An annotated Uli Jon Roth discography, album by album

Uli Jon Roth has seventeen documented albums with a year and a label: five with Scorpions, three with Electric Sun and nine solo. Here they are in separate blocks, each with its own table, its catalog number where one exists and a note on what that album brings to his career. If a title is missing, it is because I have not found a verifiable source that gives it a date and a label.

The five Scorpions albums with Uli Jon Roth (1974-1978)

All five came out on RCA Records. The exact dates come from the Scorpions discography on English Wikipedia.

Album	Release date	Label	Format
Fly to the Rainbow	November 1, 1974	RCA Records	Studio
In Trance	September 17, 1975	RCA Records	Studio
Virgin Killer	November 22, 1976	RCA Records	Studio
Taken by Force	December 1977	RCA Records	Studio
Tokyo Tapes	August 15, 1978	RCA Records	Double live

Fly to the Rainbow (1974). His debut with the band and the first of the five albums he made with it. According to the version of his official biography archived in May 2026, Roth joined Scorpions in the summer of 1973 from his group Dawn Road, which merged with the remaining Scorpions members after Michael Schenker left for UFO.

In Trance (1975). The second album of the era. In 2026 it was, along with Virgin Killer, one of the two anniversaries his U.S. tour celebrated, according to the page for episode 634 of Gear Masters published by Digital Tour Bus.

Virgin Killer (1976). Roth himself describes it, in the official announcement of the 2026 tour, as “one of the most important albums I have recorded in my life” (ulijonroth.com). He wrote the title track and has explained that its meaning was misunderstood: virgin killer refers, in his telling, to time killing people’s innocence. Fifty years later, the album gives its name to the tour Roth is keeping on the road throughout 2026.

Taken by Force (1977). Contains “The Sails of Charon,” written entirely by Roth. Kirk Hammett quoted part of that solo in Metallica’s “Battery,” and Roth did not find out until a friend in Los Angeles told him (Guitar World, 2023). This album also includes “We’ll Burn the Sky,” written with the artist Monika Dannemann.

Tokyo Tapes (1978). A double live album released on August 15, 1978; according to the official biography, Roth’s final tour with the band was the one in Japan in April of that year. It works as a summary of the era and as a record of how those songs sounded on stage. Almost forty years later he went back to it with Tokyo Tapes Revisited.

Electric Sun and solo work: 1979 to 2016

Electric Sun was the band Roth formed in 1978 on leaving Scorpions, and it was active until 1985. Its last concert, according to the version of the official biography archived in May 2026, was at the Milwaukee Beer Fest on July 4, 1985. The group’s three albums are dedicated, in order, to Jimi Hendrix, to Anwar Sadat and to Martin Luther King Jr. together with Roth’s fans, according to English Wikipedia.

Album	Year	Label	Catalog number and notes
Earthquake (Electric Sun)	1979	Brain (German edition)	0060.196
Fire Wind (Electric Sun)	1981	Brain (German edition)	0060.378
Beyond the Astral Skies (Electric Sun)	1985	EMI (European edition)	1C 064 24 0269 1
Sky of Avalon – Prologue to the Symphonic Legends	1996	Zero Corporation (Japan)	XRCN-1261; Japanese edition of January 24, 1996
From Here to Eternity	1998	Dressed to Kill (UK)	DTKBOX71; compilation
Transcendental Sky Guitar	September 2000	SPV / Steamhammer	SPV 089-72032 DCD; double live CD
Legends of Rock – Live at Castle Donington	2002	SPV / Steamhammer	SPV 092-74642 DCD; with Jack Bruce and UFO
Metamorphosis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons	2003	Steamhammer / SPV	SPV 087-69490 CD
The Best of Uli Jon Roth	2006	Steamhammer / SPV	SPV 95732-2CD-E; compilation
Under a Dark Sky	2008	Steamhammer / SPV GmbH	SPV 98742 CD; 63:40
Scorpions Revisited	2014 / 2015 (disputed)	UDR Music / Warner	UDR 0507 2CD; recorded in Hanover in 2014 according to Wikipedia, in the autumn of 2013 according to the archived official biography
Tokyo Tapes Revisited – Live in Japan	December 16, 2016	UDR	UDR073P88 / UDR073P93

Earthquake (1979). Dedicated to the spirit of Jimi Hendrix. It is also the explanation for his departure from Scorpions: in the 2023 Guitar World interview, Roth says he had started writing songs like this one that did not fit the band, and that he needed a different platform and more freedom. The split, he says, was amicable.

Fire Wind (1981). The second chapter of Electric Sun, again on Brain. Monika Dannemann painted the covers of all three of the group’s albums.

Beyond the Astral Skies (1985). The album that matters most to this archive: it is where the first Sky Guitar can be heard. English Wikipedia says the instrument used on it had 30 frets, a figure that does not match other sources. It brought in drummer Clive Bunker, formerly of Jethro Tull, and it was Electric Sun’s last album.

