Read now the brand new Billboard interview with the band and recording team on what it took to make Hysteria.
Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’ Turns 30: An Oral History of the Album’s Painful Path to Victory
By: Melinda Newman
Hysteria, a meticulously crafted rock masterpiece infused with elements of pop, new wave, glam, and even rap, turned into one of the defining albums of the ’80s, certified 12x platinum by the RIAA and named the No. 25 biggest album ever on the Billboard 200 chart in 2015. The album spawned an extraordinary seven hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 — including an impressive six top 20-charting smashes. Among those: the top 10s “Hysteria” (No. 10), “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (No. 2), “Love Bites” (their sole No. 1) and “Armageddon It” (No. 3). In the end, Hysteria spent 78 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart — the most weeks spent in the top 10 for an album by a rock band in the chart’s 61-year history.
However, its success was far from certain when it came out Aug. 3, 1987.
In all new interviews, the remaining band members — guitarist Steve Clark died in 1991 — and others involved in the album’s creation and marketing talk about the long road fraught with doubt, pain, joy, drama, misadventures and, ultimately, tremendous triumph. For the first time since Hysteria’s release, recording engineer Nigel Green discusses the groundbreaking, innovative wizardry devised in the studio long before the existence of Pro Tools……
READ THE FULL BILLBOARD ARTICLE HERE
