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Fact #167717

When:

Short story:

Def Leppard enter the Billboard albums chart in the USA with Hysteria which will peak at No1.

Full article:

THE MAKING OF DEF LEPPARD’S HYSTERIA

“With Pyromania we set out to make our version of Sgt Pepper,” says Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott. “We didn’t achieve that, but we made a damn good rock record. With the next record, we attempted to take that a stage further.”

That next record, of course, was Hysteria and it was following a tough act, because Pyromania (produced by Mutt Lange) had sold a staggering seven million copies. It went to No1 in the UK, and only the unshakeable presence of Michael Jackson’s Thriller could keep it off the top slot in America.

Work on Hysteria had started way back in August 1984, when Leppard tried to get off the ground with the Wagner of rock music, Meatloaf producer Jim Steinman. “It was a complete mismatch,” admits Elliott, “like going from a Rolls Royce to a bicycle.” Steinman tried to make the band record the tracks more or less live, but this conflicted with their desire to experiment in the studio. “We weren’t really prepared to compromise, and he couldn’t understand the way that we were used to working with Mutt Lange.”

Things went from bad to worse when drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash on New Year’s Eve, 1984. The band, however, was determined that Rick would remain their drummer. “We weren’t going to fire him. No way. We were just really glad that he turned round and said ‘Well, when’s the first gig?’” Just four months later they were able to bring him back into the fold using a specially adapted electronic kit that compensated for his missing limb.

Re-united with not just their drummer but also with Pyromania producer Mutt Lange, the band returned to the studio in mid-1985. Elliott remembers the track Animal as the point when the tide turned back in their favour. “We wanted the vocal to be really attention-grabbing. I thought it would take a long time to record it, but I nailed it in two days… It gave me the confidence to carry on with the rest of the record.”

With this album, the band also changed its writing technique. Previously, they had devised musical structures to which Elliott had added a vocal line. This time round, Elliott’s vocals came first and the music was added after. The result was a more melodic sound but with no loss of power. “We basically started writing songs that were going to have the big hooks,” says Elliott. “What we tended to do was write three good ones and seven so-so ones, and then scrap the seven so-sos. Then we’d write three more good ones and seven more so-sos, and scrap the seven again.” The end result was that they composed enough material for four albums, but only used the very best of those songs for Hysteria.

The album included their only American No1 single, Love Bites, about which Elliott remembers “It was possibly the hardest vocal I’ve ever sung. It took me ages to get it. It’s just not in my register … and we couldn’t really change the key, because that made it sound weird on the guitars.”

In November 1986, just when everything seemed to be going fine, Elliott contracted the mumps and was confined to bed for nine days. No sooner was Elliott up and about than Lange found himself hospitalised for three weeks as a result of a car smash.

Picking the pieces up, the album was mixed in the spring of 1987 and all that was needed was a title. Paranoia was a front runner for a while, but then “Rick was sat there smoking a cigarette, and he just said ‘Hysteria’d be a good title.’ And everybody looked at him. He hadn’t said a word for two hours, he’d just been sat there, and it was like ‘He’s right, actually.’”

Hysteria was released that August but, amazingly, it took 49 weeks to reach the top slot in the charts, ultimately selling over 12 million copies.

“It was a nightmare to make,” recalls Elliott, “but I still enjoy listening to it today. I’d rather have it that way than have an album that I had a great time making, but I can’t listen to.”