“Photograph” by Def Leppard

"Photograph" was the lead single from Def Leppard's third album, Pyromania, in 1983, and it's the English hard rockers buffed to a mirror shine. Mutt Lange produced and mixed it and shares the writing credit with Joe Elliott, Steve Clark, Rick Savage and Pete Willis. Clark, Willis and Phil Collen all turn up on guitar, Rick Allen hammers the beat, Savage holds down the bass, and The Leppardettes pile on the backing vocals until the chorus sounds like a whole arena singing along.

The song usually gets tagged as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, but Elliott has said it's broader than that, about whatever stays forever just out of reach. It sat at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Tracks chart for six weeks and crossed over to No. 12 on the pop chart. In 2008 the band played it with Taylor Swift on CMT Crossroads.

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