Def Leppard β Hysteria
- intothewellsabyss
- Aug 3, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2023
π πππ πππ ππππππ - πππππππππππ ππππ πππππ ππππππππ π’π§ ππ‘π πππππππ π¨πΒ ππππ ππππ & πππππ πππππβ¦
August 3, 1987 β Def Leppard released their fourth full-length studio album, Hysteria via Mercury Records. (Apple Music or Spotify)
It is Def Leppard's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, including 12 million in the US, and spawning seven hit singles. The album charted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart.
Hysteria was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange (AC/DC). The title of the album was thought up by drummer Rick Allen, referring to his 1984 car accident, the amputation of his arm, and the ensuing worldwide media coverage surrounding it. It is the last album to feature guitarist Steve Clark before his death, although songs co-written by him would appear on the band's next album, Adrenalize.
The album is the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough Pyromania. Hysteria's creation took over three years and was plagued by delays, including the aftermath of drummer Rick Allen's accident that cost him his left arm on December 31, 1984.
Subsequent to the album's release, Def Leppard published a book titled Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story, written by Rolling Stone magazine senior editor David Fricke, on the three-year recording process of Hysteria and the tough times the band endured through the mid-1980s.
Lasting 62 minutes and 32 seconds, the album is the band's longest to date.
Background:
Initially, Hysteria was to be named Animal Instinct and produced by Lange, but he dropped out after pre-production sessions, citing exhaustion from a gruelling schedule from the past few years. Meat Loaf songwriter Jim Steinman was brought in, but Steinman's intention to make a raw-sounding record that captured the moment conflicted with the band's interest in creating a bigger, more pristine Pop production. Joe Elliot later stated in an interview: "ππππ ππππππππ ππππππππ (πΌπππ π»πππβπ) π±ππ πΎππ ππ π·πππ. πΉππ ππππππππ π ππππ ππ".
Sessions with Steinman began at Wisseloord Studios on August 11, 1984, with Neil Dorfsman as engineer. However, the social divide and conflict in visions of the album between both the band and Steinman became problematic during the sessions, the latter being more into theatrical ideas which did not sit well with the group. By mid-October 1984, Steinman was ousted from the project, along with Dorfsman. Dorfsman would go on to mention they βππππππ’ πππ πππππ πππ ππππ ππ πππππ πππππβ - he'd fly straight from Holland to Montserrat to produce Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms album.
After parting ways with Steinman, the band tried to produce the album themselves with Lange's engineer Nigel Green with no success, and initial recording sessions were entirely scrapped. As previously mentioned, on December 31, 1984, Rick Allen lost his left arm when his Corvette flipped off a country road. Following the accident, the band stood by Allen's decision to return to the drum kit despite his disability, using a combination electronic/acoustic kit with a set of electronic pedals that triggered (via MIDI) the sounds that he would have played with his left arm.
The band slowly continued production until Lange unexpectedly returned a year later, and Allen mastered his customised drum kit. However, the sessions were further delayed by Lange's own auto accident (sustaining leg injuries from which he quickly recovered) and a bout of the mumps suffered by singer Joe Elliott in 1986.
The final recording sessions took place in January 1987 for the song Armageddon It (watch video) and a last-minute composition Pour Some Sugar on Me (watch video version 1), though Lange spent another three months mixing the tracks.
The album was finally released worldwide on August 3, 1987, with Animal (watch video) as the lead single in most countries except for the US and Canada where Women (watch video) was the first single.
The Concept Behind Hysteria:
The album's goal, set out by Lange, was to be a Hard Rock version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, in that every track was a potential hit single. Songs were therefore written with this concept in mind, disappointing Heavy Metal fans who clamored for a straight sequel to Pyromania. One song, Love Bites (watch video), was already mostly written in the vein of a country ballad by Mutt Lange when he brought it to the band's attention.
While Pyromania contained traces of Def Leppard's original traditional Heavy Metal sound found on their first two albums, Hysteria removed them in favor of the latest sonic technology available at the time (best displayed on Rocket (watch video), Love Bites, Excitable, and Gods of War).
As with Pyromania, every song was recorded by every member in the studio separately instead of the whole band. The multiple vocal harmonies were enhanced by Lange's techniques, even pitching background vocals on all tracks. Guitar parts were now focused more on emphasising melody than Hard Rock's more basic and clichΓ©d riffs.
