Remembering Def Leppard Hysteria

Love is like a bomb!

It’s Hysteria week so time for a Hysteria retrospective!

It’s August 1987. I’m 16 years old and at Zayre with my Mom shopping for clothes for my senior year of high school. Bored with that I head to the music section and come across something in the new releases section: a new album by Def Leppard!

I grab the cassette and convince my Mom to get it for me as an early birthday present. I was a huge fan of Pyromania, but at this point was mostly listening to Bon Jovi and Whitesnake, who some might say copied the Def Leppard sound. I didn’t really follow the music scene all that closely so I had no idea that Def Leppard even had a new album out. I primarily listened to what was on the radio back then and in the US, the first Hysteria single was Women which did not really get much radio airplay.

It turned out that Hysteria had been released a week or so earlier, on August 3rd (which was a Monday — back then albums were released at the beginning of the week rather than at the end of the week).

Anyway, I started listening to Hysteria and it was easily my most-played cassette (and eventually CD) for the next year and a half!

In October, the 2nd show of the 1987 North American Hysteria tour was here in Portland, Maine. I grabbed tickets as soon as I they were available. This was my first concert and it was a great first one to go to. Seeing Def Leppard play “in the round” was amazing. I still have the t-shirt I bought there, although it’s a bit snug now.

'87 Hysteria Tour Shirt

I listened to Hysteria all that fall and winter. Although the first singles Women, Animal and Hysteria were all good, I loved Pour Some Sugar on Me.

So I was excited when it became the next single. In the Spring and Summer of 1988, Pour Some Sugar on Me was everywhere. I actually made a cassette that contained just that song repeated on both sides and it didn’t leave the tape deck of my car for months. Perhaps I was a bit obsessed, but I regret nothing. I know my Mom hated it when I blasted the MTV countdown (Dial MTV?) every night as Pour Some Sugar on Me stayed at #1 for a couple months straight.

A CD player was my high school graduation present and you’ll never guess what the first CD I bought was! Yep, Hysteria! And speaking of buying things repeatedly, I also bought all the singles on 7” record (and eventually cassette-single) so that I could get the b-side songs.

I saw Def Leppard in concert again in the summer of 1988 with 20,000 other people at an outdoor show at The Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach.

When I started college in the fall of 1988, Def Leppard was still in high rotation, often played in the car as I commuted 45 minutes to school.

I’ve seen Def Leppard in concert probably another 5 times throughout the years and always look forward to new albums. To this day, Def Leppard are my favorite band (Queen is #2). I especially enjoyed the Def Leppard album from 2015 and Diamond Star Halos in 2023. But Hysteria has a special place in my heart because I listened to it so much and know its songs so well.

So let’s talk about those songs!

Women

Women is the first song on Hysteria and in the US it was the first single. It is one of the harder rocking songs on Hysteria and a great choice as the first song, if not the first single. By starting with a full rock song, albeit with a slower tempo, the album immediately shows that Def Leppard still has their chops. This song also starts to highlight some of the differences you’ll be hearing compared to previous albums, such as the dramatically improved production and the amazing way that all the instruments sound so distinct, full and powerful.

Women is a pretty long song at 5:42, but it’s not all that long when it comes to the songs on Hysteria which had four other songs that were even longer!

I don’t think this proved to be a good leadoff single, though. It only peaked at #80 on the Billboard Hot 100 and personally I don’t think I ever heard it on the radio.

The video shows off the cool “Def Leppard and the Women of Doom” comic that every teenage boy wanted. I don’t think it ever existed as a real comic though, which is a shame.

Rocket

Song #2, Rocket, was the 7th and final US single from Hysteria. It was released in January 1989, 1.5 years (amazing!) after Hysteria was released and peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It is often mentioned as a favorite of the band, but I have to say that Rocket is my least-favorite song on Hysteria. Don’t get me wrong, it has some really cool parts. The drum loops are catchy as hell. And the lyrics that refer to the 60’s and 70’s bands that were such a strong Def Leppard influence are well done. I just think the song is made too long by all the extra “techno” stuff in it. I don’t really care for the backwards “We are fighting the gods of war” and all the Apollo mission control sound bites. I suppose all that extra dazzle made for a song that plays really well live and in clubs, so I guess it served its purpose.

