This week on The Collection, we are talking Def Leppard and specifically, Def Leppard on Cassette. We go through every single album that has been released on Cassette, what I’m missing and what was never released on cassette. From ‘On Through the Night’ to ‘Drastic Symphonies’ let’s walk through the Def Leppard Cassette Catalog.
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To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of one Def Leppard’s biggest albums, ‘Pyromania’, they give the album the justice it needs and released an awesome box set in 2024. And what a great set it is. It has 4 CD’s, 1 Blu Ray and even includes a hard back book. It is all housed in a cardboard box that is of great quality and the images are fantastic. The housing of the CDs & Blu Ray is not a gate-fold, but instead an incredible tri-fold. The original album is remastered, there is a disc of unreleased demos and mixes, a live set from Germany and the famous live show from 1983 at the L.A. Forum. It is splendid and I have to say that as this is one of my all-time favorite albums.
But before we get to the set, what was going on in the Def Leppard world at the time of the album? Well,…here it is…The tide was changing, Def Leppard’s success was palpable at this point, but not quite there…YET! Robert John “Mutt” Lange was back as producer and the band hit the studios in January 1982 and went through November of that year at Park Gates studio in London. All didn’t go smoothly, there was one big issue and that issue was Pete Willis.
Pete’s drinking problem was…well, becoming a problem. It was causing issues that were impacting his work and the band. It got so bad that on July 11, 1982, mid-way through work on the album, the band fired Pete. This was not a rash decision as it was discussed fully amongst the band because on July 12, 1982, the very next day, the band announced his replacement in the likes of Girl’s guitarists, Phil Collen. By this point in recording, Pete had already recorded all his rhythm parts and those are still on the album. Phil came in and added a few guitar parts and as well as some solos, he had it easy.
If you read my site, you know Def Leppard is one of my all-time favorite bands, if not the #1 band on my list. And for that, this list was extremely hard for me to do, yet easy as well. I will already go ahead and say it, there is not a horrible album in this bunch only some I like more than others and yet a few that are absolute no-brainers as the top choices. And yes, I am biased.
Speaking of top choices, my Top 5 is my Top 5 because each album is completely different. The band completely changed up the sound and style on each of these albums and when the band does that, for me they hit it out of the park.
From the very beginning in 1980 with their debut and all the way up to today, the band has been mainstay in my musical journey. In 2019, they were inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and all I can say is it is about damn time!!! They received the highest public vote so I am not the only one that things these guys from England are pretty darn great. And their last studio album was 2023’s ‘Drastic Symphonies’…so they are still going strong…sort of.
So, let’s get to it. Here is my favorite Def Leppard albums from the worst one to the very best. I hope you enjoy it.
WORST – DRASTIC SYMPHONIES (2023)
This album is basically dreadful with some shining moments. There are only 6 tracks worth listening to in my opinion and the rest was waste of time. They did at least experiment with a few tracks, although some were so bad they hurt, at least they tried. The problem was they should’ve “Tried” on all the songs rather then simply add orchestration to a lot of the original tracks. That is laziness. Keep “Turn to Dust”, “Paper Sun”, “Hysteria”, “Too Late For Love” and “King of the World”, skip the rest.
The sixth and final single from ‘Adrenalize’ was for the song “Tonight”. The song was written by Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Steve Clark, Rick Savage and Robert John “Mutt” Lange. Written back during the ‘Hysteria’ Tour as a possible B-Side, it was instead held on to use for an album as they felt it was too good for a B-Side…and they’d be right. The song charted in the U.S. going to #62 on the Hot 100 and #13 on the Mainstream Rock chart while it also charted in the UK at #34.
The song is a ballad and it sees the singer longing to be with the woman he loves and have some very passionate, satisfying sex. He sees the passion in her eyes and he wants to get lost in those eyes and that passion. A night of unbridled love making. Yeah baby!!!
The band was overdoing it with ballads on ‘Adrenalize’, but this one reminded me of “Love Bites” and “Hysteria” which are two of their best and for that I like this one. When I wrote about “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad”, I also said it was a sophisticated sounding ballad with some great melodies and emotive music. Joe captured the lyrics with the perfect intensity and feelings. Joe knows how to deliver a lyric, no doubt. I don’t really get tired of their ballads because Def Leppard are so good at writing and performing them.