The band used the Rockman amplifier, developed by guitarist Tom Scholz from the band Boston, to record the album. Engineer Mike Shipley described the Rockman as "π ππππππ’ ππππππ πππ‘" with "π πππππ πππ πππππ" that "πππ ππ ππππ πππππ ππ ππ", but it was used because the other amplifiers used had an excessively "πππππππ’" sound ill-suited to layering guitars and which Lange did not think was "ππππππππππ" enough.
In addition, all of the album's drum sounds were samples recorded by Lange and the engineers, then played from the Fairlight CMI.
In a 1999 interview with Mix Magazine, Shipley noted, "πΏπ’πππππππ π ππ ππππ πππ ππππ π ππ’, ππ ππππππ’ πΎ-πππ π΅ππππππππ ππππππππππ’ π ππππ π π πππ ππ ππππππ πππ πππ ππ ππππππ πππππ’πππππ ππ ππππ πππππ ππππ πππ π΅ππππππππ ππ ππππ ππ πππππ ππππ ππ πππ ππππ ππππ ππ ππ, πππ π πβπ ππ ππππππππ ππ π πππππ ππ ππππππ πππ ππππ πππππ."
Shipley also noted that the drum sounds were dealt with last because each song's structure could change so radically, and because of technical difficulties. This unique approach sometimes led to painstaking lengths of time in the recording studio.
The smash single, Pour Some Sugar on Me (watch video version 2), was the last song written but was quickly finished within two weeks. In sharp contrast, the final version of Animal took almost a full three years to be developed but was not as successful as other singles despite reaching No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Commercial Performance:
David Simone, managing director of Phonogram Records at the time, said the album might have been the most expensive record made in the U.K. According to guitarist Phil Collen, the album had to sell a minimum of 5 million copies to break even.
The popularity of Def Leppard in their homeland had significantly grown over the previous four years, and Hysteria (watch title track video) topped the charts in Britain in its first week of release. The album was also a major success in other parts of Europe.
In the US, however, the band initially struggled to regain the momentum of Pyromania that was lost from such a prolonged absence. The leadoff track, Women, was selected as the first single for the US and Canada, instead of Animal, in July 1987. Then-manager Cliff Burnstein reasoned that the band needed to reconnect with their Hard Rock audience first before issuing more Top 40-friendly singles. Women became a Top 10 hit on the Rock chart, peaking at No. 7, but as predicted, did not make a large impact on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 80.
The success of the album's fourth single, Pour Some Sugar on Me would propel the album to the top of the US Billboard 200 albums chart on July 23, 1988, nearly a year after its release - topping the chart three separate times for a combined total of six weeks.
Seven singles were eventually released in the United States, with Love Bites reaching No. 1, and three others reaching the Top 10.
The singles earned similar success in the United Kingdom. In the Billboard issue dated October 8, 1988, Def Leppard held the No. 1 spot on both the singles and album charts with Love Bites and Hysteria, respectively.
Hysteria went on to dominate album charts around the world for three years. It was certified 12Γ platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2009. The album currently sits as the 51st best selling album of all time in the US. It spent 96 weeks in the US Top 40, a record for the 1980s, tying with Bruce Springsteenβs Born in the U.S.A. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
Speaking to Kerrang! in May 2008 about the album's success, Joe Elliott remembered;
βπ΅ππ ππ πππ πππππ πππππ ππππ ππ πππππππ, πππ ππππππ ππππ ππ πππ ππππ πππππππ’ ππ π ππππ π π π πππ πππππ, πππ πππππ πππππ π πππππ ππππππ ππ π°ππππππ ππππ ππ πππ ππ π΄ππππππ ππππππ’ πππππππ πππππ π ππ ππ ππ‘ππππππ πππππ-π πππ ππππ ππππ πππ ππ’ πππ ππππ π π πππ π·π’ππππππ, πππππ’πππππ πππ ππππππ ππππ πππππ. π°ππππππ’ πππ πππ πππππππ π πππ πππ ππππππ ππ ππ πππ πππππ π ππ ππππ πππ πππ ππππ π πππ π π πππ ππππ πππ πππππ β π π πππππππππ’ πππ πππππ ππππ ππ ππ πππ πππππ’ πππππ ππ ππ πππππ. πππππ π ππ ππππ ππππβπ ππππππππ, ππ ππππππ, πππ ππ ππ ππππππ, πΈβπ ππππ πππππ π ππ πππ πππππππ π πππ ππ ππ’ππππππ’ πππ πΈβπ πππππππ’ ππππ πππ πππππ π ππππ ππππ πππππ π πππππ πππ’π ππ’. π½πππ ππ πππ πππππ πππππ β πππ πππππππ, πππ πππππππππ, πππ ππππππ β ππππ ππ ππππ π ππππ ππππ πππππ πππ’πππππ ππ πππ πππππ ππππβπ ππππ πππππ πππ πΈβπ πππππ ππππππ’ πππππ ππ πππ πππ πππππ ππ π·π’ππππππ.