But perhaps it says something that the video leaves all that out and is much shorter (about 4 minutes). I would have preferred to have this version on the album.

Rocket is also the first of several songs on Hysteria that showcases Def Leppard’s need to have song titles that are a play on words. In this case, “Rocket” can also be considered a play on “rock it”, even if it really is probably a play on “satellite of love”.

Animal

This song was the 2nd single in the US (and the first elsewhere). You’ll hear that a lot with these first songs since all of the songs on “side 1” were released as singles in the US. Animal peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #6 in the UK.

Animal is a really great song and typical Def Leppard. It’s not too heavy, but it does have a driving guitar sound. It also is a play on words with the chorus being “An’ I want, An’ I need, An’ I lust An’ imal.” At only 4:05, it is the shortest song on Hysteria.

Apparently this song took years for the band to get right, with it having existed from the earliest recording sessions for Hysteria, from back when the album was going to be called Animal Instinct.

I always thought the circus theme for the video was a bit odd, but “circus” is in the 2nd line of lyrics and they show animals in it so I guess… The video just seems to be a rather literal take on the lyrics and so a bit boring.

From Rick Savage:

It’s a very strange song, in that we completely finished the demo in Dublin where we had been writing. The vocal line was all finished, same with the lyrics and by the time we got to recording it properly, it was a little bit to leaden.

The guitar parts were a little too heavy for the nature of vocals that Joe had in mind, so we stripped it back – which we’d never really done before. Normally, we create the guitars first and put the melodies on top.

So we had the finished song and decided to keep the melody but completely rewrite the backing track, which was really different for us!

There isn’t part of the original song that stayed, except for a bit of the breakdown section. We wanted to make it more lightweight and pop-orientated because originally it sounded like a second-rate Van Halen riff that didn’t quite match up to the friendly, commercial-sounding vocals.

Love Bites

A big, bombastic ballad, Love Bites is Def Leppard’s first and only #1 hit in the US. It hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1988, over a year after Hysteria was released. (It peaked at #11 in the UK.) Even in the time of the 80s, where albums sold a lot more than they do now, having an album remain relevant for over a year and still kicking off #1 hits is impressive. It knocked Don’t worry, be happy out of #1, which is kind of funny since this song is not about being happy.

Love Bites is primarily a Mutt Lange song. Interviews with the band say that when Mutt brought it to the band it had a more “country” style and eventually became “Leppardized”. Joe sings this with passion in his high-pitched range and from what I’ve read most of the backing vocals are Mutt Lange.

Considering how carefully this album was constructed, is it a coincidence that the 4th song on “side 1” (this one) and the 4th song on “side 2” (Hysteria) are both ballads? I doubt it.

The video showcases Def Leppard in all their rock-star glory. Lots of close-ups of Joe Elliot and the rest of the band singing and playing their hearts out.

I’ve always loved this song. I’m a sucker for a good ballad and this certainly qualifies. Plus it also has great guitar playing!

From Rick Savage:

There’s so much detail that went into every song. With this album, we knew we were writing something that transcended anything that we’d done before. Everyone would write a ballad from time to time, and any of the ones we’d done, like Bringin’ On The Heartbreak, were specifically rock ballads.

Although Love Bites falls into that category, I always felt it transcended that category as a standalone mainstream love song with meaning and weight to it. We knew it would appeal to a wide range of people but never be wimping out either! It had a hardcore message, but was still really melodic at the same time.

Pour Some Sugar on Me

Do you take sugar? One lump or two?

