History Music / ScorpionsBand

* CoverVersion: Big Mama Thornton via Music/ElvisPresley's "Hound Dog" and Music/LittleRichard's "Long Tall Sally" in ''Tokyo Tapes'', Music/TheWho's "I Can't Explain" for a collection album in the late 80s, Music/{{Queen}}'s "Love of My Life", Music/TheCars' "Drive" and Music/{{Kansas}}' "Dust in the Wind", the latter three from ''Acoustica'', as well as half of ''Comeblack''.

* AlternateAlbumCover: They had this at least five times during their career.

* Francis Buchholz: bassist (1973-1992)1

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Rudolf Schenker sang lead vocals on "They Need a Million", "Hey You" and "Love is the Answer" (from ''MTV Unplugged: Live in Athens). Uli Jon Roth sang lead vocals on "Dark Lady", "Sun in My Hand", "Hell Cat" and "Polar Nights"

* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Averted. The name's ''Scorpions'' only -- no "The" in front. There ''was'' an English band called "[[Music/TheScopions ''The'' Scorpions]]" in the [=60s=], though.

* CoolOldGuy: Can you believe Rudolf's in his 70s?
** Klaus counts too: he's the same age and still can sing and wail like that. '''Wow.'''

* DramaticChoirNumber: A choir sings the first two lines of "You Can't Always Get What You Want", then disappears until the very end.

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Rudolf Schenker
** TheLancer: Klaus Maine
** TheSmartGuy: Matthias Jabs
** TheBigGuy: Mikkey Dee
** TheHeart: Paweł Mąciwoda

* AlternateAlbumCover: They had this at least three times during their career.

* NiceHat: Klaus' trademark backwards beret, and Matthias' cap.

With 7 gold records and 11 platinums in the US (15 golds and 9 platinums in their homeland) and 18 songs charting at the Mainstream Rock Tracks (among which "No One Like You" reached #1), Scorpions are one of the most worldwide successful rock bands from mainland Europe - even though they would only have a belated recognition in America.[[note]]At least on a mainstream level. Scorpions are an extremely influental band for many American heavy and thrash metal bands, with both [[Music/{{Metallica}} James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett]] and [[Music/{{Megadeth}} Dave Mustaine]] citing them as an influence.[[/note]]

* AlternateAlbum Cover: They had this at least three times during their career.

* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Averted. The name's ''Scorpions'' only -- no "The" in front. There ''was'' an English band called "''The'' Scorpions" in the [=60s=], though.

* CoolOldGuy: Can you believe Rudolf's over his 60's?

* AlbumTitleDrop: As seen by the quote above, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" in ''Love at First Sting''.

* ContemptibleCover: A few, most notably ''Virgin Killer'', to the point where the controversy overshadowed the album's content.
** Averted with ''Taken by Force''. Creator/RCARecords, presumably shell-shocked by then, changed it anyway to a [[MinimalisticCoverArt plain black cover]] with [[FloatingHeadSyndrome band photos]].
** In America, Creator/MercuryRecords replaced one ContemptibleCover with another by issuing a nudity-free cover for ''Lovedrive'', which instead featured what is [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Scorpions_Lovedrive_alt.jpg/220px-Scorpions_Lovedrive_alt.jpg possibly the most phallic scorpion ever]].

Scorpions is a German rock band formed in 1965 in Hannover by Rudolf Schenker (vocals/guitar), Lothar Heimberg (bass) and Wolfgang Dziony (drums), which only started to actually take shape four years later with Rudolf's younger brother Michael Schenker and Klaus Meine joining on guitar and vocals, respectively. While touring to promote their debut album, Michael, still an 18-year-old young gun, joined British rock band Music/UFOBand in 1973 (at the start of their classic phase) and was replaced by Uli Jon Roth, who was a mainstay until 1978, when Matthias Jabs took over. While the bassist and drummer positions have changed over the course of four and a half decades, the Meine-Schenker-Jabs trio stayed on... and the rest is history.

** He also recorded three tracks in ''Lovedrive'' after leaving UFO, then [[StartMyOwn assembled Michael Schenker Group]].

Scorpions is a German rock band formed in 1965 in Hannover by Rudolf Schenker (vocals/guitar), Lothar Heimberg (bass) and Wolfgang Dziony (drums), which only started to actually take shape four years later with Rudolf's younger brother Michael Schenker and Klaus Meine joining on guitar and vocals, respectively. While touring to promote their debut album, Michael, still an 18-year-old young gun, joined British rock band Music/{{UFO}} in 1973 (at the start of their classic phase) and was replaced by Uli Jon Roth, who was a mainstay until 1978, when Matthias Jabs took over. While the bassist and drummer positions have changed over the course of four and a half decades, the Meine-Schenker-Jabs trio stayed on... and the rest is history.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Varies from 4 to 7 depending on the song (albums average at around 6):
** 4: "When the Smoke is Going Down", "Always Somewhere", "Lady Starlight"
** 5: "Still Loving You", Wind of Change", "Holiday"
** 6: "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "No One Like You"
** 7: "Now!", "Dynamite", "Alien Nation"

** 7: "Now!", "Dynamite" (the latter dipping into 8)
** "Virgin Killer" should rate around an 8, possibly also "Animal Magnetism" and "The Sails of Charon"
** 8: Most of "Face The Heat" especially "Alien Nation"

* FanService: Their album covers often feature women in all states of undress. A few covers substitute women for suggestive, typically phallic imagery

* ContemptibleCover: A few, most notably ''Virgin Killer'', to the point where the [[OvershadowedByControversy controversy overshadowed the album's content]].

** Also doubles as an AlbumCoverDrop.

* ParentalIncest: "Daddy's Girl", which is [[TearJerker unrelentingly bleak]] for a simple three-minute song.

* BadassGrandpa: Meine,Jabs and Rudolf.

With 7 gold records and 11 platinums in the US (15 golds and 9 platinums in their homeland) and 18 songs charting at the Mainstream Rock Tracks (among which "No One Like You" reached #1), Scorpions are one of the most worldwide successful rock bands from mainland Europe - even though they would only have a belated recognition in America.

* Francis Buchholz: bassist (1973-1992)