Below is an exclusive excerpt from the book I GOT SOMETHING TO SAY! (Collections, Recollections & Personal Reflections About Def Leppard), specifically from the chapter spotlighting the band’s “Love Bites” single.
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Single Spotlight: Love Bites
Def Leppard’s “Love Bites” single was released in the U.S. in August 1988. (The U.K. release occurred in July 1988.)
No surprise, the track is also included in every one of the band’s greatest hits releases — Vault, Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection, and The Story So Far.
If You’ve Got A Hit Single In Your Sights, Watch Out
“Love Bites” epitomized Def Leppard’s monstrous Hysteria album success in the late ’80s. Let us count just some of the ways.
Hysteria‘s preceding single, “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” was a phenomenon, ruling radio airwaves over the summer of ’88, and propelling the band’s popularity — and, importantly, consumer interest in the album — to stratospheric heights. Yet ‘Sugar’ did not reach #1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at #2. Being unable to classify the song as an official “chart-topper,” though, doesn’t at all diminish what a career shape-shifter it was for Def Leppard.
Given that, “Love Bites” had the unenviable task of being the follow-up single to “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” to keep Hysteria‘s tremendous sales and tour momentum going. Not only did “Love Bites” reach the #2 chart slot achieved by ‘Sugar,’ it surpassed it, rewarding Def Leppard with yet another crowning achievement: the band’s first-ever #1 single — a feat, unfairly or not, never accomplished by juggernaut “Pour Some Sugar On Me.”
Moreover, it’s also worth noting that the single run for “Love Bites” happened more than one year after the Hysteria album was released. Talk about sustainability: “Love Bites” was the album’s fifth U.S. single and its top performer, remaining on the singles chart for a whopping 23 weeks (‘Sugar’ charted for 24 weeks), further reaffirming the depth and strength of the iconic album’s offerings.
“Love Bites” was another reminder of how far Def Leppard had come, a band whose peak popularity during the Pyromania era would have seemed all but impossible to repeat. Yet they did: Pyromania sold a massive amount of records; Hysteria sold more. Pyromania‘s success included a huge tour in support of it; Hysteria‘s tour was bigger. Pyromania‘s singles, while iconic, didn’t reach the Top 10 on the U.S. charts; Hysteria‘s tracks made it into the Top 10 on multiple occasions, and with “Love Bites” reaching the #1 spot, it solidified its place on Def Leppard’s mantel of song accomplishments.
Let’s take an even deeper dive into Def Leppard’s #1 power ballad.
Who Do You Think Of, Does He Look Like…Mutt
It is not an embellishment to proclaim that “Love Bites” would not have happened without the involvement of Hysteria‘s producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange.
Def Leppard songs like “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and “Hysteria” originated with a band member’s idea, be it a power chord or melody. As for “Love Bites,” it wasn’t an instance of Joe Elliott fooling around on an acoustic guitar, which resulted in “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” or Rick Savage and Phil Collen piecing together separate song portions to create what would become “Hysteria.”
“Love Bites” originated with Mutt Lange. Not only that, the original version Mutt had written was more in the vein of a country song, before being Leppard-ized. Early on, additional lyrics were also recorded, courtesy of Mutt, for the song’s pre-chorus, to counter and balance out lines like “I don’t want to touch you too much baby,“ but they ended up being scrapped for the track’s final version. (Check out the release Classic Albums: Hysteria, which is available on DVD and digitally, to hear some of those original lines performed by Mutt Lange.)
Mutt Lange’s fingerprints are all over “Love Bites,” most notably during the song’s chorus, where his trademark backing vocals are prominently featured. Nevertheless, “Love Bites” succeeds at ultimately being a classic Def Leppard track through and through.
A Golden Leppard Age
1988 was a golden age — if not, the golden age — for Def Leppard’s brand of music. Case in point: “Hysteria,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Love Bites,” and “Armageddon It” were all released as U.S. singles during that same year.
Arguably, the band could do no wrong and was mostly competing against itself in terms of chart performance, as all of those 1988 singles reached the Top 10, with the majority of them making it into the Top 3.
It was a most welcoming radio environment, as other top chart performers around that time included the likes of Poison (“Every Rose Has Its Thorn”), Guns N’ Roses (“Sweet Child O’ Mine”), and Bon Jovi (“Bad Medicine”).
There was no wave of…
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More chapter excerpts from the book: Inside Vault‘s Vault & More! | The Ballad of Joe Elliott | Single Spotlight: “Rocket”
Available worldwide at these book outlets (select your preferred format):
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Apple: Apple Books
Google: Google Play Books
