Ahhh, nothing is quite like 1980s hard rock and heavy metal. The whiff of hair spray permeating the air, tough guy rockers sporting more eye-liner than their groupies, and pyrotechnics exploding in rhythm to the guitarists leather-clad pelvic thrusts… it was an era that won’t soon be forgotten. One of the decade’s most successful bands, the U.K. band Def Leppard, largely avoided the oversized hair and glam-tart makeup that many of their contemporaries employed. Yeah, they had the girls and the booze and some questionable wardrobe choices (but then, it was the 80s – we all had fashion mistakes that we’d rather didn’t see the light of day again in the form of photographic evidence.) But they also had killer tunes, big live sounds and one of the biggest and baddest albums of the decade: “Hysteria.” It spawned 7 singles, has sold more than 20 million copies, and became Def Leppard’s major triumph.
“Hysteria” is an album that might not have been. The band’s problems were well-publicized. Drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a New Year’s Eve car accident, but soldiered forward with a custom drum kit. They struggled in the studio with various producers, and as the months and years ticked by, fans began to question whether a new Def Leppard record would ever emerge.
Emerge it did. “Hysteria” was released in August 1987, but initially the commercial response was decidedly lukewarm. First single, the anthemic rocker “Women,” tanked on the charts. After the band’s far-reaching success with their prior album “Pyromania,” this was not an auspicious beginning for a new album. It had been a few years since “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages” scaled the charts with their killer licks and cheesy videos. Had the notoriously fickle record-buying public forgotten about Def Leppard? Nah. They just needed the right single, and the 2nd track taken from the record, “Animal,” built the momentum. An immaculately produced pop-rock tune with an insanely catchy hook and precisely layered vocals, “Animal” rocketed into the Top 20. Then the dual nuclear blasts otherwise known as “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Love Bites” launched the band – and the “Hysteria” album – into the stratosphere.
It’s near impossible NOT to sing along with the tawdry testosterone-drenched classic “Pour Some Sugar On Me” when it pops up on the radio, or (since we are now in 2009) the iPod. It’s a salacious mating call in the form of a song – perhaps no ode to bodily fluid is more memorable. Then there was the ultimate sensitive ballad, “Love Bites.” Girls (and boys) swooned, the video was on super-heavy MTV rotation, and it became the stuff of a million jr. high dances.
The title track also became a massive hit. “Hysteria” is an easy-going mid-tempo number with a breezy melody and those trademark Def Leppard harmonies. The straightforward rocker “Armageddon It” was another Top 10 hit, and the final single, “Rocket,” an amped-up ode to some of Def Leppard’s heroes, was another smash. In an era when many albums featured a few hits and lots of filler, “Hysteria” was the exception to the rule. Other bands would have killed for stellar commercial songs like “Excitable,” “Run Riot” and “Love and Affection” – tracks that didn’t even rate as singles for Def Leppard.
“Hysteria” is an album that helped to define its time for millions of people. Back in the day it seemed that everyone had a Def Leppard t-shirt. If you didn’t have “Hysteria” blasting on your walkman, you may as well have been from Pluto. It was THE album of the spring and summer of 1988. The sound was big and brash, and yeah perhaps it sounds a tad dated and overproduced now... but those multi-layered vocals on top of thumping and melodic power-chords were pure pop metal bliss. I vividly remember sitting in science class in Jr. High, trying to be unobtrusive about the single earbud hidden under my long curls and my leaning arm, quietly playing “Hysteria” while the teacher droned on about something I probably should have been paying attention to. Frankly what was playing on my walkman made a more lasting impression. Long live Def Leppard!! The band is still touring, and you can catch them along with Poison and Cheap Trick on July 12 at Nissan Pavillion.
