Def Leppard

Def Leppard came out of Sheffield with the new wave of British heavy metal, but they never had much interest in staying underground. Joe Elliott sang, Rick Savage played bass, Rick Allen drummed, and the twin guitars of Steve Clark and Pete Willis gave the early band its bite. On Through the Night, in 1980, got them into the UK Top 15 but not much further.

Then Mutt Lange came on board as producer for High 'n' Dry in 1981, and the band found its sound: melodic hard rock, polished till it gleamed, with choruses stacked like a cathedral choir. "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" became one of the first rock videos on MTV in 1982. Pyromania, released in January 1983, is where the band split open wide. Willis played on the whole record but was fired, and Phil Collen, who replaced him, turns up on 5 of its tracks, while "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" both topped the US Rock Tracks chart. The album went diamond in America.

Hysteria, in 1987, made them giants. It was their most pop-minded record yet, a glossy wall of vocals, crunching guitars and big drums, and it topped the charts in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia and hung around on them for more than 2 years. It spawned 6 Top 20 singles in the US: "Love Bites", which went all the way to number one on the Hot 100, "Pour Some Sugar on Me", the title track, "Armageddon It", "Animal" and "Rocket". Worldwide sales have passed 15 million.

Clark's death in 1991 was a blow, and the survivors cut Adrenalize, in 1992, with just 4 of them, then brought in Vivian Campbell to take the songs on the road. The album still went to number one in the UK, the US and Australia. Along the way Def Leppard have sold more than 100 million records, and both Pyromania and Hysteria have gone diamond, a double feat very few rock bands can claim. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 2019.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.