Scorpions "Love at First Sting (1990 Mercury Records, U.S.A., 814 981-2)"

Love at First Sting is the ninth studio album by German rock band Scorpions. It was released on 27 March 1984 on Harvest/EMI and Mercury. The album contains Rock You Like a Hurricane and Still Loving You, two of the bands' most famous songs.

Love at First Sting is notable in that it was one of the first digitally recorded hard rock records ever released.

The album was recorded in 1983 and 1984 at Dierks Studios in Stommeln, West Germany. Initial sessions took place in Stockholm's Polar Studios in the Summer of 1983 with ex-Rainbow members Jimmy Bain on bass and Bobby Rondinelli on drums, but nothing made it to the final album. 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 US, 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, and number 3 in the French and Swiss single charts.

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.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Klaus Meine except where noted; all music is composed by Rudolf Schenker.

1. "Bad Boys Running Wild" (lyrics by Meine, Herman Rarebell) 3:54
2. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" (lyrics by Meine, Rarebell) 4:11
3. "I'm Leaving You" 4:16
4. "Coming Home" 4:58
5. "The Same Thrill" 3:30
6. "Big City Nights" 4:08
7. "As Soon as the Good Times Roll" 5:01
8. "Crossfire" 4:31
9. "Still Loving You" 6:26

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Dierks Studios Cologne.

Mastered at PolyGram Studios.