Love at First Sting is notable in that it was one of the first digitally recorded hard rock records ever released.
It became the group's most successful album in the USA, where it peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1984, and went double-platinum by the end of the year, reaching triple-platinum status in 1995. The song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the same year, "Still Loving You" reached number 64 on the same chart, number 14 in Germany, number 3 in the French and Swiss Top 50.
The original cover art was created by Kochlowski, which is a German graphic design company. This cover art features a man and a partially nude woman locked in an embrace, with the man giving the woman a tattoo on her thigh. Despite the record company having shown the original cover art to retailers without any concerns, a complaint by Wal-Mart after the album was released resulted in PolyGram Records issuing a "clean" cover for use in several department store chains. The alternative cover was designed to be less controversial by simply showing a photo of the band members, which was the same photo as the one on the inner sleeve.
The album was recorded in 1983 and 1984 at Dierks Studios in Pulheim Stommeln, Germany.
Although the Scorpions had already achieved fame after 1982's Blackout, Love at First Sting brought them their biggest single of the decade, the slick anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane," with some greatly underrated songs to back it up. The album opens with the hair-raising "Bad Boys Running Wild" and continues with songs such as the memorable "Big City Nights" and the half-ballad, half-powerhouse rocker "Coming Home." The record also contains what just may be the band's best ballad ever, the tear-jerking "Still Loving You." Considering the fact that it has some of their best-ever singles, Love at First Sting is definitely a must for all fans of the Scorpions.
Under the tutelage of sonic maestro Dieter Dierks, who may be the best heavy-metal producer in the world, Germany's Scorpions have evolved into one of the most powerful bands in the genre, right up there with England's Judas Priest. What this may mean to non-HM aficionados is hard to say. As is customary among head-bangers, the Scorps' lyrics – while certainly no more stupid than their non-Teutonic contemporaries' – essentially boil down to the choruses: They're "Bad Boys Running Wild," they want to "Rock You like a Hurricane," and so forth.
If there's a message here (apart from the de rigueur antiwarisms of "Crossfire"), it's all in the decibels. When Matthias Jabs is on lead guitar – as he is throughout side one of Love at First Sting – and drummer Herman Rarebell is drop-kicking the riffs along, this band can really burn. Jabs, who displays much of the flash of Eddie Van Halen (if not Van Halen's free-romping fretboard wit), is a true "monster" guitarist, in the classic HM mold. And in Klaus Meine, the Scorpions have a singer of unusual subtlety and considerable tonal control (note the relative delicacy of his approach to the ballad "Still Loving You").
Problems crop up only when Rudolf Schenker switches from rhythm to lead guitar, as he does on most of side two. His more languid, Sixties-rooted style is occasionally at odds with the band's neck-whipping dynamics and bombs-away instrumental ethos. Still, Love at First Sting – a thirty-two-track digital recording – does reach new high-tech highs of ear-melting aggression, and even offers some inventively colored vocal harmonies. Heavy-metal devotees should lap it up, and even HM skeptics might knock their noggins in tribute to the pure overkill of it all.
Track Listing
- Bad Boys Running Wild
- Rock You Like A Hurricane
- I'm Leaving You
- Coming Home
- The Same Thrill
- Big City Nights
- As Soon As The Good Times Roll
- Crossfire
- Still Loving You
Download Link
Scorpions - Love at First Sting
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