Signature Songs, Vol. 6 - Def Leppard

This week, I’m continuing my Signature Songs series with Def Leppard!

Def Leppard had an incredible hitmaking run from 1981 through 1992, including 15 Top 40 hits, four Top 10 singles, and one No. 1 song. But their signature song isn’t necessarily their best song, or even their biggest hit — it’s the song most tied to their public image.

So I’m looking at the major contenders, and I’ll make the case for the one song that became Def Leppard’s true calling card. It's all this week, on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

And then I want to hear from you - did I get it right? Let me know what you think, and check out this week’s Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast Playlist, featuring Def Leppard’s chart hits and a few of my favorites on:

Apple Music 

Spotify

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to the Rock-N-Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got another episode of Signature Songs for you. And this is a fun one because I'm talking about a band that was absolutely massive in the 1980s. A band that took hard rock, heavy metal, glam, pop, and some studio perfectionism, threw it all into a giant arena-sized blender, and pumped out some of the biggest rock anthems of the decade. This week, I'm talking about Def Leppard. I'll run through all of their biggest tracks and make the case for the one song that I believe is their signature song, and then I wanna hear what you think. I hope you'll join me coming up right now By now you know the drill. In this series, I'm trying to figure out an act's signature song, not necessarily their best song and not always their biggest hit, but the song most tied to their public image, you know, their musical calling card, the one even casual fans know, the one that pops into your mind as soon as you hear that act's name. Sometimes it's their breakthrough hit, sometimes it's the biggest chart hit. Sometimes it's the song that crossed over to a whole new audience. Usually it's some combination of all of those, which is why this is more art than science, and why it's so fun to discuss with your friends. Def Leppard is a fun one to do for me because I was a big fan, and they had a bunch of hits in the '80s and early '90s. They had 15 Top 40 songs, four of which went top 10, including one number one single. So let's take a look at their background first. Def Leppard formed, I didn't know this, back in 1976 in Sheffield, England, and Sheffield wasn't exactly a happening musical town at that time, even though Joe Cocker had come from there a decade earlier. Sheffield was, in a lot of ways, like England's Pittsburgh, a steel city, an industrial city, and out of that blue-collar town, a group of schoolmates formed a rock and roll band called Atomic Mass, which sounds more like something from a chemistry class than a band that would eventually conquer arenas. The early lineup changed a few times, but the important pieces started falling into place when Joe Elliott came in. He originally auditioned as a guitarist, but it quickly became clear that he was better suited to be their singer. He also suggested changing the name from Atomic Mass to Deaf Leopard, but he spelled it the normal way, the hearing impairment and the animal. Then they got around to cleaning that up and making it a little more rock and roll-looking Def Leppard, with that Led Zeppelin-style misspelling. Eventually, the classic early lineup came together, Joe Elliott on vocals, Rick Savage on bass, Pete Willis and Steve Clark on guitar, and after original drummer Tony Kenning left in 1978, a fifteen-year-old kid named Rick Allen was brought in to play drums. These guys were young, but they were hungry. They were listening to bands like Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Mott the Hoople, and T. Rex, and they had huge ambitions, maybe too huge for a bunch of teenagers from Sheffield to even have any business dreaming about. But that was the point. Def Leppard didn't wanna be a local band. They wanted the whole UK. They wanted arenas. They wanted America, and they wanted the world. By 1979, they were building a reputation as one of the more exciting young hard rock bands in Britain, and they'd got grouped in with the emerging new wave of British heavy metal, along with bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Diamond Head. But Def Leppard were always a little different from their compatriots in that group. They had the heavy guitars, but they also had a pop instinct. They weren't trying to be the heaviest or fastest band on the scene. They wanted melodies and hooks also. They signed with Phonogram in the UK and Mercury in the US and released their debut album, On Through the Night, in early 1980. It's not the album that made them stars, but it got them on the road, especially in America. Where they opened for acts like Ted Nugent and AC/DC. And while there aren't really any all-time great Def Leppard songs on that first record, I think "Rock Brigade" holds up. In fact, that's the name of their fan club. The real leap came with their second album, High 