Hysteria (Def Leppard album)

Hysteria
Studio album by Def Leppard
Publication (s)	3rd August 1987
admission	February 1984-January 1987
Label (s)	Mercury Records
Format (s)	CD, LP, MC
Genre (s)	Hard rock , heavy metal
Title (number)	12
running time	61:52
occupation	Singing: Joe Elliott Guitar: Steve Clark Guitar: Phil Collen Bass: Rick Savage Drums: Rick Allen
production	Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Studio (s)	Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum (Netherlands) Windmill Lane 2, Dublin (Ireland) Studio Des Dames, Paris (France)
chronology Pyromania (1983) Hysteria Adrenalize (1992)

Hysteria ( . English for " hysteria ") is the fourth studio album by British hard rock - band Def Leppard . With over 20 million copies sold, this is the band's most successful album worldwide. A total of seven singles were released, the most successful were Pour Some Sugar on Me and Love Bites . The album was one of the longest single albums to be released to date. Like no other work, it defined the sound aesthetics of hard rock in the 1980s.

Classification in the musical background

With the previous studio album Pyromania , the band had their commercial breakthrough in 1983. The group ended their world tour in February 1984 , and at that time they were the most sought-after hard rock band , especially in the USA : several thousand copies of Pyromania were sold each week . The album had reached number 2 on the US album charts and was only trumped by Michael Jackson's thriller . For tax reasons, the musicians decided to move to Ireland .

“Mutt” Lange , who has been the band's producer since their album High n 'Dry (1981) , was of the opinion that “almost every band will probably try to copy Pyromania .” Therefore Def Leppard shouldn't repeat himself and just simply bring out the second part of the album, but instead had to deliver "a noble work that sets standards in pop music".

Recording and production

The band began pre-production for the album in the spring of 1984 in the Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum , the Netherlands, under the supervision of Lange, and worked out the first pieces when he suddenly had to quit: He was burned out after having been producing the albums for The Cars ( Heartbeat City ), Foreigner ( 4 ) and AC / DC ( Highway to Hell , Back in Black , For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) ) had achieved top performances in his field. Since he “did not want to participate in the creation of the album if he was not completely fit”, he withdrew from the recordings.

The band's record company, Mercury Records , pushed for the work to continue, and the band agreed to work with another producer. Various candidates were contacted, including Ted Templeman , Mike Stone, Trevor Horn , Steve Lillywhite and Phil Collins . When a collaboration with these producers did not materialize, the management of the band suggested Jim Steinman . The band worked with him for six weeks before they broke up with him because “nothing went right from the start,” as singer Joe Elliott said.

“At some point we will put a song that we recorded with him (Steinman) in a box set so that everyone has something to laugh about. Really, the recordings are so bad ... "

- Joe Elliott : 400 beers to four in: Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 04/2008, page 40

The band decided to produce the album themselves. They received support from the sound engineer Nigel Green, who had been recommended to them by Lange. The work was continued from November 1984 together with Green. The band wrote the pieces on the album together. The recording was interrupted again after drummer Rick Allen was in a car accident on December 31, 1984: he had missed a corner and lost control of his car, which hit a wall, took off and landed in a field beyond. Allen had been thrown through the shattered windshield of his Chevrolet Corvette , his left arm tearing off. In a ten-hour operation, doctors at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield tried to sew the arm back on, but had to amputate it again shortly afterwards when an infection occurred. With the help of NASA , a partially electronic drum kit was developed especially for everyone, with which he could operate the most important functions with his feet. He operates it via four foot pedals, which enable him to call up the sounds that he had previously played with his left arm.

In the spring of 1985 the group had completed some demos , including for the songs Animal, Gods of War, Run Riot and Women . In July 1985, Lange returned and passed a damning verdict on the material recorded so far. He called for new songs and insisted that many of the existing titles should be rewritten and massively optimized. In the period that followed, numerous sophisticated and multifaceted compositions were created.

