Scorpions
The German group Scorpions, that sold over 150 million copies in total, is rightfully considered one of the most famous and successful hard-rock bands in the world. It was formed by a guitarist and composer Rudolf Schenker in 1965. The band became really popular only by the middle 70s that was the beginning of the famous rockers’ rise as stars of the world rock stage.
The group’s first studio album was recorded in 1972. It contained only English songs but was not very popular. Only in 1975 and 1976, after releasing CDs titled In Trance and Virgin Killer correspondingly, the band made known its unique style and image that stood the group out from many similar “heavy” teams and increased the number of its fans.
The band’s main admirers were from Europe and Japan. And the group’s popularity mainly grew, as it often happened earlier, among the Asian public. During the tour in Japan in 1978, Scorpions recorded the first concert album Tokyo Tapes, which became golden and earned the status of superstars among Japanese fans. But the members of the band could not settle its lineup. One day they left it, trying themselves in other music projects, another day they returned to the work in Scorpions. The lineup had been stabilized only by 1980.
By this time, Scorpions had understood that it was not enough to win the hearts of listeners from Japan and some European countries to reach the world fame. And German rockers decided to sweep the US market. Trying to expand horizons, the band recorded its seventh album in 1980 and it was arguably one of the best albums Animal Magnetism performed in the best hard-rock traditions. Shortly after releasing the album, Scorpions went on a next tour and by the middle 80s the band had topped the charts of Europe and Japan as well as USA. In 1984, the guys released their album Love At First Sting that became one of the most successful albums of Scorpions’ music career. It included a world-known ballad “Still Loving You”, which is still a signature of Scorpions throughout the continents, especially after the joint record with the Berlin symphony orchestra.
Within 1984-1988, the band did not record albums, focusing on concerts. In 1988, the guys released a long-expected album Savage Amusement, which was Scorpions’ tenth full-featured studio work. This CD was destined to become platinum and to reach the maximal sales in USA. Also it peaked at number five in the American Billboard 200 and heralded the long-expected world success of the band.
In 1990, the guys released their next album titled Crazy World. Although the album itself is not remarkable for Scorpions’ fans today, the ballad “Wind of Change”, included into it, won the hearts of English and Russian listeners from the post-Soviet space forever. Topping the charts of America and Europe, this song was certified as The Song of the Century in Germany. There is also a Russian record performed by “scorpions” themselves.
Needless to say, the Scorpions’ further career was fated to be successful after such a hit. Releasing one album after another, recording singles, and giving concerts, the band not only gained the status of the world megastars but set foot as icons of the classic hard-rock. Presently, there are no fans of the qualitative music who would not recognize “scorpions” by the first accords of “Wind of Change” or “Still Loving You”. In spite of the fact that the guys announced their disbandment in 2010 and went on the world tour, and released their last album Sting in the Tail, one may suppose that not only one generation of music fans will enjoy a powerful professional sounding and lyric texts of the outstanding German band.
