At the age of 16, guitarist Michael Schenker ended up playing on the Scorpions‘ 1972 debut album Lonesome Crow. Within two years, Schenker was recruited by the British band UFO as a replacement for Mick Bolton and ended up writing and co-writing a majority of the tracks on the band’s third album, Phenomenon, released in 1974.
Schenker composed the band’s first charting hit from the album, “Doctor Doctor, with founding UFO lead vocalist Phil Mogg.
In a 2016 interview, Schenker recalls composing the song and its iconic riff after first discovering the layered sounds of an Echoplex. “I just made up a chord progression … the loop goes round …. harmony … and so on, and I went ‘Wow, this is great,” recalled schenker “It sounded so good. I recorded it on this cheap tape recorder I had.”
He then played the song for Mogg while they were on an escalator in the Underground in London, and the two worked out the melody and the rest of the song around Schenker’s guitar parts.
“We have done that with quite a few songs, in general, ” said Schenker, adding that the band’s 1977 song “Try Me” was created similarly, with Mogg adding to his instrumental.
“I’m not sure how well people took that song [‘Doctor Doctor’] in the beginning, and I didn’t focus on it, either,” said Schenker. “We were playing gigs. I wasn’t there for ‘Doctor Doctor.” I was there because I enjoyed playing lead guitar. … Once it made it on the live album [‘Stangers in the Night,’ 1979] that’s when it took off.”
Describing a toxic, near-deadly relationship, “Doctor Doctor” became the first Top 40 hit for UFO, peaking at No. 35 in the UK when it was released on the band’s 1979 double live album Strangers in the Night.
‘Old Grey Whistle’ and Schenker’s Departure
The song also earned the band a spot performing on the BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test in January 1979.
Schenker remained with UFO as a key songwriting and recorded four more albums with them throughout the ’70s, including Force It (1975), No Heavy Petting (1976), Lights Out (1977), and Obsession (1978) before parting ways with the band.
In 1979, he briefly appeared on the Scorpions’ 1979 album Lovedrive, before forming his own band, the Michael Schenker Group. The guitarist reunited and toured with UFO in 1993 and, along with Mogg, co-wrote the band’s 1995 album Walk on Water and rejoined them again from 2000 to 2003.
Fifty years after first joining UFO, Shenker released My Years with UFO in 2024, a collection of rerecordings of songs he wrote with the band, including a new version of “Doctor Doctor,” featuring vocalist Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple) and drummer Carmine Appice.
Iron Maiden Opening
Since 2000, Iron maiden has played “Doctor Doctor” over the PA system as their opening intro to nearly all of their concerts. “It has the added advantage that everybody knows we play ‘Doctor Doctor’ before we go on stage,” revealed Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson in 2022. “So, before the intro tape, there’s five minutes of ‘Doctor Doctor.’ It’s brilliant, so people go, ‘Oh, quick.’ Stop having a piss, drink the last pint, get to your seats. ‘Doctor Doctor’ is playing. They’ll be on in a minute.”
Dickinson continued, “And for the road crew, it’s also brilliant. It’s like, ‘Stop masturbating in the toilet. Wipe your ass.’”
In 1981, Maiden also played two shows supporting UFO in San Bernardino and Long Beach, California. Maiden bassist and founding member Steve Harris called the live version UFO’s “Love to Love,” originally released on their 1977 album Lights Out, a song that changed his life.
“UFO have loads of great songs, and loads of great albums, but this version in particular, on ‘Strangers In The Night’ really struck a nerve with me,” said Harris.
“Again, it’s the light and shade and the dynamic build-up which does it for me,” he added. “I used to listen to ‘Strangers In The Night’ when I was driving the kids to school in the morning, and it gets you fired up for the day.”
Iron Maiden have also played “Doctor Doctor” live and covered the UFO classic as a B-side to their 1995 single “Lord of the Flies,” and released it on their 2002 compilation Best of the B-Sides.
“UFO always had fantastic guitar players—Michael Schenker and Paul Chapman were brilliant—and Phil Mogg is a great singer,” said Harris. “We’d have loved to have them out with us, but for some reason it never happened.”
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