Hysteria (album)

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Hysteria
Hysteria cover
Studio album by Def Leppard
Released August 3, 1987
Recorded Feb 1984-Jan 1987, Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, Netherlands, Windmill Lane Studio 2, Dublin, Ireland
Studio Des Dames,
Paris, France;
additional mixing,
February-May 1987
Genre Hard Rock
Length 61:52
Label Mercury / Phonogram
Producer(s) Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Professional reviews
Def Leppard chronology
Pyromania
(1983)		 Hysteria
(1987)		 Adrenalize
(1992)


Hysteria is the 4th album by British hard rock band Def Leppard, released in 1987. It is the band's best-selling album to date, selling 12 million copies in the United States and over 18 million copies worldwide, and spawning seven hit singles. It was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.

The album was the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough Pyromania. Its creation process was one of the longest ever for a rock album, taking over three years, and was plagued by many trials, most notably the December 31, 1984 car accident that cost Rick Allen his left arm.

Contents

[edit] History

Initially, Hysteria was to be produced by Lange, but he dropped out after pre-production sessions, citing exhaustion from a grueling schedule from the past few years. Meat Loaf producer Jim Steinman was brought in but quickly fired. Then the band tried to produce the album themselves with Lange's engineer Nigel Green with no success, as initial recordings sessions were entirely scrapped at this point.

Then on December 31, 1984 came the bombshell, drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car accident therefore putting the band's future in jeopardy. Following Allen's accident, the band stood by his decision to return to the drum kit with one arm, using a combination electronic/acoustic kit with a set of footpedals that triggered via MIDI the hits he would have played with his left arm with his left foot [1]. The band slowly soldiered on until Mutt Lange made a surprise return a year later, and Rick finally mastered his customized drum kit. However, sessions were further delayed by Lange's own auto accident (sustaining leg injuries from which he quickly recovered) and a bout of the mumps for lead singer Joe Elliott during 1986.

The final recording sessions took place in January 1987 for the song "Armageddon It", but Lange spent another 3 months mixing the tracks. The album was finally released worldwide on August 3, 1987, with "Animal" as the lead single in most countries except for the US where "Women" was the first single.

Fortunately for the band, their popularity in their homeland had significantly grown over the past four years, helping Hysteria to top the charts in Britain in its first week of release. The album was also a major success in other parts of Europe.

In the United States though, the band at first struggled to regain the momentum of Pyromania that was lost from such a prolonged absence, but the success of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" would turn both the band and the album into a worldwide phenomenon.

[edit] Concept

The album's goal, set out by Lange, was to be a hard rock version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, in that every track was a potential hit single. Songs were therefore written with this concept in mind, disappointing heavy metal fans who clamored for a straight sequel to Pyromania.

Indeed, while Pyromania contained traces of heavy metal, "Hysteria" removed them in favor of the latest sonic technology available at the time (best displayed on "Rocket", "Love Bites", "Excitable", and "Gods of War").

As with Pyromania, every song was recorded by every member in the studio separately instead of the whole band. The multiple vocal harmonies were enhanced by Lange's techniques, even pitching background vocals on all tracks. Guitar parts were now focused more on emphasizing melody than hard rock's more basic and cliched riffs.

This unique approach sometimes led to painstaking lengths of time in the recording studio. The smash single, "Pour Some Sugar on Me", was the last song written but was quickly finished within two weeks. In sharp contrast, the final version of "Animal" took almost a full three years to be developed but did become one of the bigger hits from the album.

The end result was an album that improved in almost every musical aspect from Pyromania. The tighter construction, state-of-the-art production and futuristic sound on all twelve tracks was a revolutionary concept for hard rock, and the music carried a near-perfect crossover appeal by tapping into the mainstream without losing much of the hardcore fanbase.

It was a formula (and success) that Lange would later repeat with his wife Shania Twain in country music with the albums The Woman in Me and Come on Over.

Hysteria went on to dominate album charts around the world for three years. At 12 times platinum, Hysteria currently sits as the 51st best selling album of all time in the US.

In 1988 Q Magazine readers voted Hysteria as the 98th Greatest Album of All Time.