The guitarists Steve Clark and Phil Collen did not use the usual guitar amplifiers for the recordings , but used the Rockman developed by Tom Scholz ( Boston) . Phil Collen explained:

“Big amps are cool as long as you don't have tons of overdubs to do. But we have so many layers of guitar stacked on top of each other that with a fat Marshall sound there would have been only one sound pulp. In addition, Steve and I rarely played powerful power chords, but rather very filigree things. Otherwise they would not have come into their own. "

- Phil Collen : Company world domination in: Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 06/2016, page 27

Lange's perfectionism is evident in this and other examples . In order to be able to do without keyboards for the bridge of the title Hysteria , Clark and Collen had to break down their respective chords into individual notes. Each individual string was then recorded separately. For a long time, this avoided the typical light arpeggio effects that arise when playing chords on the guitar. For Gods of War, on the other hand, Lange copied so many harmony chants that in the end more than 100 choir tracks were created.

In the summer of 1986 the band interrupted the work on the album to appear at a few club shows in Ireland and then at the Monsters of Rock festivals in Castle Donington, Stockholm , Nuremberg and Mannheim . Rick Allen was supposed to be assisted by Jeff Rich ( Status Quo ) when performing in Ireland ; for Def Leppard's fourth appearance in Ballybunion , however, Rich was late, and Allen mastered the entire show on his own.

After the festival appearances, the band continued to work on the recordings. Joe Elliott tried something on an acoustic guitar, Phil Collen developed a riff that was based on White Lines by Grandmaster Flash , and Pour Some Sugar on Me was created in just ten days . In November 1986 singer Joe Elliott fell ill with mumps , Producer Lange was involved in a traffic accident and suffered severe burns to his legs, but was still working on ideas for the album in the hospital. The band finally managed to finish the recordings in January 1987.

Lange then worked for three months on the mix of the album, which was released on August 3, 1987 as LP , CD and MC , almost four years after the previous album .

Cover design

The cover of the album was created by British artist Andie Airfix , who also designed the covers of the released singles . He received the band's assignment without any specific information about what was expected of him. At the time, the group was still planning to name the album Animal Instinct . Airfix 'idea was to depict something that turns or turns towards the viewer and looks at them, and the first design featured an eagle, a shark and a lion blending into one another.

Cover of the album
, 1987
Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

When the album title was changed to Hysteria , Airfix had to abandon its idea and start over. The new design showed a distorted face within a triangle that seemed to merge with the complex background. In Airfix's opinion, the triangle was a recognizable element for Def Leppard fans because it was also part of the band's logo. From that point, the artist wanted to create something scary. He achieved this by showing the face from the front with his mouth wide open, but also by incorporating his side view so that one could see a head with two screaming faces.

The band, whose popularity had declined, embarked on a 227-show tour to promote the album. It received permanent airplay from the music channel MTV . Joe Elliott described the album as the band's most over-produced album and was surprised by the success of Hysteria .

Track list

Hysteria
No.	title	Songwriter	Remarks	length
1.	Women	Steve Clark , Phil Collen , Joe Elliott, Robert John Lange , Rick Savage		5:41
2.	Rocket	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		6:34
3.	Animal	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		4:02
4th	Love bites	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		5:46
5.	Pour some sugar on me	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		4:45
6th	Armageddon It	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage	Backing Vocal : Debbi Blackwell-Cook	5:21
7th	Gods of War	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		6:33
8th.	Don't Shoot Shotgun	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		4:19
9.	Run riot	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		4:39
10.	Hysteria	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		5:49
11.	Excitable	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage		4:10
12.	Love and Affection	Clark, Collen, Elliott, Lange, Savage	Bouzouki : Ronan McHugh	4:35
Overall length:				61:52

reception

The music magazine Rolling Stone ranks the album at number 464 on its list of the 500 best albums of all time , and the album has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The album reached number 1 on the album charts in the USA, Great Britain, Norway , Australia and New Zealand .