'n' Dry, which was released in 1981. That's where they brought in producer Mutt Lange, who had already made his name with AC/DC, producing their two biggest albums, Highway to Hell and Back in Black. And with Lange behind the desk, the band started to find their sound. Bigger guitars, tighter arrangements, stronger choruses, and a much clearer sense of what Def Leppard could become. The key track from High and Dry was Bringing on the Heartbreak. That song helped them break into the States, partly because the timing was perfect. MTV had just launched, and the channel was starved for current rock videos to play, so suddenly American teenagers weren't just hearing Def Leppard on the radio, they were seeing them that set the stage for Pyromania in 1983, again produced by Mutt Lange. There was some drama during the recording when founding guitarist Pete Willis was fired for excessive drinking and replaced by Phil Collen, not Phil Collins. Phil Collen, who had been in the British glam band Girl. But the change didn't slow them down at all. In fact, Pyromania literally caught fire, going to number two in the US and eventually selling more than 10 million copies here. It produced three top 40 singles, Photograph, Rock of Ages, and Foolin', with Photograph and Rock of Ages both reaching the top 20. And that's important because Def Leppard were still considered heavy metal at that time, and metal was not exactly living near the top of the Hot 100 singles chart in the US in the early '80s. Def Leppard, along with Quiet Riot, helped prove that hard rock with metal DNA could work on pop radio. After more than a year of touring behind Pyromania, Def Leppard were voted the favorite rock band of 1984 in a Gallup poll. But on New Year's Eve that year, they suffered their first major tragedy when drummer Rick Allen got into a terrible car accident and lost his left arm, which is tough for a drummer. But Rick was determined to continue, and to the band's credit, they didn't replace him. They waited while he recovered, and while he worked with the electronic drum company Simmons to build an electronic drum setup that allowed him to use his feet to compensate for his missing arm. Within two years, he was back behind the kit playing live. Then came Hysteria. Released in 1987, more than four years after Pyromania, Hysteria somehow became even bigger. It went to number one in the US, in the UK, in Canada, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand. In the US, it sold more than 12 million copies and produced seven Hot 100 singles, six of which went top 20. Absolute dominance. But the band's next chapter came with more tragedy. While recording Hysteria's follow-up, longtime guitarist Steve Clark stepped away because of his alcoholism, and in 1991, he died from a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs. The band finished the album as a four-piece, then brought in Vivian Campbell, a Northern Irish guitarist who had played with both Dio and Whitesnake in the '80s. That album, Adrenalize, came out in 1992 and went straight to number one in both the US and the UK. It produced several more hits, including four more Top 40 singles. Even though it sold three million copies in the US, the landscape had changed. You know the story by now. Grunge, hip hop, and pop music were reshaping the '90s, and Def Leppard's era of total chart dominance was ending. But to their credit, they've kept going, and they remain a reliable, great-sounding touring band. They've released seven more studio albums right up through 2022's very good Diamond Star Halos record. Check that one out. But their hit-making run is really that incredible stretch from High 'n' Dry through Adrenalize, roughly 1981 to 1992, and that's where I'm pulling the candidates from as I try to determine Def Leppard's signature song. Okay, so with all that goodness, how do I go about picking their signature song? Well, here are the contenders I'm considering. First is Bringing on the Heartbreak" from High 'n' Dry. It didn't chart in either the US or the UK, but it matters because it was their first real MTV video. MTV v- MTV wasn't anywhere but parts of the US in 1982. MTV wasn't everywhere yet in 1982. In fact, it wasn't even everywhere in America yet in 1982. But if you were an American kid who had MTV, there's a good chance this was your first look at Def Leppard. It still gets classic rock airplay today, but for signature song purposes, I think it's more of an honorable mention. Second up is Photograph," the first single from Pyromania, and their first major American hit, their first top 20 single, reaching number 12 on the Hot 100 chart. The video was huge on MTV, and along with Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize," as I mentioned, it helped show that heavy metal or at least metal-adjacent hard rock could break through on the American pop chart. Rock of Ages" is the third considered song. It's the second single from Pyromania, and it also went top 20 in the US. Plus, it has one of the weirdest and most instantly identifiable openings in rock history The title also became a broader cultural touchpoint thanks to