In 2004, the album was ranked at number 472 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The leadoff track, "Women", was selected as the first single for the US, instead of "Animal", in July 1987. Then-manager Cliff Bernstein reasoned that the band needed to reconnect with its hard rock audience first before issuing more Top 40-friendly singles. The strategy backfired somewhat as "Women" did not make a large impact on the rock charts.
  • On "Rocket", unintelligible words that are sampled at the very beginning (and repeated several times throughout the track) are actually a backmasked message. When played backwards, one hears "We're fighting with the gods of war", from the track "Gods of War", also on the album. However, this sample is omitted from the single version, released in 1989.
  • The epic "Gods of War" features audio clips of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, both of whom were in office at the time.
  • "Love Bites" was already mostly written in the vein of a country ballad by Mutt Lange when he brought it to the band's attention.
  • 11 of the 12 songs on "Hysteria" appeared in one form or another on single releases throughout the world; as either the principal track, as a remix or in a live version.
    The one song that did not get this treatment was "Gods of War", which ironically became the most popular non-single release off the album.
  • The iconic album cover was designed by Andie Airfix of Satori, who has done other covers of Def Leppard albums before and since.
  • The title of the album was thought up by drummer Rick Allen, relating to his experiences during the time of his auto accident, and the worldwide media coverage that followed.
  • As names referring to mental conditions, the fact that Pyromania and Hysteria found themselves as back-to-back album titles were purely coincidental.
    However, it did directly inspire the title of 1999's Euphoria, such as to complete that "trilogy".
  • On the Billboard magazine dated October 8, 1988, Def Leppard held the Number One spot on both the singles and album charts (with "Love Bites" and Hysteria, respectively)
  • On October 24 2006, a 2-CD "deluxe edition" of the album was released, including a remaster of the original b-sides and bonus tracks from the album's period.

[edit] Original Track Listing

  1. "Women" – 5:41
  2. "Rocket" – 6:34
  3. "Animal" – 4:02
  4. "Love Bites" – 5:46
  5. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" – 4:25
  6. "Armageddon It" – 5:21
  7. "Gods of War" – 6:32
  8. "Don't Shoot Shotgun" – 4:10
  9. "Run Riot" – 4:38
  10. "Hysteria" – 5:49
  11. "Excitable" – 4:19
  12. "Love and Affection" – 4:35

All songs written by Steve Clark, Phil Collen, Joe Elliott, Robert John Lange and Rick Savage.

[edit] 2006 Deluxe Edition Track Listing

[edit] Disc 1

  1. "Women" – 5:41
  2. "Rocket" – 6:34
  3. "Animal" – 4:02
  4. "Love Bites" – 5:46
  5. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" – 4:25
  6. "Armageddon It" – 5:21
  7. "Gods of War" – 6:32
  8. "Don't Shoot Shotgun" – 4:10
  9. "Run Riot" – 4:38
  10. "Hysteria" – 5:49
  11. "Excitable" – 4:19
  12. "Love and Affection" – 4:35
  13. "Tear It Down"
  14. "Ride Into The Sun [1987 Re-recording]"
  15. "I Wanna Be Your Hero"
  16. "Ring Of Fire"

[edit] Disc 2

  1. "Elected [Live in Tilburg, Holland]"
  2. "Love And Affection [Live in Tilburg, Holland]"
  3. "Billy's Got A Gun [Live in Tilburg, Holland]"
  4. "Rock Of Ages [Live medley from Tilburg, Holland]"
  5. "Women [Live in Denver]"
  6. "Animal [Extended version]"
  7. "Pour Some Sugar On Me [Extended version]"
  8. "Armageddon It [The Nuclear mix]"
  9. "Excitable [Orgasmic mix]"
  10. "Rocket [The Lunar mix]"
  11. "Release Me (with Stumpus Maximus & The Good Ol' Boys)"

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Production

  • Producer: Robert John "Mutt" Lange
  • Engineers: Nigel Green, Erwin Musper, Ronald Prent
  • Assistant engineer: Nigel Green
  • Mixing: Nigel Green, Mike Shipley
  • Mastering: Bob Ludwig, Howie Weinberg
  • Fairlight: Phil Nicholas
  • Tape operator: Mark Flannery
  • Photography: Ross Halfin, Laurie Lewis

[edit] Singles

Def Leppard
Joe Elliott | Vivian Campbell | Phil Collen | Rick Savage | Rick Allen
Steve Clark | Pete Willis | Tony Kenning | Frank Noon
Discography
Studio Albums: On Through The Night | High 'n' Dry | Pyromania | Hysteria | Adrenalize | Retro Active | Slang | Euphoria | X | Yeah!
Compilations and extended plays: Def Leppard EP | First Strike | Vault: Def Leppard's Greatest Hits (1980-1995) | Best of Def Leppard | Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection
Singles: Bringin' on the Heartbreak | Rock of Ages | Animal | Pour Some Sugar on Me | Love Bites | Armageddon It | Rocket | Let's Get Rocked
Concert Tours
Early Tours 1978/79 | On Through The Night World Tour | High 'n' Dry World Tour | Pyromania World Tour | Hysteria World Tour | Seven Day Weekend Tour | Slang Tour | Euphoria World Tour 1999-2001 | X World Tour 2002/2003 | Rock Of Ages Tour 2005 | YEAH! Tour 2006
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Robert John "Mutt" Lange | Terror Twins
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