“Rock You Like a Hurricane” by Scorpions

"Rock You Like a Hurricane" blew the doors off Love at First Sting, the Scorpions' ninth studio album, as its lead single in 1984, and it became the German band's signature song. Rudolf Schenker wrote the music and Klaus Meine and Herman Rarebell the words, which even slip in a nod to the album's title.

Dieter Dierks arranged and produced, and it's all muscle: Schenker and Matthias Jabs grinding out the riff, Francis Buchholz and Rarebell pounding like a storm front, Meine's howl riding over the top. It reached 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 while MTV hammered the video, and that pushed the album a long way. VH1 ranked it the 18th-greatest hard rock song in 2009, the Carolina Hurricanes took it up as their team intro in 2002, and the racetrack on the single's sleeve is Spain's Circuito de Jerez.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.