the Rock of Ages jukebox musical and the movie adaptation starring, among others, Tom Cruise as a drunk and narcissistic rock star. Oddly, the Def Leppard song itself was not in the original musical, though it has been used in later productions as post-curtain call music. Next up, Animal was the first signal from the Hysteria album and gave Def Leppard their first top 10 hit in the UK. Then Pour Some Sugar on Me, the third single from Hysteria, which reached number two on the Hot 100 chart at the time, the highest charting song in their history, and became absolutely massive on MTV. The video helped spread that shedded... The video helped spread that shredded jeans look across Middle America, and today it is far and away the band's most streamed song on Spotify, almost double the second place song, which was the song Hysteria. Next up, I considered Armageddon It, which gets an honorable mention because it was another huge US hit reaching number three, and it still gets a lot of classic rock airplay. And finally, you have to consider Love Bites, also from the Hysteria album, because it was Def Leppard's only number one single. So those are the candidates. But my five favorite Def Leppard songs are a little bit different, because I really love this band, and I've been listening to them for most of my life. My top five start at number five with Let It Go" from the High and Dry record in 1981. At number four, Bringing on the Heartbreak," also from the High and Dry record, and my first exposure to the band. It's a ballad, good one, sounds good today. Next up, Pour Some Sugar on Me," of course, from Hysteria in 1987. That was pretty formative times for me. I was 18 when that record came out, At number two, a song most people aren't familiar with, Comin' Under Fire" from the Pyromania album. That's a great one. If you haven't heard it, check that one out. And at number one, Photograph," which also was from Pyromania and was the first time I really got into the band. It was the second song I heard of theirs. The video's great, the Union Jack sleeveless T-shirt that Joe Elliott bought for the £7, because that's all he had, going over to film the video. Great stories there. But favorite song and signature song are not the same thing. Out of all the songs I'm considering, I think there are only two real candidates, and those are "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me." "Photograph" did a lot of the heavy lifting for the band. It pushed Def Leppard into the American mainstream, dominated MTV, and still sounds like the moment the band truly arrived. And since I haven't yet picked a signature song that was also my favorite song by that artist, having "Photograph" this close is a little bit of a twist for me. But the answer's gotta be "Pour Some Sugar on Me." I think it has the best overall case: chart success, video impact, streaming dominance, and cultural pervasiveness. It reached number two in the US, which helped Hysteria finally get to number one on the album charts. It became their most streamed song by a wide margin, as I said, And MTV ranked its video number one on their Top 300 Videos of All Time countdown a number of years ago. VH1 then ranked it number two on their list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s. Like "Rock of Ages," it's instantly identifiable just from the opening Def Leppard were a hit-making machine in the '80s and early '90s, and right in the middle of their run, they produced their most memorable song. It may be a little bit of mindless fun, but it has everything that makes a Def Leppard song work: good intro, layers of vocal harmonies, stacked guitars, a huge drum sound, and lyrics that are easy to remember and even easier to sing along with, even if you, like me, still don't know exactly why anyone would want sugar poured on them, and you, like me, assume it's just a slightly out of left field sexual reference that you can't quite figure out. And really, while I can only imagine it's still played at every strip club in America every night at least once, when you're in a bar and this song comes on, people are singing along with the chorus. Def Leppard's signature song is Pour Some Sugar on Me Okay, what do you think? Did I get it right or wrong? Let me know, because as I said at the start, I'm doing this podcast to have fun discussing great music, and I've still got more than 100 more acts to get through. So if you like what you heard today, I'd appreciate it if you would like and either subscribe or follow this channel to make sure you get notified about each new episode, and please tell your friends. Also, a reminder that I release a playlist for every episode, so look for the Rock-N-Roll Show podcast playlist on Spotify and Apple Music every week, this week featuring all of Def Leppard's chart hits, plus some additional favorites of mine. Finally, as I said, I wanna know what you think. Please leave me a comment. I'll try to respond to every one of them. The Rock-N-Roll Show podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host Alex Gadd, and until next time, remember that life is short, so get those concert tickets