Def Leppard’s Hysteria album was released on August 3, 1987.
Def Leppard Hysteria
There’s much to celebrate about the band’s landmark album, including its meticulous production, seemingly endless amount of hit songs, incredible chart longevity, and extraordinary sales performance.
But, wait, there’s more!
If you’re a frequent reader of this site, you’re likely aware of some of the dissections written about Def Leppard’s original studio albums (On Through The Night, High ‘n’ Dry, Pyromania, Adrenalize, Slang, Euphoria, X, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, and the self-titled Def Leppard). But this time around, a slightly different approach will be taken.
This will still most definitely be a very deep dive, but to properly commemorate Hysteria and truly appreciate the release for what it is, it’s important to also recognize the album for what it’s not (but easily could have been).
Def Leppard: Hysteria Memories
Hysteria is a prime example of how even when so many things go wrong, the final result can still be oh so right.
The challenges and detours that delayed making the Hysteria album, including the unimaginable tragedy of drummer Rick Allen losing his arm (and nearly his life) in a car accident, reinforces the old adage that “everything happens for a reason.”
Def Leppard’s Hysteria is not only iconic and by far the band’s most commercially successful release, but it’s also one of the top-selling albums of all time — not all that surprising, considering it’s arguably a greatest hits compilation in and of itself.
Decades after its release, the album remains a favorite among many fans — no Def Leppard tour would be complete without a healthy dose of Hysteria representation; fans demand it, the band knows it and obliges.
Hysteria helped define music in the late ’80s; it was nearly impossible to get through a day without hearing a song off the album on the radio or seeing one of its music videos on MTV.
It’s an album ingrained in the youth of countless fans, and part of so many cherished memories, making repeated listens all the more nostalgic, joyful, and satisfying. From opening track “Women” to its final song “Love and Affection,” an adventurous, unforgettable sixty-two-minute-plus music journey always awaits.
By the summer of 1988, Def Leppard had become one of the biggest bands in the world, predominantly due to what they accomplished with Hysteria. It’s not a coincidence that the album’s massive world tour lasted years.
Animal Instinct…When You’re Near?
Simply saying the word “Hysteria” immediately brings to mind a certain feeling, mood, or memory for many Def Leppard fans, a testament to its impact and how much the album still resonates.
Hysteria worked so well as an album title, too. Besides representing what the band had to endure during the album’s prolonged recording process (particularly Rick Allen after his car accident), it was yet another single-word title ending in “ia,” serendipitously linking it to the band’s previous album Pyromania, which was also one word and ended in “ia.”
It’s difficult to imagine referring to the album by its original working title, Animal Instinct. While the phrase may work splendidly as a lyric in the song “Women” — “The animal instinct, the wanton man” — it just doesn’t have the same pay-off when representing the album as a whole. (It’s worth noting that David Fricke’s excellent late ’80s book about Def Leppard did retain the Animal Instinct title.)
Def Leppard Hysteria: The Singles
Numerous singles contributed to making Hysteria so memorable, including one that was a complete misfire.
The album’s first U.S. single “Women” tanked badly. (The band wanted “Animal” to launch the album, but their management at the time disagreed.) The single barely made it onto Billboard‘s Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at #80 and hampering Hysteria‘s initial album sales in the process.
It wasn’t until second single “Animal” was released that some album sales momentum returned, as the song narrowly cracked the Top 20 on Billboard‘s singles chart.
This led the way to title track “Hysteria,” the album’s third single and first bonafide hit, as it reached the Top 10 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.
It’s been repeatedly said that Def Leppard’s Hysteria had seven hit singles, which technically isn’t accurate. The album did indeed have seven U.S. singles, and while the word “hit” is subjective, Hysteria ultimately had five Top 10 hit singles, three of which made it into the Top 3. Still an amazing feat! (Read a ranking and review of all of Hysteria’s individual tracks here.)
Now let’s take a moment to revisit what did not become Def Leppard’s fourth studio album.
Def Leppard Hysteria: An Alternative Take
Early on, Def Leppard’s fourth album didn’t sound anything like Hysteria. It was more along the lines of Retro Active.
The reason being, quite a few songs that ended up on Retro Active were actually songs that were originally recorded for the band’s fourth release.
If things had worked out differently, this write-up would be discussing songs such as “I Wanna Be Your Hero” and “Ring of Fire,” potentially as well as tracks that were left unfinished (after the album project completely changed direction) like “Desert Song” and “Fractured Love.” These were the songs that were initially going to be the foundation for Pyromania‘s follow-up.
Since Mutt Lange was not returning to produce Def Leppard’s fourth album, the band attempted to work with Jim Steinman (of Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler fame) producing, which is when things began heading downhill.
Joe Elliott described the band’s working relationship (or lack thereof) with Steinman back in 1987:
“We were a million miles apart in our ideas about sounds, style, timing. And he couldn’t adapt to the band. It was a mismatch from the start.”
Joe further elaborated on the band’s discontent, and the epiphany they had about Steinman to Billboard.com:
“He wrote [Meat Loaf’s] ‘Bat Out of Hell.’ Todd Rundgren produced it, and we quickly learned there was a difference.”
