Fly to the Rainbow


Fly to the Rainbow is the second studio album by German hard rock band Scorpions, released in 1 November 1974 in the United States.

Background

In support of their Lonesome Crow album, Scorpions appeared as the opening act for the British rock band UFO. At the end of the tour, Scorpions lead guitarist Michael Schenker was asked to fill an open position as UFO's guitarist and accepted the role. Schenker's departure temporarily resulted in the breakup of the band but Rudolf Schenker and later Klaus Meine ultimately merged with the band Dawn Road which consisted of guitarist Ulrich Roth filling Michael's role, as well as drummer Jürgen Rosenthal, and bass guitarist Francis Buchholz. The new line up resumed under the Scorpions name and recorded Fly to the Rainbow.
Three songs were co-written with departing guitarist Michael Schenker as part of an agreement with the Scorpions for leaving them and joining UFO in April of that year.

Artwork

When asked to comment on the cover art to the album, the band's former lead guitarist Uli Jon Roth said "Don’t ask me what that cover means… I disliked it from the beginning. It looked ludicrous to me back then and looks just as bad today. It was done by a firm of designers in Hamburg, who had actually done a good job on the Lonesome Crow album before, but I think that time they failed miserably. As for the meaning, I can only guess, but I’d rather not…"

Live performances

Five songs from Fly to the Rainbow were regularly performed live by Scorpions during the tours for it and the following album In Trance – the title track, "Speedy’s Coming", "They Need a Million" and less often "This Is My Song" and "Drifting Sun". The live versions of "Speedy’s Coming" and the title track appear on the live album Tokyo Tapes, recorded in April 1978. However, soon after the band quite rapidly dropped these songs from their setlist, so that between 1980 and 1999 nothing from Fly to the Rainbow ever appeared in Scorpions concerts. Following upon a one-off performance of "They Need a Million" on 7 June 1999 at Patinoire de Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg, the title tune and "Speedy's Coming" received a number of performances between 2000 and 2008, with the latter having been played with relative frequency from 2015 up to 2019.

Track listing

Personnel

Scorpions
Additional musicians
Production