“Rocks Off” by Def Leppard

"Rocks Off" had already been around the block by the time it turned up on On Through the Night, Def Leppard's debut album, in March 1980. The band had first put it out on The Def Leppard E.P., their original, independently released record, and cut it again for the album with producer Tom Allom, Louis Austin and Dick Plant engineering. It wasn't the only second take: "Overture" came over from the EP too, and much of the rest was rebuilt from early demos.

Joe Elliott sings it, Steve Clark and Pete Willis play guitar, Rick Savage is on bass and Rick Allen on drums, and Clark, Elliott, Savage and Willis wrote it together. It's the sound of a new English band in a hurry, all swagger and elbows.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.