In retrospect, it was at all times going to occur for Def Leppard. Blessed with the expertise and the tireless work ethic important for survival, the hotly-tipped NWOBHM stars lit the touchpaper with the US Top 40 success of 1981’s High’n’Dry, however the fireworks actually began once they launched their incendiary third album, Pyromania, on January 20, 1983.
Listen to Pyromania proper now.
Joe Elliott and co had already laid a lot of the groundwork with High’n’Dry, shrewdly entrusting the report’s manufacturing to the estimable Robert John “Mutt” Lange. Renowned for his technical ability within the studio, and far in demand after helming AC/DC’s multi-million-selling Back In Black, Lange had refined Leppard’s rough-edged onerous rock sound, aiding High’n’Dry’s stand-out – the slow-burning “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” – to develop into one of many first metallic movies to realize heavy rotation on the nascent MTV in 1982.
Their star firmly within the ascendency, Def Leppard reconvened with Lange to work on Pyromania, with former Girl guitarist Phil Collen changing founding member Pete Willis in the course of the periods. The new line-up gelled instantly within the studio, rising triumphant with an exuberant state-of-the-art rock report lengthy on confidence and full of killer hooks.
Kicking off with the swerving guitar riffs and roaring choruses of the self-explanatory “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” the supercharged Pyromania alternated between Def Leppard’s trademark high-octane rockers (“Stage Fright,” “Comin’ Under Fire,” the prowling “Die Hard The Hunter”) and polished, radio-friendly pop-metal hybrids resembling “Photograph,” the scarf-waving “I Love Rock’n’Roll”-esque anthem “Rock Of Ages” and the craving energy ballad “Foolin’.”
The brash, but streamlined sound of Pyromania quickly snagged rave essential evaluations, with Rolling Stone’s David Fricke praising the band for “meaning what they play” and for placing “much-needed fire back on the radio.” With “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” having already raised Leppard’s Stateside profile, MTV additionally performed a major half in Pyromania’s subsequent success when lead single “Photograph” supplanted Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” because the channel’s most-requested clip.
After “Photograph” bagged the stalwart Yorkshire rockers their first US Top 20 hit, the mainstream capitulated. “Foolin’” and the plain “Rock Of Ages” each peaked contained in the US Top 30, and Pyromania itself proved just about unstoppable, hitting No.2 on the Billboard 200 and ultimately transferring an exceptional 10 million copies in North America alone.
Seizing the second, Def Leppard launched into a mammoth world tour. Though kicking off within the UK, the Pyromania jaunt quickly discovered the band blitzing ever-larger arenas over three consecutive North American legs. By the time they wowed 55,000 followers on the tour’s ultimate mainland US date in San Diego, on September 17, 1983, Def Leppard may contemplate themselves fully-fledged superstars.