Scooter is a German happy hardcore, rave and techno music band founded in Hamburg in 1993. As of 2012, the band has sold over 30 million records and earned over 80 Gold and Platinum awards. Since December 2022, the band is composed of lead vocalist H. P. Baxxter, musician/producer Marc Blou, DJ/producer Jay Frog and manager Jens Thele.
Among their more well-known hits are "Crank It Up", "Hyper Hyper", "Move Your Ass!", "Friends", "Endless Summer", "Back in the U.K.", "I'm Raving", "Fire", "How Much Is the Fish?", "Ramp! (The Logical Song)", "Nessaja", "Weekend!", "Maria (I Like It Loud)", "One (Always Hardcore)" and "The Question Is What Is the Question?".
Career
Celebrate the Nun (1985–1992) At the end of 1985, H. P. Baxxter and Rick J. Jordan met in Hanover, Germany through a small ad and founded the synthpop/new wave band Celebrate the Nun. While the lead vocals were performed by Baxxter and female vocals were delivered by Baxxter's sister Britt Maxime, Rick J. Jordan took care of the keyboards and sound engineering. The band released their first album Meanwhile in 1989. AllMusic wrote that "During the mid-'80s, numerous synth pop acts dreamed of becoming the next Depeche Mode. Celebrate the Nun could have been buried in the glut of Depeche Mode doppelgangers; however, top-drawer songwriting and consistently catchy hooks lifted Celebrate the Nun above the mass of wannabes". The single "Will You Be There" off Meanwhile peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Dance/Club play chart on 23 June 1990, whereas the single "She's a Secretary/Strange" peaked at No. 12 on Dance/Club play chart on 8 December of the same year. Slin Tompson, who was the fourth person in the band's original line-up, left the band in 1990 to start a project on his own. In 1991, the band released their second album Continuous, but this was less successful due to synthpop's declining popularity. Two singles were released off the second material, "Patience" and "You Make Me Wonder" both of which went without charting. Not finding the expected success in the New Wave arena, Baxxter kept working at the former Hamburg based Indie label (currently Edel Records) in the Distribution and Sales department where he met Scooter's future manager Jens Thele.
The Loop (1993–1998) Soon afterwards, in late 1993, the former Celebrate the Nun members under the management of Jens Thele formed a remix team known as The Loop. The Loop became one of the top remix teams in Germany, releasing remixes for artists like Adeva, Holly Johnson, The Tag Team and RuPaul.
The First Chapter (December 1993–1998) Scooter started as a project in December 1993. Their debut single was a cover of René et Gaston's "Vallée de larmes" (French for "Valley of Tears") and reached No.8 on the German official dance chart. In April 1994, Scooter played their first live show at the Palladium in Hamburg.
At first, "Hyper Hyper" was expected to be a small hit within the club scene, but it managed to reach the No.2 position on the German single chart, Media Control, eventually going triple gold for selling 750,000 units. "Hyper Hyper" also entered the top-5 in Switzerland, Austria and in Italy, meanwhile, entering the top-10 in the Netherlands and Norway. Scooter's third single "Move Your Ass" reached No.3 on Media Control's single chart after a few weeks of its release and managed to achieve a gold status for sales of over 250,000 in Germany. The single also gained similar success as its predecessor outside of Germany, it entered the top-5 in Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, meanwhile, entering the top-10 in Norway and Italy. The follow-up singles, "Friends" and "Endless Summer" managed to enter the top-20 in number of countries including Switzerland, Austria and Finland.
The band maintained the initial technique of their sound throughout their second album, Our Happy Hardcore, until the style became noticeably different with their 1996 single "I'm Raving" (from the third album Wicked) as the tempos were down to 138 BPM from their previous tempos which were between the range of 160 and 190 BPM. The single reached No.4 in Germany and earned a gold certification for selling well over 250,000 units.
Scooter's fourth album, Age of Love, which reached the No.19 slot on Germany's Media Control album chart was the last album that featured Baxxter's cousin Ferris Bueller.
The Second Chapter (1998–2002)
In 1998, Ferris Bueller (Soren Buehler) left the group to pursue a solo career (he later admitted that he had been suffering from depression for several years due to his then new time-demanding life as a pop star), and was replaced by DJ Axel Coon, who had been working with the band at the recording studio for some time already. Coon had also played live with Scooter in some occasions, covering for Rick J. Jordan. In June 1998, Scooter released one of their most popular singles to date "How Much Is the Fish?" which peaked at No.3 in Germany, the single also went gold selling over 250,000 units in Germany alone. Their fifth studio album, No Time to Chill reached the No.4 position on Germany's Media Control album chart, whereas it topped the album chart in Finland and earned a gold-award for sales of over 36,000 units. In the same vein, the album reached a gold status in Poland for sales of over 50,000 units.
In July 1999, Scooter released their first single "Faster Harder Scooter", from their sixth album, Back to the Heavyweight Jam. While the single peaked at No.7 at home, it did quite well in Scandinavia peaking at No.3 in Sweden and No.2 in Finland, and the trio eventually picked up a platinum-award in Sweden for selling over 40,000 copies of the single. The second single, "Fuck the Millennium" was released in November 1999 which reached No.11 on Media Control singles charts and as its predecessor spent 11 weeks on the chart. The single as its predecessor did similarly well over in Scandinavia charting at No.3 in Sweden and No.4 in Finland, it eventually earned the trio a gold-award in Sweden for sales of over 20,000 units. The album, Back to the Heavyweight Jam just like the singles turned out to be a hit in Scandinavia, it entered the top-5 both in Finland and Sweden where it eventually reached a gold status for sales of over 40,000 units.