The band went back to the drawing board and tried again, this time attempting to produce the album themselves with the help of Mutt Lange‘s engineer Nigel Green. But things quickly took an ominous turn when Rick Allen’s car accident occurred only weeks into the collaboration.
Everything came to a grinding halt on the project, again.
The irony about Rick’s horrific accident is that it afforded Mutt Lange the time to reconsider and return to produce the album.
Mutt’s arrival resulted in all the songs initially recorded for the album being scrapped or put on the backburner, so to speak, some subsequently becoming B-sides for what would be Hysteria‘s future singles. (For instance, “I Wanna Be Your Hero” ended up as the B-side for “Animal.”)
The culmination of these events, and all the stops and starts, finally put Def Leppard’s fourth album on track to become what would be Hysteria and not something more in line with the songs of Retro Active.
Mutt Lange: Def Leppard’s Sixth Member (And More)
Mutt Lange is synonymous with massive, multi-layered productions, and his immersive, indispensable involvement in producing Def Leppard’s Hysteria is no exception.
Simply put, Hysteria (and Pyromania) would not be the monumental album it turned out to be without him. Only after Mutt Lange agreed to join the project did it finally begin to take shape.
Mutt’s contributions were immense, starting with co-writing every song on Hysteria.
The album’s exceptional production, which even included an instance of recording one guitar note at a time to capture the perfect sound, was all masterminded by Mutt Lange. (Read an in-depth look at Mutt Lange’s body of work here.)
“Love Bites,” the first and only #1 single in Def Leppard’s career was a Mutt Lange creation. The song’s unforgettable backing vocals also prominently feature Mutt’s voice.
Guitarist Phil Collen described how “Love Bites” came about in an interview with SongFacts.com:
“[Love Bites] was really a Mutt Lange song – he brought it to us and he played it on an acoustic guitar to me and Steve [Clark]. It sounded more like the Eagles. He sounds like Don Henley. Mutt’s got an amazing voice and most of the backing vocals on that song are actually Mutt singing. We are on there but you can’t really hear us — that’s all Mutt’s vocals.”
Phil also explained the origins of the song “Hysteria,” a track which he and bassist Rick Savage initially thought had a chorus…until Mutt intervened:
“It started off, we were in Dublin and Rick Savage started playing this tune, so I immediately started singing, ‘Out of touch, out of reach.’ That was literally the first thing that came out of my mouth. He said that was cool and he goes, [singing] ‘I got to know tonight,’ this whole other section. We glued it together and we got very excited… We sat down and were playing acoustic guitar, singing over the demo, and we thought that was going to be the chorus. And Mutt Lange said, ‘Okay, that’s a great verse, a great bridge. Now we need the chorus.’ Uh, okay. [Laughs]”
Can you imagine the song “Hysteria” without its classic chorus? On a related note, revisit the song’s infectious “Oh can you feel it? Do you believe it?” portion: those harmonies are primarily Mutt Lange’s signature backing vocals.
In recent years, Phil has spoken more about Mutt’s substantial contributions to Hysteria and his positive influence on Def Leppard:
“That whole album, [Mutt] really taught us how to sing and play. I think we’d been an okay band, we’d been a good band, but he made it something great. He deserves all the credit.”
Rick Allen’s tragic accident was not only devastating, but it could easily have been career-ending, not to mention life-threatening. Mutt Lange helped motivate and inspire Rick to conceive of a completely new approach to drumming via an electronic drum kit, one which incorporated the use of his left leg to compensate for the loss of his left arm.
Rick Allen discussed how the innovative idea came to be in an interview with Billboard.com:
“There were times at the beginning when I really felt like I couldn’t do this anymore. The thing that really helped is Mutt came to visit and he talked me into being able to do this but in a different way. I started to figure out on my own the worst thing for me to do was to compare myself to others or compare myself to how I used to play. As soon as I embraced the idea of uniqueness, then I really started to come out of my shell.”
These are just some of Mutt Lange’s immeasurable contributions to Hysteria and the band’s success.
One more important example: After finally finishing up the recording of Hysteria, it was Mutt Lange who approached Joe Elliott upon hearing a catchy melody Joe was messing around with on an acoustic guitar during a studio break.
Joe initially dismissed it, but Mutt insisted they pursue it further, believing a hit song resided within Joe’s impromptu jam session. Thus, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” was born, a song that ended up being a game-changer for Hysteria and career-changing for the band, taking Def Leppard’s popularity to extraordinary heights. (Have you ever heard the demo of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” with Mutt Lange’s original vocals? Check it out here.)
Rick Allen: Tragedy To Triumph
Drummer Rick Allen’s unfathomable tragedy of losing an arm not only changed his life but Def Leppard’s as well.
The band’s sound fundamentally (and inevitably) transformed upon Rick’s return, changing and establishing what is now Def Leppard’s trademark sound.
Rick’s triumphant return to the band not only exemplified how he coped and overcame tragedy, but it also inspired so many others who themselves had lost limbs, suffered hardships, and had to overcome a disability (many of whom Rick would meet with personally, and privately, before shows).