What can be said about this song that hasn’t already said? I loved this song since the first time I first heard it on the album. In spring and summer of 1988, it was my favorite song, so much so that I made a cassette for the car that only had Pour Some Sugar on Me, repeated on both sides of the tape (it was a shorter, computer-style tape).

According to the band, this song was a last-minute additional to Hysteria, recorded in only two weeks in early 1987, after they thought they were done with the album.

I love everything about it. The drum beat, the guitar work, the non-sensical lyrics. It is an ear worm of the highest order. Pour Some Sugar on Me peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (July 23, 1988) and for the life of me I don’t know why it never reached #1. I’m sure it was an accounting mistake. During this single’s rise to power, it propelled Hysteria itself to be the #1 album on the Billboard 200 in late July 1988, nearly a year after the album was released. It actually hit #1 the week before I saw Def Leppard play at The Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach, Maine (July 29, 1988). The band was quite thrilled by that and I remember that concert having a lot of excited fans and energy from the band. Hearing 20,000 people sing along to Pour Some Sugar on Me at the height of its popularity is something I’ll never forget.

The video is amazing and truly shows Def Leppard as the rock gods they were in 1988. The concert footage of them playing “in the round” is amazing (and it was), the video is slightly edited to add the crowd singing the chorus which just makes it that much more powerful.

Armageddon It

This is the last song on “side 1” for those of us that had the cassette or record. Another play on words, it is a more ominous spelling of “I’m a gettin’ it”, the answer to the “are you gettin’ it” chant.

In the US, this song was the single that followed Love Bites and it peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 21, 1989 an amazing 17 months after the album was released. This song is notable for having a popular Steve Clark guitar solo.

The video is a sibling of the Pour Some Sugar on Me concert video with some of the footage actually being the same.

From Rick Savage:

There are little things on this like, ‘C’mon Steve!’ that really capture people’s imaginations. When we sat down to write this, it was originally a chord sequence that I came up with, very basic and simplistic in the verse. And it developed into something more sleazy and swaggery, in the way that some of the great Rolling Stones songs came out – not that we were trying to copy them, but we just wanted a bit of that essence.

Steve [Clark, guitars] had a separate idea for the chorus and we started filling it all out with massive four or five part harmonies. We just needed any old lyric to get the melody across - ‘Gimme all your loving’ was used just for the demoes to get it all worked out. We planned to change the lyrics because of the famous ZZ Top song, but we loved the sound of it so much and couldn’t come up with anything better so we stuck with it!

Gods of War

Epic. Gods of War was never a single, but it’s been a favorite since 1987. At 6:38, this song ties Rocket as the longest song on Hysteria. Gods of War has a wonderfully slow build, with Steve Clark’s great, moody 50 second guitar intro followed by the different guitar parts for the verses and bridge before it finally gets to the chorus at 3:20!

We’re fighting for the gods of war, but what the hell we fighting for!

Then it leads to the solo. At about 5:25 minutes in it switches guitar sound and has the special effects and voice-overs before finishing with a giant explosion!

Like I said: epic.

Don’t Shoot Shotgun

This is where Def Leppard sets themselves apart from contemporaries such as Bon Jovi. Don’t Shoot Shotgun was never a single and probably never really could be. It just rocks too damn hard!

It starts off smooth enough with just the vocal “Don’t shoot shotgun”, but the guitars kick in quick and just keep building. By the time you get to the chorus, everything is full-steam ahead. And the solo might be the best one on all of Hysteria.

Those that complain about Hysteria being too pop-oriented and not enough like High ’N Dry should definitely listen to this song. It rocks.

Run Riot

These first 3 songs of “side 2” just don’t let up. Run Riot starts fast and stays fast. Joe bangs out those lyrics as if he’s being chased by real leopards.

The chorus has tons of guitars and rocks just as hard, if not harder than Don’t Shoot Shotgun. Run Riot was also never really a candidate for a single, but having these songs on Hysteria proved that Def Leppard still knew how to rock.

The solo is also great, if short. Apparently Phil Collen recorded it in one take. When he asked Mutt to try it again because he thought he could do it better, Mutt said “No, you can’t.”