On October 24, 2006, a 2-CD "πππππ‘π πππππππ" of the album was released, including a remastering of the original B-sides and bonus tracks from the album's period. These songs include Tear It Down, I Wanna Be Your Hero, Ride Into The Sun (originally released in 1979 on The Def Leppard E.P.) and Ring of Fire. Many of these songs, alongside two other Hysteria compositions Desert Song and Fractured Love, had been featured on Retro Active, albeit with remixes, revamps, and new parts added. The deluxe edition Hysteria deluxe CD included the original B-side versions of these recordings without alterations.
Another song, Tonight was originally recorded on May 5, 1988 during a break in the Hysteria World Tourβ as a possible B-side to one of the album's upcoming singles. The song was shelved and later re-recorded for the Adrenalize album. The 1988 demo version, which includes Steve Clark on guitar, was eventually released on various CD singles, album deluxe editions and box sets.
Finally, a very tongue in cheek cover of Release Me which was made famous by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967 was released as a B-side under the guise of Stumpus Maximus and the Good Ol' Boys. Stumpus Maximus was Malvin Mortimer, a member of the band's road crew and later became their tour manager. The Good Ol' Boys were the members of Def Leppard, singing backup on what is essentially a parody version of the song.
During their March 22 to April 10, 2013 residency at The Joint, Def Leppard performed the album in its entirety, from start to finish. This was followed up with a live album Viva! Hysteria, recorded during the residency and released on October 22, 2013, which includes all of band's fourth studio album being played live.
This would be followed up seven years later as Hysteria: Live at the O2 was released on May 29, 2020, as part of the London to Vegas box set. The live concert was filmed at The O2 Arena in London, England on December 6, 2018, as the band once again played the album in its entirety. Various releases have included a stand-alone edition of this concert have featured combinations of audio, DVD and blu-ray discs.
In the liner notes to the album, the band apologized for the long wait between albums, and promised to never force fans to wait that long between albums again. However, later events, particularly the death of lead guitarist Steve Clark, delayed the next album, Adrenalize, by almost five years.
Critical Reception:
Hysteria received generally positive reviews. AllMusic's Steve Huey awarded it five stars, stating, "πΏπ’πππππππβπ πππππ, πππ’ππππ πΌπππ π»ππππ ππππππππππ ππππππ ππππ π πππππππππππ πππππππππ π πππ πππππ πππππ ππππππ ππ π·π’ππππππ, π πππ πππ ππππππ ππππ ππππ πππππππ πππππππππ πππ ππππππ ππ π πππππ, ππππππππ£ππ πΏππ ππππ-πππ (πππππππ πππ ππ ππππ ππ ππππ π°ππππβπ πππ , πππππππππ’ ππππππππππ ππππ πππ)." Huey characterized the album as "πΏππ πΌππππ" rather than Heavy Metal, with reference to the production of Mutt Lange, and called it "ππππππππ’ πππ ππππ πΏππ-πΌππππ πππππ ππππ ππππππππ."
In 2005, Hysteria was ranked No. 464 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.
Hysteria got the same placement on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 best albums of all time, the magazine also ranked the album atop its list of the 50 greatest Hair Metal albums, and they placed the album on their list of 50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own.
Loudwire placed the album at No. 2 on their list of the Top 30 Hair Metal albums.
Hysteria was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
LA Weekly and Consequence of Sound (now Consequence.com) both ranked the album No. 8 on their Hair Metal album lists.
Metal-Rules.com put the album on their list of the Top 50 Glam Metal Albums, at No. 30.
The Ringer called Hysteria "πππ ππππππππ π·πππ πΌππππ πππππ ππππ ππππ".
"πΈ πππ πππ’ πππππππππππ’ β πππππππ πΈ π πππβπ ππ πππ ππππ ππππ β ππππ π·π’ππππππ ππ πππ ππ πππ ππππππππ πππππππ ππ πππ ππππ," remarked Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell.
Notice: Any reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. β E.N. Wells
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In Memory of Steve "Steamin" Clark
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