In hindsight, Rick’s accident was another example of how the band overcame an incomprehensible challenge and consequently turned it into a positive. On a personal level for Rick, it provided a whole new outlook on life.
Rick discussing what his mindset was before the accident is quite revealing:
“The irony…is that before the accident, I’d pretty much lost interest in playing drums. ‘Cause I felt I didn’t have anything else to prove as a musician…and boy was I wrong about that one.”
Continuing, he discussed how his tragedy actually turned into a blessing after the accident:
“Before my accident, I was a little too…selfish and self-absorbed and for me, to [now] be at the place where I can kind of give back and inspire people. I’m blessed. I’m really blessed.”
Def Leppard Hysteria: When Bad Luck Becomes Good Timing
Some of Hysteria‘s challenges and delays ended up working in the album’s favor.
Even though “Women” struck out as the album’s first single, it laid the groundwork for extending Hysteria‘s single release strategy.
After third single “Hysteria” had peaked, the band’s record company had to make a difficult decision: cut their losses on the album and stop promoting it (i.e., don’t release any more songs), or spend additional money to release at least one more single to see if it could make a difference
As legend has it, they chose to release a fourth single: “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” which resulted in Hysteria‘s album sales to skyrocket.
Timing-wise, it worked out perfectly: “Pour Some Sugar On Me” became the song of the summer of 1988. Not only that, it breathed new life into Hysteria and became the springboard for additional singles — “Love Bites,” “Armageddon It,” and “Rocket,” which, collectively, sustained the album’s momentum into 1989, two and a half years after Hysteria‘s release!
Other seemingly minor occurrences also contributed to Hysteria‘s uniqueness, all the result of convenient timing.
“Gods of War” was taken to a whole other sonic level when snippets from speeches by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were interspersed throughout the song’s climax featuring wartime sound effects. Thanks to a stroke of well-timed political luck, the band (and Mutt Lange) had these speeches at the ready during Hysteria‘s recording sessions, and it’s a good thing they did — after all, the song’s epic finale just wouldn’t have been as chill-inducing without the inclusion of quotes like “They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.”
There was another significant event whose timing benefitted Hysteria tremendously…
Are You Gettin’ It…On CD As Well?
We’ll never know how Def Leppard’s fourth studio album would have performed had it been released years before its eventual August 1987 date, nor do we know how well it would have sold.
One thing is for sure, though. The introduction of an up-and-coming music format — the compact disc — worked to the album’s advantage, helping to sustain and further increase Hysteria‘s sales momentum.
In 1985, compact disc sales were barely a blip, but by 1988, there was a whole new revolution in the music industry when it came to consuming content — CD sales were approximately 150 million units and growing exponentially!
By 1989, CD sales exceeded 200 million units, approaching 300 million by 1990.
The format created a new sales resurgence for Hysteria.
On a related note, there are surely numerous Def Leppard fans who originally purchased Hysteria on cassette (maybe twice if they wore out the first one), and then bought yet another copy on CD.
If there was ever an album worth owning during the technology’s infancy, to truly experience its groundbreaking audio capabilities, it would be Hysteria; it was a must-have for many CD consumers.
Additionally, the format’s ability to squeeze over an hour’s worth of music onto a disc did not go unnoticed either, most notably by Mutt Lange.
Phil Collen spoke to Goldmine about it:
“One of the big things that a lot of people don’t realize Mutt was doing with ‘Hysteria’ was that he was making the album for CD buyers. He knew the CD thing was going to take off…”
Ultimately, the new format allowed Def Leppard fans to have at least two (love) bites at the Hysteria apple.
Def Leppard Hysteria: Final Thoughts
There are many reasons why Def Leppard’s Hysteria was, is, and always will be such a special release (in addition to the somber reminder that it is Steve Clark‘s final album with the band).
It took almost a year for it to reach #1 on Billboard‘s album chart. Remarkably, not only did it claim the top spot for a total of six weeks during its run, but Hysteria remained on the chart for 136 weeks.
(By the way, if you really want to indulge in Def Leppard, check out this must-read book!)
Hysteria ended up selling 12 million copies in the U.S. alone and over 25 million copies worldwide. An outstanding accomplishment, especially when reminded that the band’s average age at the time of its release was approximately 27 years old. (Joe Elliott was 28; Steve Clark, 27; Rick Savage, 26; Phil Collen, 29; Rick Allen, 23.)
Hysteria‘s early struggles encapsulate many of the things that are still representative of Def Leppard: navigating through challenges, overcoming tragedy, persevering, and triumphantly succeeding. Decades after the album’s release, the band continues pressing forward, still making music and selling out venues when touring.
Ever the optimist, here’s what Joe Elliott told the Los Angeles Times back in 1987, soon after Hysteria‘s release:
“All those delays helped the new album. It would have been more in the vein of ‘Pyromania,’ more than we wanted it to be. With the added time, we’ve been able to expand our musical horizons. ‘Hysteria’ has more variety to it and it’s more mature.”
In the end, the struggles, delays, and hardships the band faced while making their fourth album were not roadblocks. They were merely a part of what ultimately made Hysteria the acclaimed album we continue to celebrate.
