Hysteria is the fourth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 3 August 1987 through Mercury Records. It is the band's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, and spawning seven hit singles. The album charted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the UK Albums Chart.
Hysteria was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. 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. It is also the last album to feature guitarist Steve Clark, due to his death, but their next album, Adrenalize is the last to feature his songwriting.
The album is the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough Pyromania. Its creation process took over three years having been plagued by many trials, such as the 31 December 1984 car accident that cost Allen his left arm. Subsequent to the album's release, Def Leppard published a book entitled Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story, written by Rolling Stone magazine Senior Editor David Fricke on the recording process of Hysteria over the three+ years it took to record the album and the tough times the band went through.
Hysteria has earned critical acclaim from a number of sources. In 1988 Q magazine readers voted it as the 98th Greatest Album of All Time, while in 2004, the album was ranked at #472 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.Hysteria is the fourth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 3 August 1987 through Mercury Records. It is the band's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, and spawning seven hit singles. The album charted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the UK Albums Chart.
Hysteria was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. 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. It is also the last album to feature guitarist Steve Clark, due to his death, but their next album, Adrenalize is the last to feature his songwriting.
The album is the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough Pyromania. Its creation process took over three years having been plagued by many trials, such as the 31 December 1984 car accident that cost Allen his left arm. Subsequent to the album's release, Def Leppard published a book entitled Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story, written by Rolling Stone magazine Senior Editor David Fricke on the recording process of Hysteria over the three+ years it took to record the album and the tough times the band went through.
Hysteria has earned critical acclaim from a number of sources. In 1988 Q magazine readers voted it as the 98th Greatest Album of All Time, while in 2004, the album was ranked at #472 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.false2025-11-07 20:19:54Hysteria19871987-08-171987-08-1763Hard Rock1113372111066cf998a63-1221-4941-b1a3-52e1705693797249b899-8db8-43e7-9e6e-22f1e736024e12fa3845-7c62-36e5-a8da-8be137155a72/media/data/media5/Music/Def Leppard/Hysteria/folder.jpgDef LeppardDef LeppardDef Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitars, backing vocals), and Vivian Campbell (guitars, backing vocals). They established themselves as part of the new wave of British heavy metal movement of the early 1980s.
The band's greatest commercial success came between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. Their first album, 1980's On Through the Night, reached the Top 15 in the UK but received little notice elsewhere. Their second album, 1981's High 'n' Dry, was produced by Mutt Lange, who helped them begin to define their melodic hard rock style, and the album's most popular track "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" became one of the first rock videos played on MTV in 1982, but the album only reached the Top 30 and 40 in the UK and US. Def Leppard's next studio album, Pyromania, was released in January 1983, with "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" both topping the US Rock Tracks chart and reaching the top 20 of the Hot 100. Reaching No. 2 on the US album chart, Pyromania was certified Diamond in the US and 7× platinum in Canada and reached the top 20 in the UK but did not sell much elsewhere.
Def Leppard's fourth album, the more pop-oriented Hysteria (1987), topped the UK, US, New Zealand, Canadian, Australian and Norway charts. It also went to No. 2 in Sweden and No. 10 in Germany without any Top 50 singles in those countries. It has been certified 12× platinum for sales in the US and 13× platinum in Canada, selling over 25 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album spawned six Top 20 US singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 "Love Bites" (went Top 10 in several other countries including No. 2 in NZ), alongside "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (US No. 2), "Hysteria", "Armageddon It" (No. 2 in NZ), "Animal" (at No. 6, the biggest UK hit), and "Rocket" (a Top 15 hit in many countries). Hysteria had four Top 10 hits in New Zealand.
Their next studio album, Adrenalize (their first following the death of guitarist Steve Clark), reached No. 1 on the UK, US, NZ, Canadian and Australian charts in 1992, while going Top 10 in Sweden and Germany. It contained several hits, including the US Rock Tracks chart-topper, "Let's Get Rocked", which became their biggest hit in several countries, including No. 2 in the UK, No. 3 in Canada and Switzerland, and the Top 20 in Sweden and Germany. The third single, "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad", was a Top 15 song in the US, UK and Canada. Adrenalize went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide. Their 1993 album, Retro Active, contained the acoustic Top 5 North American hit "Two Steps Behind". Their greatest hits album Vault, released in 1995, featured the UK No. 2 hit "When Love & Hate Collide" and reached the Top 10 in several countries, going 5× platinum in the US. Beginning with Slang, Def Leppard released five albums between 1996 and 2008, with most usually reaching the Top 15 in several countries, including the UK, US and Canada. Their self-titled album was released in 2015 and reached the Top 10 in several countries. The band's newest studio album, Diamond Star Halos was released in May 2022 and reached the Top 10 in the US, the UK and Australia.
As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Def Leppard have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and have two albums with RIAA diamond certification: Pyromania and Hysteria, making them one of only five rock bands with two original studio albums selling more than 10 million copies in the US. The band were ranked No. 31 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" and ranked No. 70 in "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.