Scooter released their seventh studio album, Sheffield, in May 2000. Sheffield took another new direction containing 6/8 rhythms on tracks "Don't Gimme the Funk" and "Sex Dwarf". In late 2000, after their second single "She's the Sun", Scooter were awarded a Comet at the 2000 VIVA Comet Awards in the category of "Most Successful Dance Act".
The band's 21st single, "Posse (I Need You on the Floor)" was released in Germany on 21 May 2001, and it was the first Scooter single since "Endless Summer" to include a high-pitched voice in the chorus. The single peaked at No.7 at Scooter's home market, spending 13 weeks on the official single chart. Their eighth album, We Bring the Noise, released in June 2001, included another single, "Aiii Shot the DJ". A limited-edition version of the album included a cover of the 1978 City song "Am Fenster" as a bonus track.
In December 2001, Scooter released their 23rd single "Ramp! (The Logical Song)" from their Best of compilation album Push the Beat for This Jam. While the single went platinum in Australia and Norway, it managed to reach the No.2 position in the United Kingdom, where it went gold for sales of over 400,000 units. The album itself, which was released on 7 January 2002 managed to reach a gold status in the UK, Sweden and Norway.
The Third Chapter (2002–2006)
At the beginning of 2002, immediately after the release of trio's compilation album Push the Beat for this Jam, Axel Coon left the band to pursue a solo career in DJing and remixing, and Jay Frog became the new third person. Jay Frog was already familiar with the band as he had occasionally covered for Axel Coon.
As a quick way of introducing the new member Frog to their fans, the trio released a second compilation album in November 2002, 24 Carat Gold. Scooter's 24th single, "Nessaja" was a cover version of the title track from Peter Maffay's musical Tabaluga, and debuted at No.1 on the German official single charts. The single managed to reach a gold status in Germany for selling over 250,000 units. The single also did well in numerous markets including Austria, Norway and Denmark in all of which it entered the top-5, it also managed to enter the top-10 in Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands.
Scooter enjoyed a comeback within the UK charts, with six top-20 UK singles "The Logical Song" (UK No.2), "Nessaja" (UK No.4), "Posse (I Need You on the Floor)" (UK No.15), "Weekend!" (UK No.12), "The Night" (UK No.16) and "Maria (I Like It Loud)" (UK No.16) all charting within an 18-month period.
In 2003, the video for "Weekend!" caused a scandal with its scenes of topless dancers. The song reached No.2 on the German Media Control single chart. That same year, under the pseudonym Ratty, the group re-released the trance record "Sunrise (Here I am)" featuring three new mixes. The single had previously reached number 6 in the UK dance chart in 2001.
In March 2003, Scooter released their next studio album, The Stadium Techno Experience. The album climbed to No.7 on the Media Control album chart and was certified gold in Sweden, Norway and Hungary. The single "The Night" became the last to feature the high pitched voice effect and reached the top-10 in Germany. The next single from the album, "Maria (I Like It Loud)", was released in collaboration with hardcore producers Marc Acardipane and Dick Rules, reaching No.4 on the single charts.
Mind the Gap was Scooter's 10th studio album, which was released on 8 November 2004 in three different versions, basic, regular and deluxe. While the album peaked at No.16 at home and spent 21 weeks on the album chart, the trio's 28th single, "Shake That!" flavored with 1970s disco sound was released on 4 October 2004 in most European countries, the single entered the German Media Control single chart peaking at No.8.
Their 11th studio album, Who's Got the Last Laugh Now?, featured a cover version of "Everlasting Love." The Who's Got The Last Laugh Now? 2006 tour was followed by the release of both the CD and the 2-disc DVD entitled Excess All Areas, one of the DVDs containing the final Hamburg concert of the tour and the second containing every music video released so far.
The Fourth Chapter (2006–2014)
On 14 August 2006, it was announced that Jay Frog had decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career. Frog was replaced by Michael Simon, who had remixed some of Scooter's tracks while in search of success with his "Shahin & Simon" project. On 19 August, Scooter played at the Tufertschwil Open Air in Switzerland, where Simon debuted.
The single "Behind the Cow" was premiered at The Dome 40 in Düsseldorf on 1 December 2006, and was released on 19 January 2007. The song and its lyrics are based on "What Time Is Love?" by The KLF. Their 12th album The Ultimate Aural Orgasm, which includes the songs "The United Vibe" (cover version of Den Harrow's "Catch the Fox"), "Scarborough Affair" or "The Shit That Killed Elvis" (collaboration with Jimmy Pop, the frontman of American fun-rock-band The Bloodhound Gang), was released on 9 February 2007. The album peaked at No.6 in Germany and spent 16 weeks on the album chart. The second single released off The Ultimate Aural Orgasm was "Lass uns tanzen" which appeared in stores on 23 March. Despite the fact that the single peaked only at No.19 at home, it managed to stay on the singles chart for 18 weeks.