Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Scorpions‘ eighth studio album, Blackout, which saw the German rockers achieve their first significant chart success in the U.S.
The album peaked at #10 on the Billboard 200, and featured the melodic rock anthem “No One Like You,” whose popularity was propelled by a memorable music video that went into heavy rotation on MTV.
Much of the clip was filmed during an overnight shoot at the site of the infamous former prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. It included a scene where frontman Klaus Meine is strapped into a prop electric chair.
Meine tells ABC Audio that the experience of filming the video on Alcatraz “was fantastic.”
“It was a little spooky,” the singer recalls. “When you went outside, the whole bay, it was very foggy…and it was pretty cold. And we went to different places inside the prison.”
Meine also remembers that the electric chair that had been brought to island for the shoot became quite popular with the tourists who began arriving the next morning.
“I remember the first boat arrived with some Japanese tourists,” Klaus recalls, “and when they spotted the electric chair, they were lining up, taking pictures of [it], thinking Al Capone was grilled there or whatever.”
Blackout went on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1 million in the U.S.
The Scorpions’ popularity in the wake of Blackout‘s success led to the band getting a slot at the 1983 US Festival’s “Heavy Metal Day,” just before headliners Van Halen.
Meine says the band, performing in front of a crowd of over 300,000 people in California’s San Bernardino Valley, “played one of the best shows in our life.”
Here’s Blackout‘s full track list:
“Blackout”
“Can’t Live Without You”
“No One Like You”
“You Give Me All I Need”
“Now!”
“Dynamite”
“Arizona”
“China White”
“When the Smoke Is Going Down”
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
