Scorpions are a hard rock and heavy metal band from Hannover, Germany. The ban has the following members Klaus Meine (lead vocals, backing vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion), Matthias Jabs (lead and rhythm guitars, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, slide guitar, fat body jazz guitar, talk box, voice box), Rudolf Schenker  (rhythm and lead guitars, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, sitar, backing vocals, rhythm & lead guitars, lead vocals), Paweł Mąciwoda (bass), James Kottak (drums, percussion, backing vocals).

 Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm guitarist, set out to find a band in 1965. At first, the band was school-kind with beat influences and Schenker himself on vocals.

In 1972 the group recorded and released their debut album “Lonesome Crow”. In 1974 the Scorpions released “Fly to the Rainbow”. The album proved to be more successful than “Lonesome Crow” and songs such as "Speedy's Coming" and the title track began to establish the band's sound. In 1976, Scorpions released “Virgin Killer”. The album's cover, which featured a fully nude prepubescent girl, brought the band considerable criticism and was ultimately pulled or replaced in several countries. The follow-up to “Virgin Killer”, “Taken by Force”, was the first Scorpions record to be aggressively promoted in the United States. RCA Records, the band's label, made a determined effort to promote the album in stores and on the radio. The album's single, "Steamrock Fever", was added to some of RCA's radio promotional records.

In 1993 Scorpions released “Face the Heat”. The album's sound was more metallic than melodic and divided the band's fan base somewhat. In 1995, a new live album, “Live Bites”, was produced. The disc documented live performances from their Savage Amusement Tour in 1988, all the way through the Face the Heat Tour in 1994. While the album had a much cleaner sound in comparison to their best-selling live album, “World Wide Live”, it was not as successful.

1999 saw the release of “Eye II Eye” and a significant change in the band's style, mixing in elements of pop and techno. While the album was slickly produced, fans were unsure what to make of the band, responding negatively to almost everything from pop-soul backup singers to the electronic drums present on several songs. The video to the album's first European single, "To Be No. 1", featured a Monica Lewinsky look-alike which did little to improve its popularity.

In early 2006, Scorpions released the DVD 1 “Night in Vienna” that included 14 live tracks and a complete rockumentary. In LA, the band spent about 4 months in the studio with producers James Michael and Desmond Child working on their new concept album titled “Humanity - Hour 1”, which was released in the second half of May 2007.

On May 14 2007, Scorpions released “Humanity - Hour 1” in Europe. Humanity - Hour 1 became available in the U.S. on August 28, 2007 on New Door Records, entering the Billboard charts at number no 63.

www.the-scorpions.com