Michael Schenker: how I came up with the classic riff for Doctor Doctor

UFO in 1976, Michael Schenker far right (Image credit: Jorgen Angel \/ Getty Images)

UFO’s Doctor Doctor is of those one of those rare songs that threatened to drag a cult rock act into the mainstream, its chugging riff and huge chorus gaining the band an unlikely spot on the BBC’s flagship serious music show, the Old Grey Whistle Test.

“I remember it vaguely,” the band’s former bassist Pete Way told Classic Rock. “We played Doctor Doctor and something else. But I got banned. I was doing some blow and they weren’t best pleased. I offered the host some coke. It wasn’t Whispering Bob, it was someone else. The zip of my pants broke as well, during the performance…”

That Way remembers the song and very little else says a lot about the song’s enduring appeal, so we asked Michael Schenker, who played with the band from 1973 until 1978 and came up with the riff, to explain how the magic happened.

Watch the video below.

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