Three months later They began working on a new studio album together with producer Greg Fidelman, remotely via the Zoom platform. However, in March 2021 Mikkey Dee confirmed in an interview that they could not continue working with Fildeman, since He could not travel to Hannover just as they could not go to Los Angeles due to the restrictions generated by the pandemic.

On September 29, the title of the nineteenth album, Rock Believer, was announced, which will go on sale on February 11, 2022. In addition, the statement confirmed the completion of the residency canceled in Las Vegas and a European tour with Mammoth WVH as opening acts.

Legacy and influences

Influences

Scorpions has been influenced by several bands from the sixties including Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Golden Earring, Jimi Hendrix and Uriah Heep, among others. In addition and with the release of Comeblack, they covered several groups that they listened to when they were young such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Small Faces, The Kinks and T. Rex, among others.

In turn, they have influenced many other groups, being one of the most influential in rock music. It is the only group from Germany that has influenced the glam metal and hard rock scene of the eighties, mainly the bands Cinderella, Dokken, Skid Row, Hanoi Rocks, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, W.A.S.P., L.A. Guns, Tesla, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ratt, Dio and Spinal Tap. They have also been influential for the new wave British heavy metal movement of the late seventies and early eighties, mainly its greatest exponents. such as Def Leppard, Motörhead, Iron Maiden and Saxon. Other hard rock and heavy metal bands that have recognized the influence of Scorpions are the Finnish Sturm und Drang, the British Marshall Law, The Company of Snakes, The Darkness, The Wildhearts, and Heavy Metal Kids, the Americans Fozzy, Thickliquid, and Satanicide, among others. They have also influenced other bands from other genres such as power metal such as Angel Dust, and Grave Digger, also thrash metal such as Metallica and Sodom, and Christian rock like Agnes, among others.

Legacy

Scorpions has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, although there are media outlets that estimate sales at 160 million, which makes them the most important rock band in Germany and of Continental Europe. In addition to this, they put an end to the power that only Anglo-Saxon bands, mainly English and American, could make good rock. Many of the later German groups such as Rammstein, Edguy, Helloween and Accept mainly, have highlighted the effort and work of Scorpions to exalt rock "made in Germany". As a result, Rolling Stone magazine called them "the heroes of heavy metal» and were the first to win in the best national group category at the German Echo Awards in 1992.

They have been considered pioneers and a key group of hard rock and one of the greatest exponents of the development of heavy metal during the seventies and eighties. Their songs have been covered by other bands and artists of metal and rock for some tribute albums, the most important being the album A Tribute to the Scorpions with groups such as Sonata Arctica, Helloween, Tankard, Therion, Stratovarius and Sinergy among others. Another artist who has recognized the influence of the band and his fanaticism to it, is the former guitarist of Dokken, George Lynch, who together with some vocalists of the < i>glam metal of the eighties such as Kevin DuBrow, John Corabi, Kelly Hansen and Paul Shortino made the tribute album Scorpion Tales in 2008.

Other bands that have covered their songs and that have been published on their respective albums, generally as an additional track or performed in live shows have been: Children Of Bodom ("Don' t Stop at the Top"), Testament ("The Sails of Charon"), Firewind ("Pictured Life"), Arch Enemy ("The Zoo"), Exodus ("Don't Make no Promises") »), Mastercastle ("Alien Nation"), Bon Jovi ("Rock You Like a Hurricane"), System of a Down ("When the Smoke is Going Down"), Pain of Salvation ("Yellow Raven")), and Stryper (“Blackout”), just to name a few. A separate thing are the versions made by the singer of Judas Priest, Rob Halford, who covered the song "Blackout" in a live show. and the vocalist of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, who covered it. the song "The Zoo" which was included on the album ECW: Extreme Music.

Some of the band's songs have entered most of the lists of great hits, for example Billboard magazine in its list of the 100 hits of the >hard rock placed the songs "Still Loving You", "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Rhythm of Love" and "No One Like You". The television channel VH1 placed "Rock You Like a Hurricane" at number 18 on their list of the 100 great hard rock songs. Special mention is made of the song "Wind of Change", the most successful power ballad of the band and that only in Germany it spent 55 consecutive weeks on the popularity charts of that country, 11 of them being number 1. This has allowed the song to be the single with the most weeks on the list for more than 15 years. German and currently appears in position 97. However, due to the number of weeks on the chart, it should be in position 3. Regarding this, in 2009 it was estimated that adding his studio albums, compilations and singles, the band has spent a total of 3,147 weeks on the charts in more than 30 countries.

Throughout their extensive career, they have had millions of fans and followers around the world. Among them have been some rock musicians such as Alejandro Silva, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Andreas Kisser of Sepultura, Joe Satriani, Axl Rose of Guns N&# 39; Roses, Jon Bon Jovi and the founding members of Weezer. Also the vocalists Beth Ditto from Gossip, Tarja Turunen ex Nightwish, Doro, Pink and Shakira, the latter being photographed wearing a t-shirt from the band. In the same way, the brothers Van Halen from the band of the same name, who in their first performances in the seventies played the songs "Speedy's Coming" and "Catch Your Train" belonging to Scorpions. and the late guitarist Gary Moore who in a Scorpions performance in London in 1976 he told Rudolf Schenker: "I fucking love your band." Other famous people who have openly acknowledged their fanaticism for the band have been the writer Paulo Coelho, the Ukrainian professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko, the Hollywood actor Ben Stiller, the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the conductor Christian Kolonovits and the Prince of Monaco, Albert II.

But his legacy even goes beyond the world of music. Evidence of this is that the Hannover professional hockey team, founded in 1975 as ESC Vedemark, changed its name to Hannover Scorpions in 1996 in honor of the musicians, as this is also the band's hometown.