By Adam Waldman
On March 27, 1984, Scorpions released their 9th studio album, Love At First Sting, the follow-up album to Blackout (which featured “No One Like You”). Building on the success of Blackout, Love At First Sting took the band to another level in America. The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 chart, and two of the band’s biggest hits (“Rock You Like A Hurricane” and “Still Loving You”) cracked the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Aside from the recognition that it brought to the band, Love At First Sting is notable because it was one of the first digitally recorded hard rock records to ever be released. Scorpions had been known to have some suggestive covers in the past, much more than Love At First Sting’s fairly innocent cover (see above). Despite the fact that PolyGram Records had shown this cover art to retailers prior to release (with none displaying any concern), a complaint by Walmart after the release prompted the label to issue a “clean” cover featuring just an image of the band. The alternate cover was used by several (uptight) department store chains.
Regardless of the album cover, what’s inside the packaging is what’s most important. Love At First Sting remains one of the most popular (and successful) Scorpions albums ever. The album closes with one of the best power ballads of all-time. Listen below…
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