Formation and early history (1965 1973)[edit] Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm guitarist launched the band

in 1965. At first , the band had beat influences and Schenker himself did the vocals.[12] Things b egan to come together in 1970 when Schenker's younger brother Michael and vocali st Klaus Meine joined the band. In 1972 the group recorded and released their de but album Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on dru ms.[13] During the Lonesome Crow tour, Scorpions opened for upcoming British ban d UFO. Near the end of the tour, guitarist Michael Schenker accepted an offer of lead guitar for UFO. Uli Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then call ed in to finish off the tour. The departure of Michael Schenker led to the breakup of the band. In 1973, Uli R oth, who had helped Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the r ole as lead guitarist, but turned the band down, preferring instead to remain in the band Dawn Road. Rudolf Schenker eventually decided that he wanted to work w ith Roth, but did not want to resurrect the last Scorpions lineup. He attended s ome of Dawn Road's rehearsals and ultimately decided to join the band, which con sisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboards) and Jrgen R osenthal (drums). Roth and Buchholz persuaded Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Me ine to join on vocals, which he soon did. While there were more members of Dawn Road than Scorpions in the band, they decided to use the Scorpions name because it was well known in the German hard rock scene and an album had been released u nder that name.[14] Rise to fame (1974 1978)[edit] In 1974, the new line-up of Scorpions released Fly to the Rainbow. The album pro ved to be more successful than Lonesome Crow and songs such as "Speedy's Coming" and the title track established the band's sound. Achim Kirschning decided to l eave after the recordings. Soon after, Jrgen Rosenthal had to leave as he was bei ng drafted into the army. In 1976, he would join a German progressive rock band called Eloy recording three albums. He was replaced by a Belgian drummer, Rudy L enners. In 1975, the band released In Trance, which marked the beginning of Scorpions' l ong collaboration with German producer Dieter Dierks. The album was a huge step forward for Scorpions and established their heavy metal formula. It garnered a f an base at home and abroad with cuts such as "In Trance", "Dark Lady" and "Robot Man". In 1976, Scorpions released Virgin Killer. The album's cover featured a nude pre pubescent girl behind a broken pane of glass. The cover art was designed by Stef an Bohle who was the product manager for RCA Records,[15] their label at the tim e. The cover brought the band considerable market exposure but was subsequently pulled or replaced in other countries. The album itself garnered demographic pra ise for its music from select critics and fan base. The following year, Rudy Lenners resigned for personal reasons and was replaced by Herman Rarebell. For the follow-up Taken by Force, RCA Records made a determined effort to promot e the album in stores and on the radio. The album's single, "Steamrock Fever", w as added to some of RCA's radio promotional records. Roth was not happy with the commercial direction the band was taking. Although he performed on the band's J apan tour, he departed to form his own band, Electric Sun prior to the release o f the resultant double live album Tokyo Tapes. Tokyo Tapes was released in the U S and Europe six months after its Japanese release. By that time in mid 1978, af ter auditioning around 140 guitarists, Scorpions recruited guitarist Matthias Ja bs. Commercial success (1979 1991)[edit]