Essential Scorpions Songs

 Typically I feature an image of the entire band for each weekly entry. This time I went with an album cover from the Scorpions, one that was rather disturbing when I was younger, although now I wear it on a t-shirt. I once was complimented on my shirt by singer Myles Kennedy, and then talked over him when he tried to tell me how much he enjoyed the Blackout album; typical Andy moment.

10. "In Trance" (In Trance)
I was introduced to this song last year when it appeared on the Scorpions' MTV Unplugged album. I had wanted to go deeper into their earlier 1970's album and this song was the launching pad for me.

9. "Speedy's Coming" (Fly To The Rainbow)
Much like "In Trance", this was another early track from the Scorpions, actually earlier than that song. This era of the band was even when Rudolph's younger brother Michael was a force on guitar, having learned of him through the TV program That Metal Show. This song is unlike the Scorpions of the 1980's and beyond that I was most familiar with as it sounds more like the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix. The percussion on this is killer.

8. "Love Will Keep Us Alive" (Humanity: Hour One)
After entering radio in 2003 at the impressionable age of 19, I began a slow introduction to classic rock, although I was still preoccupied with current bands like TOOL, Metallica, A Perfect Circle, and Sevendust, to name a few. Humanity: Hour One was actually the first Scorpions album released while I was a fan and I remember it being pushed back several times, so it was very anticipated by the time I finally picked it up from Co-Op. I had read Billy Corgan made an appearance, but I wasn't aware of who this Desmond Child was that received co-writing and producer credits. This album seemed like the Scorpions attempt at doing something modern, though it turns out it was the other way around, a modern record producer teaming with a classic rock band. I think it was a winning combination and I still enjoy this album.

7. "The Cross" (Humanity: Hour One)
I fully admit there are better songs in the Scorpions' catalog, but this was a pretty cool effort from them. I was tiring with modern rock at the time this was released in 2007; I was annoyed with bands like Buckcherry and how other bands adopted that style, like Papa Roach, with new bands sprouting up too. Then here came the Scorpions, taking that modern sound and doing it better than those bands half their age! Plus, I was excited about Billy Corgan contributing to the song. His brief vocals turned out to be less than I figured it would be, but still an interesting choice for the song.

6. "Rock You Like A Hurricane" (Love At First Sting)
Likely the most famous Scorpions song, since it's heard around the country at sporting events and is still a constant fixture on classic hits radio stations. The version recorded for their MTV Unplugged album is even more powerful than the studio recording, so that's what I've included.

5. "Still Loving You" (Love At First Sting)
Now that I'm much more knowledgeable about rock music than I was when I first heard this song, I feel like it's a lot like KISS' "I Still Love You", which was released around the same time, too. Both are power ballads, although the reworked version by the Scorpions for their MTV Unplugged album makes it sound more like it belongs on the soundtrack of Days Of Our Lives with its haunting piano.

4. "Loving You Sunday Morning" (Lovedrive)
I would have to say Lovedrive is the strongest album from the Scorpions. It's also the first album with longtime guitarist Matthias Jaabs, who helped the band usher in their more polished sound that would eventually lead to hits such as "No One Like You" and "Rock You Like A Hurricane."

3. "Wind Of Change" (Crazy World)
In 2011 I became friends with a guy named Mark who helped bring out my love for 1980's rock. For such a long time it felt like a dirty word or something that would be a guilty pleasure, so I dismissed it as being "uncool." Mark's love for 80's rock is uncompromising, and it helped me rediscover my love for Scorpions and Def Leppard, and also become familiar with other bands like Tesla and Whitesnake. Plus, I dig that whistling!

2. "No One Like You" (Blackout)
The Scorpions seemed to be much more experimental in the early 1970's but by the end of that decade they had polished their songs into two categories- ballads and rockers; probably why they even released a hits compilation called Rockers 'n' Ballads that only featured hit songs that fell in those two camps. "No One Like You" actually feels like a blending of those two categories. The verses are quiet, much like a ballad, but then it amps up into a full-fledged rocker during the chorus. Def Leppard's "Foolin" is much the same way.

1. "The Zoo" (Animal Magnetism)
If something was associated with pro-wrestling when I was growing up in the 90's, more often than not, I thought it was cool. Enter the late 90's when my interest was at an all-time high, there happened to be another wrestling company named ECW, and I finally got a taste when I ordered one of their cable Pay-Per-View events after reading about the previous event in a wrestling magazine. How the Scorpions enter the picture is because a song was used at the end of the broadcast as a montage/highlight reel, which I discovered later was "The Zoo." It still sounds as bad ass as it did in 1999, fitting very well with the clips of pulverizing dropkicks and bodyslams through tables.