| "Pour Some Sugar on Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Def Leppard | ||||
| from the album Hysteria | ||||
| B-side | "I Wanna Be Your Hero" (UK), "Ring of Fire" (U.S.) | |||
| Released | September 8, 1987 (UK), 1988 (U.S.) | |||
| Format | 7", 12" | |||
| Recorded | 1986 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 4:25 (Album Version) 4:52 (Historia video edit version) |
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| Label | Mercury | |||
| Writer(s) | Steve Clark, Phil Collen, Joe Elliott, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Rick Savage | |||
| Producer | Robert John "Mutt" Lange | |||
| Def Leppard singles chronology | ||||
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"Pour Some Sugar on Me" is a song by British hard rock band Def Leppard from their 1987 album Hysteria. It reached number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Pour Some Sugar on Me was ranked #2 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80's" in 2006.[1]
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Near the end of recording the album Hysteria singer Joe Elliott was jamming with a riff he had come up with recently on an acoustic guitar. Producer Mutt Lange, expressing great liking of it, suggested that it be developed into another song. Although already behind schedule Lange felt that the album was still missing a strong crossover hit and that this last song had the potential to be one. Within two weeks the song was completed, smoothed out and included as the twelfth track on Hysteria.
By the spring of 1988, Hysteria had sold 3 million copies, but it still was not enough to cover the album's production costs (the most expensive ever at the time). Thus, the band edited footage from an upcoming concert film to make a new promo clip for "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and finally released it as the fourth single in North America.
The American version of the "Pour Some Sugar on Me" video spent 73 days as the number 1 requested song on TRL precursor Dial MTV.
The somewhat delayed success of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (due to the new promo release) sent sales of Hysteria higher than the band ever imagined. It reached number 1 on the Top Pop Albums chart (now the Billboard 200) a year after release, and sold four million copies during the single's run. The video remained at number 1 on the request show Dial MTV for 88 days, the longest run ever on Dial MTV. The song reached number 1 in Canada, number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number 18 in the UK Singles Chart and number 26 on the ARIA charts (Australia).[2][3]
MTV ranked "Pour Some Sugar on Me" number 82 in its "Top 100 Videos of All Time" countdown in 1991. In 2006, VH1 ranked the song number 2 on its list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the '80s."[1]
In 2005, the single was awarded RIAA Gold certification for digital downloads of over 500,000 units. It is one of very few songs recorded before 2004 to accomplish this feat.
Two different music videos for the song were produced. The first version shows the band playing inside a derelict Irish stately home (Mount Merrion House at Stillorgan, Dublin) while it is being demolished by wrecking-balls and a burly, sledgehammer-wielding, female construction worker. Generally disliked by the band members, and filmed before Pour Some Sugar on Me became a huge mega-hit in the US, a second video simply of the band playing the song live was released for American MTV (the original video was only ever shown in the UK). This video was edited together from live concert footage that would eventually be released as the band's full-length 1989 video Live: In the Round, in Your Face. It also featured an extended, distortion-laden intro in lieu of the album version's "Step inside, walk this way..." line. Most compilations use this extended music video version of the song.
7": Bludgeon Riffola / Mercury / 870 298-7 (USA)
US Vinyl, 12"
CD single: Bludgeon Riffola / Mercury / 8724872 (Germany)[4]