Def Leppard was formed in 1976, releasing their debut album “On Through the Night” in 1980 and the second one “High ‘n’ Dry” in 1981. But they really became big with Pyromania (1983) and “Hysteria” (1987). The band’s vocalist Joe Elliott was asked in an interview with Los Angeles Times which of those two albums is the best, but he couldn’t really pick one.
Joe Elliott answered which one is better: “Pyromania” or “Hysteria”
“Jesus, man, come on. Obviously, the breakthrough was ‘Pyromania’ — the memories from that tour of being this band that got out of a bus and walked into a hotel to being this band that got off the bus and we couldn’t even get into the hotel because there were too many kids blocking the way. But by 1987, when it’s the second time, it’s the second time, you know what I mean? So what you had was the first and then the bigger. Which of them is better? I just blend them together and go, The ’80s were great,” Joe Elliott said.
Released in 1983, Pyromania was the first Def Leppard album with guitarist Phil Collen. It had classic tracks like: “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)”, “Photograph”, “Too Late for Love”, “Foolin'” and “Rock of Ages”.
“Hysteria” was the first album following the tragic accident the drummer Rick Allen suffered. It had incredible songs like the title-track, “Women”, “Rocket”, “Animal”, “Love Bites”, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, “Armageddon It” and “Gods of War”.
Leppard is one of the best-selling bands of all time with an estimated amount of more than 100 million records sold worldwide. So they were and continue to be a huge inspired for countless artists. Although they tragically lost the guitarist Steve Clark back in 1991, the band continued, recruiting the ex-Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell as his replacement. Since then the line-up continues the same with Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage and Phil Collen.