Bubbling Under: UFO’s “Too Hot to Handle”

One-time UFO Guitarist Michael Schenker, 2010 (Getty Images/Gareth Cattermole)

Their lead guitarist had been a founding member of the Scorpions. And if you were a teenage hard-rock fan in the late ’70s, you probably owned one or more of their albums. In the UK, they scored a number of hit singles, but in the United States, just one. Learn about the band and hear the song after the jump.

Although UFO formed in the late ’60s, it wasn’t until 1973 that they found the sound that made them famous. While the Scorpions were opening for them in the UK, they convinced Scorpions guitarist Michael Schenker to join, even though he was just 18 years old and didn’t speak English. He debuted on the album Phenomenon in 1974. Force It and No Heavy Petting were mid-charting hits in the States, but it was the 1977 album Lights Out that became their biggest hit. “Too Hot to Handle” was released as a single that summer, and it bubbled under the Hot 100 for three weeks, reaching #106.

Michael Schenker stayed with UFO until the end of 1978, then founded the Michael Schenker Group (later the McAuley Schenker Group). He’s been connected with a number of groups over the years — supposedly considered for positions with Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne, he briefly joined Ratt around 1990. Later in the 90s, he reunited with both UFO and the MSG.

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