Sting in the Tail is the seventeenth studio album by German heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Scorpions

Scorpions (band)

Scorpions are a heavy metal/hard rock band from Hannover, Germany, formed in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker, who is the band's only constant member. They are known for their 1980s rock anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and many singles, such as "No One Like You", "Send Me an Angel", "Still...

. It was released on March 19, 2010 in Europe (March 14 in Greece) and was released on March 23 in North America. It is likely to be their last studio album.

In an interview with the Songfacts website, Rudolf Schenker

Rudolf Schenker

Rudolf Schenker is a German guitarist and founding member of heavy metal band Scorpions, being the rhythm/lead guitarist and one of the main song-writers of the band...

 explained that their goal was to update their sound from their classic period in the 1980s. He explained: "If you take the best song elements from the '80s albums, and put these on one album, you come up with the Sting in the Tail album. So in this case we tried to re-invent the Scorpions sound from the '80s, using the same DNA after putting in a modern twist, to make it sound like today's music."

The album has a duet featuring the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 symphonic metal

Symphonic metal

Symphonic metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g...

 singer Tarja Turunen

Tarja Turunen

Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli is a Finnish singer-songwriter and composer. She is a full lyric soprano and has a vocal range of three octaves....

, in the song "The Good Die Young".

A tentative title for the album was Humanity: Hour II, however this was eventually scrapped.

First week sales in the United States were 18,500 copies sold placing it at No. 23 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

. In Germany the album debuted at No. 2, but fell in its second week to No. 3, in France at No. 16 and in Greece at No. 1. The album also peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Rock Charts.

Track listing

1. "Raised on Rock" – 3:57 (Music: Andersson, Hansen / Lyrics: Hansen, Meine)
2. "Sting in the Tail" – 3:12 (Meine, Schenker / Meine)
3. "Slave Me" – 2:44 (Schenker / Meine, Jabs, Bazilian)
4. "The Good Die Young" (feat. Tarja Turunen) – 5:14 (Schenker, Kolonovits / Meine)
5. "No Limit" – 3:24 (Meine, Schenker, Bazilian / Meine, Schenker, Bazilian)
6. "Rock Zone" – 3:17 (Meine, Andersson, Hansen / Meine)
7. "Lorelei" – 4:31 (Schenker, Thomander, Wikström / Meine, Bazilian, Thomander, Wikström)
8. "Turn You On" – 4:25 (Schenker, Andersson, Hansen / Meine)
9. "Let's Rock!" – 3:20 (Bazilian,Meine,Schenker)
10. "SLY" – 5:15 (Meine, Schenker / Meine)
11. "Spirit of Rock" – 3:43 (Schenker, Bazilian / Meine, Schenker, Bazilian)
12. "The Best Is Yet to Come" – 4:34 (Music: Bazilian, Thomander, Wikström / Lyrics: Schenker, Bazilian, Thomander, Wikström)

1. "Dreamers"*** / "Thunder and Lightning" (Schenker, Meine, Kolonovits / Meine)
2. "Too Far"***
3. "Miracle" (regular version)***
4. "The Good Die Young" (new version)***
5. "Thunder and Lightning"*** – bonus track also on Japanese edition

• Bonus tracks on European Premium Edition, which also includes a DVD, featuring:

1. "Sting in the Tail" (live video San Antonio)
2. "The Best Is Yet to Come" (live video Prague)
3. "Sting in the Tail" (video message – EPK)

Personnel

• Klaus Meine
  Klaus Meine
  Klaus Meine is a German singer, best known as the lead vocalist and occasional rhythm guitarist of the heavy metal band Scorpions...
  
   – Lead vocals
• Matthias Jabs
  Matthias Jabs
  Matthias Jabs is a German guitarist and songwriter. He is a member of the heavy metal band Scorpions. Before joining the Scorpions, Jabs had played for the bands Lady, Fargo and Deadlock....
  
   – Lead guitar, Backing vocals
• Rudolf Schenker
  Rudolf Schenker
  Rudolf Schenker is a German guitarist and founding member of heavy metal band Scorpions, being the rhythm/lead guitarist and one of the main song-writers of the band...
  
   – Rhythm guitar, Backing vocals
• Paweł Mąciwoda – Bass, Backing vocals
• James Kottak
  James Kottak
  James Kottak is an American drummer for the heavy metal band Scorpions, which he joined in 1996....
  
   – Drums, Percussion, Backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Tarja Turunen
  Tarja Turunen
  Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli is a Finnish singer-songwriter and composer. She is a full lyric soprano and has a vocal range of three octaves....
  
   – Backing vocals on 1st version of "The Good Die Young" and the main vocals on the 2nd version.

Release history

Region	Date
Greece	14 March 2010
Germany	19 March 2010
United Kingdom	22 March 2010
United States	23 March 2010
Brazil	15 April 2010
Japan	22 April 2010

Charts

Chart (2010)	Peak position	Certification	Sales/ shipments
Greece IFPI Greece International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece or IFPI Greece is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Greece. Currently two charts are compiled, one for sales of...	1	Platinum
German Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	2	2x Platinum	200,000
Korea Gaon Chart The Gaon Chart is a national record chart of South Korea. It is complied by the Korea Music Content Industry Association and sponsored by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism; with an aim to create a national chart for Korea similar to the Billboard charts and Oricon charts...	2	-
Czech Republic	3	-
Japan	6	Gold
Russia Russian Music Charts The Russian Music Charts are Russian music industry standard popularity rankings compiled weekly by 2M and Tophit . Albums and tracks rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through retail data captured electronically each week from Russian music retailers...	6	Platinum
Austria Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...	6	-
Swiss Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...	6	-
Finland	6	-
United Arab Emirates	7	-
Sweden Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	14	-
French Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry...	16	-
Hungary Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary....	19	Gold
Portugal Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa The Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa is currently the only recording industry association in Portugal. Created in 1989, it succeeded GPPFV and UNEVA ....	21	Gold
Canadian Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...	22	-
United States Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	23	-
Brazil	27	-
Spain	30	-
Mexico Top 100 Mexico Top 100 México is a record chart which accounts for sixty percent of the albums sold in Mexico. The chart has the support of major record distributors in Mexico and is issued by the Mexican Association of Producers of Phonograms and Videograms, A.C. since 2005 on a weekly basis...	33	-
Italy Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy....	39	-
Poland Polish Music Charts The Polish Music Charts are two official album charts and seven singles charts in Poland, provided by ZPAV, the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry . The first, the Top 100, is a monthly chart based on data received from the album companies...	41	-
Belgium Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...	45	-
Holland MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...	71	-
UK Albums Chart	96	-

Year-end charts

Chart (2010)	Rank
German Albums Chart	29