Artist: DEF LEPPARD
Album: HYSTERIA 2017 REMASTER (CD)

Release date: 1987/ 2017
EAN/UPS: 00602557567014
Media type: CD

Hysteria is the fourth studio album by British hard rock band Def Leppard, released in 1987. It is the band's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, and spawning seven hit singles. It was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.

The album was the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough Pyromania. Its creation process was one of the longest ever for a rock album, taking over three years, and was plagued by many trials, such as the December 31, 1984 car accident that cost Rick Allen his left arm.

Initially, Hysteria was to be named "Animal Instinct" and produced by Lange, but he dropped out after pre-production sessions, citing exhaustion from a grueling schedule from the past few years. Meat Loaf songwriter Jim Steinman was brought in. Steinman's involvement was a disaster because he was not at all a perfectionist, liking every take the band recorded. Joe Elliott later stated in interview: "Todd Rundgren produced (Meat Loaf's) Bat out of Hell. Jim Steinman WROTE it." After parting ways with Steinman, the band tried to produce the album themselves with Lange's engineer Nigel Green with no success, as initial recordings sessions were entirely scrapped at this point.

On December 31, 1984, Drummer Rick Allen's Corvette flipped off a country road, severing his left arm. Following the accident, the band stood by Allen's decision to return to the drum kit with one arm, using a combination electronic/acoustic kit with a set of footpedals that triggered via MIDI the hits he would have played with his left arm. The band slowly soldiered on until Mutt Lange made a surprise return a year later, and Rick mastered his customized drum kit. However, sessions were further delayed by Lange's own auto accident (sustaining leg injuries from which he quickly recovered) and a bout of the mumps for lead singer Joe Elliott during 1986.

The final recording sessions took place in January 1987 for the song "Armageddon It", but Lange spent another three months mixing the tracks. The album was finally released worldwide on August 3, 1987, with "Animal" as the lead single in most countries except for the US where "Women" was the first single.

Fortunately for the band, their popularity in their homeland had significantly grown over the past four years, helping Hysteria to top the charts in Britain in its first week of release. The album was also a major success in other parts of Europe.

In the United States though, the band at first struggled to regain the momentum of Pyromania that was lost from such a prolonged absence, but the success of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" would turn both the band and the album into a worldwide phenomenon.

TRACKLIST:

"Women" – 5:41
"Rocket" – 6:35
"Animal" – 4:02
"Love Bites" – 5:46
"Pour Some Sugar on Me" – 4:25
"Armageddon It" – 5:21
"Gods of War" – 6:37
"Don't Shoot Shotgun" – 4:26
"Run Riot" – 4:39
"Hysteria" – 5:54
"Excitable" – 4:19
"Love and Affection" – 4:37

LINE-UP:

Steve Clark – guitars
Phil Collen – guitars
Rick Savage – bass
Joe Elliott – lead vocals
Rick Allen – drums

[edit] Additional Personnel
The Bankrupt Brothers – backing vocals
Robert John "Mutt" Lange – producer