The band has had several hit singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, such as "Alone Again", "In My Dreams", and "Burning Like a Flame", and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.

[citation needed] A Dokken line-up consisting of Don, guitarist Greg Leon, drummer Gary Holland (both from the band Suite 19 which also once featured Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee), and bassist Gary Link toured Germany in 1979 where the band met an up-and-coming producer by the name of Michael Wagener, also the live sound engineer for Accept, who would follow Don back to Los Angeles for a short vacation, a move that became permanent shortly thereafter.

The '79 touring line-up quickly fell apart with Leon taking over Randy Rhoads' spot in Quiet Riot and Holland joining Dante Fox, later known as Great White.

While in Germany, Don would also demo songs with the Scorpions for their Blackout album as the band's vocalist Klaus Meine was forced to undergo surgery on his vocal cords and his return was uncertain for a time.

Meanwhile, Lynch, Brown and Croucier ended up working as studio musicians for German singer Udo Lindenberg on his 1982 album Keule, playing on four songs: "Urmensch (Prehistoric man)", "Ratten (Rats)" (both co-written by Lynch, Brown and Lindenberg), "Zwischen Rhein Und Aufruhr (Between the Rhine and the uproar)", and "Gesetz (Law)".

[17] Promotional activities for the European release of Breaking the Chains included a German TV appearance as Dokken performed a 40-minute live set on the Beat-Club as part of a Musikladen Extra which aired on January 4, 1982.

[citation needed] Back in the United States, Dokken were now managed by Cliff Bernstein who got the band signed to Elektra Records for a stateside release of Breaking The Chains, remixed for the American market.

Dokken played a couple of shows with Warren DeMartini on guitar when George Lynch briefly left to rehearse with Ozzy Osbourne's band while on tour.

[citation needed] Juan Croucier left Dokken in 1983 just prior to the release of the "Breaking the Chains" video to join Ratt alongside DeMartini.

The 1986 documentary short Heavy Metal Parking Lot features fans of Dokken and Judas Priest tailgating before a concert in Maryland.

It also included a remixed version of the single "Dream Warriors" (#22), and the accompanying music video featured band members interacting with the film's characters.

[20] Recordings from their April 1988 tour in Japan led to the release of live album Beast from the East on November 16, 1988, which went Gold in the United States and charted at No. 33.

[22] Bassist Jeff Pilson, switching to lead vocals and guitar, formed Flesh & Blood in 1989 and recorded a 5-song demo.

Afterwards, Pilson signed on with Dio for the Strange Highways album, reuniting with former Flesh & Blood bandmate Vinny Appice.

[citation needed] Lynch's first solo effort, 1993's Sacred Groove, reunited him with Don Dokken for the writing of the track "We Don't Own This World."

Jeff Pilson also collaborated with Lynch on the album, co-writing the lyrics to "Flesh and Blood" and playing bass on "We Don't Own This World".

The band re-united in 1994 along with Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson, with Lynch re-writing and re-recording the guitar solos on the album, which were originally conceived by Don.

Dokken was signed with Columbia Records and the album managed to sell 300,000 copies despite the decline in popularity of similar bands during this time.

During a Columbia promotion for the new album in which the band was scheduled to play live on 120 radio stations, Lynch unexpectedly left the studio and refused to re-enter.

Don alleges that Lynch intended to destroy the band with this album, reciting the following quote from him in an interview: "This is the perfect record.

This line-up released the album Long Way Home, but Norum suffered a hand injury during the band's early-2002 tour of Europe and had to be replaced by former Dark Lord guitarist Alex De Rosso.

That same year, Dokken was featured in the Metal Edge Rock Fest tour along with Ratt, FireHouse, and other similar acts.

[33] Don Dokken told interviewers that Jon Levin was the bandmate who wanted the band to make an album with the classic sound in mind, and remarked that the process was difficult, saying: "I had to get back in that mindset.

Sean McNabb formerly of Quiet Riot and Great White has remained on bass, along with Jon Levin on guitar and Don Dokken on vocals.

On March 1, 2010 Dokken digitally released Greatest Hits, a collection of re-recorded songs from their 1980s albums with two new tracks, to iTunes and Amazon.com.

[citation needed] On December 8, 2010, Lynch announced on his web site and in interviews earlier that a Dokken reunion will not be happening.

In November 2014, Sean McNabb was replaced by one-time Ted Nugent bassist (and perennial lead singer of Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force) Mark Boals.

[12][42] In an interview with L.A. Weekly on March 6, 2017, Don Dokken said he is not planning any further appearances with Pilson and Lynch, stating that the Japan shows were "a one-time thing.

In July 2019, it was announced that longtime drummer Mick Brown had officially retired from Dokken after 40 years in the band, as constant touring began to have negative effect on him and claiming he felt too old.