Def Leppard will celebrate the 33rd anniversary of its mega-selling album “Hysteria” with a week of special events. Kicking things off will be a listening party and live chat with guitarist Phil Collen today (Monday, August 3) at 9 a.m. PST, as well as a 33% off discount store-wide for the whole week.Def Leppard says: “Follow along with the Def Leppard social channels all week long as we celebrate the album anniversary with ‘Hysteria’ artifacts, commentary, music videos, merch, a contest giveaway, and more!”
Essential listening for fans across the board, “Hysteria” indisputably ranks as one of the most decorated and revered rock albums of all time. As the group’s second consecutive RIAA Diamond-certified record (10 million sales in the U.S.), it would go on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide and 12 million in the U.S. Moreover, the record staked a spot in the U.S. Top 40 for 96 weeks matched only by “Born In The U.S.A.” Rolling Stone touted it on the prestigious “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list, and a poll in Q placed it among the “100 Greatest Albums of All Time”. Dominating multiple charts, it captured No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and U.K. album charts, bolstered by immortal Top-5 anthems such as “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, “Animal”, “Love Bites”, “Hysteria”, “Rocket” and “Armageddon It”.
“Hysteria” left an indelible mark on rock ‘n’ roll. Powered by stadium-filling drums, rapturous guitars, and unshakable choruses, the record saw Def Leppard rightfully claim their place among rock’s divinities forever. As a result, its influence now reverberates through three generations of artists to follow. It also historically marked their third straight collaboration with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange.
Regarding what he thinks it was about that album that continues to attract fans today, Collen told Vegas.com: “Mutt Lange is a genius. He said we can do an ultimate rock album or we can do a rock version of ‘Thriller’, where we have seven hit singles. But to do that, you have to put the extra effort in. The attitude when the album came out, a lot of people didn’t like it. They thought, oh this is too pop or they didn’t understand the crossover because it’s a perfect hybrid between rock and pop. If you look at Mutt Lange’s track record, his biggest successes are, for example, Shania Twain. He definitely brought country to the masses. He successfully fused rock, pop music with country, and I never thought I’d see the day. I remember being in Japan and hearing Shana Twain when I was going up and down in an elevator. That, for us, like I said, it was the perfect hybrid of pop and rock that was actually acceptable. A lot of rock fans didn’t like it at first, but by the end of that year, everyone had the record. You couldn’t really escape the whole thing. It was pop music, but done rock. We kicked our ass on it. It was very different from anything that had come before it, actually.”
Three years ago, Def Leppard celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Hysteria” with the release of “Hysteria (Remastered 2017)”. The remastered anniversary edition was released in various formats via Bludgeon Riffola/Mercury/Ume — Super Deluxe Edition, Deluxe Version, 1 CD Vanilla Version, 2-LP Black Vinyl Version, and limited-edition 2-LP Colored Vinyl Version. The reissue boasted B-sides and live tracks, plus the audio for “In The Round In Your Face (Live)” on CD for the first time.