Hysteria

Things slow down here. The title track was the 3rd single in the US (hitting #10 on the Billboard Hot 100) and might very well be the best overall song on the album. It’s not quite a ballad, not quite a rocker. But it catchy as hell with a great guitar sound, great singing and pretty good lyrics (especially when compared to some of the gibberish on other songs).

Hysteria is not my favorite song, but it is a great song with nearly infinite repeatability. It just doesn’t get old.

From Rick Savage:

This has a lot of meaning personally, because all the verse guitars and intro I actually played on Phil’s mirror-plated guitar going through a whole nation of different effects.

There was a box called the Rockbox, and it was very similar to the Rockman in that it was this tiny little thing you plugged in. But it had such great compression when you kicked it in!

It’s not unusual for me to come up with guitar parts, but more often than not I let the proper guitar players record it on the album. For some reason, it just didn’t quite have the feel that me and Mutt wanted when Phil or Steve played it. So in the end, Mutt said, ‘Sav, it’s your riff… you just play it!’ and I did, even though I’m the bloody bass player.

So it’s a song that’s very close to my heart, it’s one of my babies. Phil came up with the bridge idea, which then went into this separate thing that Steve had come up with and all of sudden, we found we had a song. We just glued three sections together and I think it was Rick [Allen, drums] that came up with the title.

Excitable

I’m not entirely sure why, but Excitable has always been one of my favorite songs on Hysteria. I like the driving rhythm section and the tight guitars. I wish this would have been a single instead of Rocket, even if the lyrics are totally senseless.

From Rick Savage:

We were so engulfed by the technology of the 80s, it just kept on bombarding everybody. People were coming up with different ideas, different sounds. The Clavia was the new thing on the block – all these computers were taking over. We just wanted to make a dance song.

There’s a famous nightclub in Dublin called The Pink Elephant and we’d go there after hours. Mutt who was a total non-drinker would come down and have a glass of water with us and I remember hearing State Of Shock by Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger, thinking to myself how great it would be to write something like that.

Literally, the following morning, I went to the writing room, picked a guitar up and came up with the riff. Mutt made me play it over and over again for 10 minutes, while we came up with new ideas over the top. After a bit of editing, we were there!

Love and Affection

The final track on Hysteria is a gem. This could have easily been single #8 and the band has said so as well. This is a simple, straight-forward song but like so much else on Hysteria it is catchy. So catchy.

Hysteria: The B-Sides

As the band was finishing up the recording sessions for Hysteria they took a little time to quickly record some new songs for use as b-sides to the planned Hysteria singles.

These b-sides are great in their own right. Most bands would have been thrilled to put them on the album itself.

The primary b-sides are: Tear It Down, Ride Into the Sun, I Wanna Be Your Hero, and Ring of Fire

These b-sides were included on the 2006 Hysteria Deluxe Edition and on the 2017 Hysteria Super Deluxe Edition. They are not included in the 3-CD 2017 Hysteria Expanded Edition.

In 1987/1988/1989 I bought all the singles from Hysteria so I had these b-sides, first in 7” record and then cassette single. Here are my thoughts:

Tear It Down

The b-side to Women in the US, this is a great rocking song. The band liked it so much it eventually was cleaned up a bit and included as the last song on Adrenalize. The original version is rawer and the one I prefer.

Ride Into the Sun

This is a re-recording of a song on the original Def Leppard EP from 1978. It’s also a hard-driving rock song and quite good.

I Wanna Be Your Hero

This song starts off slower and then kicks into a more rocking tempo. I really like this song. It is one of my favorites and perhaps should have been given a place on the album although I don’t know what they could have removed for it. A slicker version is included on Retroactive.

Ring of Fire

Another rocking song, this is also included on Retroactive.

All of these b-sides are really great. They rock quite a bit and show that Def Leppard really is a rock band at heart, even though they have always had their pop aspirations.