Sky of Avalon – Prologue to the Symphonic Legends (1996). The launch of the Sky of Avalon project. The Japanese edition came out on January 24, 1996, on Zero Corporation. It is the gateway to his symphonic side, which would wait twelve years for an official sequel.

From Here to Eternity (1998). A compilation issued in the UK by Dressed to Kill, catalog number DTKBOX71. It is listed here to complete the catalog: the verified listing documents no previously unreleased material.

Transcendental Sky Guitar (2000). A double live CD, volumes I and II. Along with Metamorphosis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, it is the recording people cite when talking about the Sky Guitar’s extended range and about playing classical repertoire without transposing the melody down an octave.

Legends of Rock – Live at Castle Donington (2002). A live album shared with Jack Bruce and UFO. It belongs to his collaborative side, the one that also took him on the European G3 tours of 1998 and March 2017.

Metamorphosis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (2003). A reinterpretation of The Four Seasons with Sky Guitar, Don Airey on harpsichord and violinists Brian Wright and Stephen Bentley-Klein. If you want to understand what a guitar with a violin’s range is built for, this is the album that answers the question.

The Best of Uli Jon Roth (2006). A second compilation, this time on Steamhammer / SPV.

Under a Dark Sky (2008). The first official release in the Symphonic Legends series, the cycle written for the Sky of Avalon project. Vocals by Mark Boals and Liz Vandall; 63 minutes and 40 seconds.

Scorpions Revisited (2014 / 2015). A re-recording of his Scorpions repertoire, produced by Sascha Paeth, with Nathan James and Liz Vandall on vocals and Ule W. Ritgen on bass. Its year is the most tangled fact in his whole discography, and I break it down below.

Tokyo Tapes Revisited – Live in Japan (2016). It closes the circle opened in 1978: the Japanese live album revisited almost four decades later, released on December 16, 2016, on UDR.

The facts the sources can’t reconcile

Scorpions Revisited: two release years and two recording dates. English Wikipedia dates it to February 2015, credits the release to UDR Music / Warner and says it was recorded in Hanover in 2014; the Discogs entry for the German edition (UDR 0507 2CD) lists 2014, and the version of the official biography at ulijonroth.com archived in May 2026 says Roth recorded it in the autumn of 2013. The most likely explanation is that the recording date, the date of one territorial edition and the date of the international edition are being mixed up, but no source says so, so I am not choosing on their behalf.

Joining and leaving Scorpions. The official biography says 1973 — summer 1973 in its version archived in May 2026 — and places his final tour with the band in April 1978. English Wikipedia dates his tenure between 1974 and 1977 and, in another passage, his departure to 1978. Spanish Wikipedia specifies June 29, 1973, a detail that appears in no other source found. And in the 2023 Guitar World interview, Roth himself says he resigned in 1977, which fits with actually leaving the following year. All four versions are compatible if you distinguish between resigning, no longer playing and being credited on a record, but no source draws that distinction explicitly.

Aquila Suite. You won’t see it in the tables. English Wikipedia dates it to 1991 and Spanish Wikipedia to 1998, and no primary listing has been found to resolve the difference. I would rather have a table with one album fewer than a table with an invented year.

Where to start, depending on what you usually listen to

If you come from classic hard rock: Tokyo Tapes (1978). It is the live summary of his Scorpions years and saves you from choosing among the four studio albums.

If what interests you is the guitarist: Taken by Force (1977), for “The Sails of Charon.” It is the piece that connects his vocabulary to what came later in metal, and Hammett’s quote of it in “Battery” is recorded in the 2023 Guitar World interview.

If you come from Hendrix: Earthquake (1979). It is dedicated to his spirit, and it is the album on which Roth is already playing free of the format a successful band imposed on him.

If you are here for the Sky Guitars: the order is Beyond the Astral Skies (1985) to hear the first one, Transcendental Sky Guitar (2000) to hear it as a mature tool and Metamorphosis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (2003) to hear it doing exactly what it was designed for.

If you want the Scorpions repertoire with modern production: Scorpions Revisited and Tokyo Tapes Revisited (2016).

If the symphonic side draws you in: Sky of Avalon (1996) first and Under a Dark Sky (2008) after, in that order, because the second continues the cycle that the first only introduces.

The two compilations, From Here to Eternity (1998) and The Best of Uli Jon Roth (2006), are the quick route. I don’t recommend them as a first listen: this body of work makes sense as complete albums, not as selections.

What these tables leave out

Beyond the seventeen albums there is at least one documented video release: Uli Jon Roth and Friends – The Spirit of Jimi Hendrix Live in Concert, issued in 1994 by Castle Music Pictures / Griffin Video with catalog number GV-112-3. The date and venue of the concert it captures are not confirmed in the documentation at hand, so I am not publishing them.

Singles, territorial editions and later reissues are not included either. The catalog numbers in the tables correspond to the specific edition verified in each case, not to every edition of that title: the same work can have dozens of different catalog numbers depending on country and format.