Hysteria received mostly very good reviews. In a contemporary review of Rock Hard , the album is certified as "first class", even though the band has become "a little softer compared to its predecessor", it was a "big hit". The Rolling Stone described it as the "schmackhaftesten pop-metal-candy-1980". For Steve Huey from Allmusic , the band crowned their catchy pop metal with the album. He thinks it is the best album of this genre that has ever been recorded.

Chart placements

album

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1987	Hysteria	DE10 (19 weeks) DE	AT71 (1 week) AT	CH2 (17 weeks) CH	UK1 (108 weeks) UK	US1 (134 weeks) US

Singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1987	Women	-	-	-	-	US80 (5 weeks) US	First published: August 11, 1987
	Animal	-	-	CH17 (7 weeks) CH	UK6 (9 weeks) UK	US19 (19 weeks) US	First published: July 17, 1987
	Pour some sugar on me	DE50 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	UK18 (6 weeks) UK	US2 (24 weeks) US	First published: September 5, 1987
	Hysteria	-	-	-	UK26 (7 weeks) UK	US10 (16 weeks) US	First published: November 14, 1987
1988	Armageddon It	-	-	-	UK20 (5 weeks) UK	US3 (18 weeks) US	First published: March 26, 1988
	Love bites	-	-	-	UK11 (8 weeks) UK	US1 (23 weeks) US	First published: July 2, 1988
1989	Rocket	-	-	-	UK15 (7 weeks) UK	US12 (13 weeks) US	First published: January 28, 1989

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	4 × platinum	280,000
Canada (MC)	diamond	1,000,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	platinum	15,000
Sweden (IFPI)	gold	50,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	platinum	50,000
United States (RIAA)	12 × platinum	12,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	2 × platinum	600,000
All in all	1 × gold 10 × platinum 2 × diamond	13,995,000

Main article: Def Leppard / Music Sales Awards

Web links

• Official website
• Hysteria at Allmusic (English)
• Hysteria at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 06/2016, page 28
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Alexander Kolbe: Company world domination in: Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 06/2016, pages 24–33
3. ↑ ^{a b} Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Rock Hard Enzyklopädie. 700 of the most interesting rock bands from the last 30 years . Rock Hard GmbH, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 978-3-9805171-0-2 , p. 87 f .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} The story behind Def Leppard's Hysteria album artwork , louder.com, accessed October 9, 2019
5. ^ Bob Batchelor, Scott Stoddart: The 1980s . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, ISBN 978-0-313-33000-1 , pp. 121 .
6. ↑ Phil Anderson: Interview with Joe Elliott. KAOS2000 Magazine, accessed February 10, 2010 . 
7. ↑ 500 Greatest Albums of all Time: Def Leppard, 'Hysteria'. Rolling Stone Magazine, accessed April 2, 2014 . 
8. ^ Götz Kühnemund: Def Leppard: Hysteria . In: Rock Hard (Ed.): Best of Rock & Metal. The 500 strongest discs of all time . Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 978-3-89880-517-9 , pp. 23 f .
9. ^ Holger Stratmann: Review of Hysteria . In: Rock Hard . No. October 23 , 1987.
10. ^ Gavin Edwards: Hysteria: Def Leppard: Review. Rolling Stone Magazine, November 1, 1996, accessed February 10, 2010 . 
11. ↑ Chart sources album:
    • Hysteria in the German album charts on OfficialCharts.de
    • Hysteria in the Austrian hit parade on AustrianCharts.at
    • Hysteria in the Swiss charts on Hitparade.ch
    • Hysteria in the Official UK Charts (English)
    • Hysteria on the US Billboard 200
12. ↑ Chart sources singles:
    • Def Leppard in the German single charts on OfficialCharts.de
    • Def Leppard in the Austrian hit parade on AustrianCharts.at
    • Def Leppard in the Swiss charts on Hitparade.ch
    • Def Leppard in the Official UK Charts (English)
    • Def Leppard on US Billboard Hot 100