Album · Def Leppard
On Through the Night by Def Leppard
On Through the Night is an album by Def Leppard, released in 1980. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 8 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Rock Brigade”, on 6 lists with a best position of #279.
On Through the Night, the debut album from Sheffield's Def Leppard, was released by Mercury on 14 March 1980, with Tom Allom in the producer's chair. Joe Elliott sang, Pete Willis and Steve Clark traded guitars, Rick Savage played bass and Rick Allen pounded the drums, and the band's place in the new wave of British heavy metal was right there in the grooves.
It's a raw, hungry heavy metal record, all twin-guitar riffs and teenage bluster, with only hints of the melodic polish to come. "Rocks Off" and "Overture" were re-cut from their independent EP, and "Wasted", "Hello America" and "Rock Brigade" went out as singles. Strawbs' Dave Cousins handled the spoken intro to "When the Walls Came Tumbling Down", doing his best Laurence Olivier. It reached number 15 in the UK, and once the band got huge in America, it eventually went platinum there too.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from On Through the Night on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rock Brigade | 6 | #279 | – | 1990–1999 | |
| 2 | Wasted | 1 | #477 | – | 1990 | |
| 3 | Rocks Off | 1 | #935 | – | 1990 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.