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 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.
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.
thumb|right|Scooter during 1st Chapter (1993–98). Left to right: [[Rick J. Jordan, Ferris Bueller, H. P. Baxxter.]]
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 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.
The Second Chapter (1998–2002)
thumb|Scooter circa 2000. Left to right: [[H. P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan, Axel Coon.]]
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 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. 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)
thumb|right|250px|Scooter in 2004. Left to right: [[Jay Frog, H. P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan.]]
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.
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. The single "The Night" became the last to feature the high pitched voice effect and reached the top-10 in Germany. Scooter performed at the famous Scattered rave party in Sydney as well as in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
In March 2008, the group embarked on its first arena tour of the UK as part of Clubland Live, appearing alongside other All Around The World acts such as Cascada and Ultrabeat. During this tour, Scooter performed a retooled version of "I'm Lonely" from Jumping All Over the World; the single was released in Germany on 18 April 2008. "The Question Is What Is The Question" was released in the UK the same week, charting at No.49. It was Scooter's first No.1 in the UK and first album release there in five years.
During the summer of 2009, Scooter announced the release of their next studio album, Under the Radar Over the Top. On 14 August 2009, Scooter released "J'adore Hardcore", the first single from Under the Radar Over the Top. "J'adore Hardcore" was based on Planet Funk's "Chase the Sun" and The Pitcher's "I Just Can't Stop". On 30 July 2009, during the video shoot for "J'adore Hardcore", Baxxter was almost a victim of a car bomb attack in Mallorca, Spain. Michael Simon reported that Baxxter was alright and it was a very near miss. For their next single, "Ti sento", Scooter collaborated with Italian singer Antonella Ruggiero. "Ti sento" which peaked at No.10 in Germany, was released the day Under the Radar Over the Top was released. The single was released on 27 November.
On 9 February 2010 it was announced that Scooter would perform the official song of the 2010 IIHF World Championship. This song would be "Stuck on Replay", and it would additionally be released as the fourth single from Under the Radar Over the Top.
The Under the Radar Over the Top Tour was announced before the album was released. The tour was a week long through several German cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, and Leipzig and one Swiss city, Zürich, throughout March 2010. This was the largest tour to date, and again featured the Sheffield Jumpers. During this tour, Scooter performed in front of a total of 40,000 people, and the Hamburg concert was the largest on the tour, with a sold-out venue of 14,000. This was followed by Leipzig, with 10,000 people attending the final concert of the tour.
thumb|upright=0.8|H. P. Baxxter at the Echo music award 2013
Regardless of the tour, "Stuck on Replay" peaked at only position No.34 on the German singles chart, but remained on the charts for 12 weeks.
On 29 June 2010, it was announced that Scooter would be headlining the Clubland Live 4 Tour, appearing alongside acts such as Ultrabeat, ItaloBrothers, and Alex K. This would be Scooter's second tour of the United Kingdom. Interspersed among these dates were small concerts held at festivals such as Tomorrowland in Belgium, and in other places such as Iceland. However, on 6 October 2010, Clubland Live 4 was cancelled, thus cancelling the band's second UK tour.
On 15 April 2011, a re-worked version of Scooter's 1995 single "Friends" was released, entitled "Friends Turbo". It was the official theme for the German version of the Dutch film called New Kids Turbo.
Scooter's fifteenth studio album, entitled The Big Mash Up was released on 14 October 2011 - two years since the release of Under the Radar Over the Top being the longest gap between two albums in the band's history to date. The first single from the album, "The Only One", was released on 20 May 2011, which peaked at No.45. the same day as the album. The third single from The Big Mash Up, entitled "C'est Bleu", which features Vicky Leandros, was released on 2 December 2011. Both the second and the third singles charted worse than the first single, No.67 and No.77 respectively. While the trio changed the sound of the song for a single release, it still didn't help it to chart higher than No.79 on the German Media Control singles chart. Scooter released their 16th studio album, Music for a Big Night Out on 2 November 2012. The same day, the trio released their second single entitled "Army of Hardcore" from their latest material.
The Fifth Chapter (2014–2018)
thumb|Baxxter in 2016