I remember August 3, 1987 really well. I ran to the store and bought the Vinyl, CD and cassette of Hysteria and on the way home, I opened the cassette and put it in the car stereo and cranked it. And the rest is history. Def Leppard was my favorite band in 1987 and after waiting four years since ‘Pyromania’, I couldn’t wait for the new album. When I got home, I opened the rest and inside the Vinyl, I remember an order form for the Def Leppard book called ‘Animal Instinct’ written by David Fricke who was Rolling Stone magazine’s senior editor and the photos were by Ross Halfin. I remember filling that in and sending a check and several weeks later the book arrived.
Now, years later, I would sell the book on eBay and make a hefty profit. Then years later, I regretted it and bought it again. After re-reading it, I remembered a lot of what I read the first time. The book is fantastic. David did a great job writing the biography of Def Leppard. He covers the whole gamut of the band which at this time wasn’t very old. The book opens with the car crash that took Rick’s arm and the effect that had on everyone, but it quickly moves to the origin story of Def Leppard and how the members came to be members of the band. There are some great pictures including the first photo of the band. That is what is great about this book. Not just the stories but the photos that go along with it.
Since I collet Def Leppard music, I also collect videos too. And yes, even bootleg videos. This one I found on eBay and was a collection of everything Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ that appeared on TV. It didn’t matter what show, what country or anything. Someone took the time and pieced it all together to celebrate that album. And I think that is pretty cool. The collection comes in a slim DVD care and contains not one, but two DVDs. And it is around 3 1/2 hours long between the two discs. This is for Lep fans because you get a ton of Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Steve Clark and new comer Phil Collen.
DISC 1:
The video kicks off with ‘Heavy: The Study of Metal’ that was on VH1 and showed only the parts related to Def Leppard and ‘Pyromania’. The show talked about the impact Lep had with videos and how they were one of the first rock/metal bands to really break through due to their good looks, good videos and good songs. After that we got a video of “Photograph” from their appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on May 21, 1983. Of course it is lip synced, but who cares. The picture was a little grainy, but again, who cares. This was around 1983 and there was no HD or even 4K for that matter. We even got to see Dick come over and talk to the boys. They then play “Rock of Ages”. I don’t know if I even saw this back in the day, but so cool to have this now.
We then jump to Australia with an interview in 1984 with them on a boat sailing by The Sydney Opera House. It then cuts to the video for “Let it Rock” which I’m not sure why as that is not ‘Pyromania’ and then back to the interview. The interview gets interrupted by the boat crew dropping anchor. And then to “High & Dry”, interview and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”…hmmm…maybe the videos for ‘Pyromania’ weren’t available yet. Nope, now we get a clip of “Rock of Ages” more interview and then “Foolin'” and “Photograph”. It is great to see an interview with Steve Clark…he is sorely missed.
Def Leppard had made it big time with their third album ‘Pyromania’. The tour was huge. It traveled the world and saw millions of fans flock to their shows. They were on fire and the flame was growing hotter and hotter. There had been no shows released until the Deluxe Edition of Pyromania saw the light of day in 2009. That was the first time we had a taste of Live Leppard from 1983. Of course, this was only on CD. It wasn’t until the release of the giant box set ‘The Collection, Vol. 1’ in 2018 that we were able to get this on vinyl which is what we are reviewing here today.
The show was night two at the L.A. Forum on September 11, 1983 and thanks to MTV and Def Leppard’s high profile videos, the crowd was massive and the energy was high and electric. The band was in fine form and ready to rock. This show had been bootlegged heavily back in the day so now we get a freshly mixed and wonderfully sounding show. This would be the first live show Leppard had ever released that wasn’t a video. As a fan, we were thrilled to finally get an early show with Steve Clark on guitar. Now, since then we have a handful of live shows from that era and Leppard had released several newer shows, but this was the first one to see a CD release that we could pop in our car or home stereo and turn it up to 11.
The final single for the album ‘Pyromania’ was unplanned. “Too Late For Love” would be the fourth single and was released on November 25, 1983. A song that wasn’t going to be a single, but due to the success fo the first three singles, they thought let’s release another one and it went to #9 on the US Mainstream Rock chart, but didn’t hit the Top 40 as no official video was done for it.
The single I have is a 12″ Single and it is also out of the U.K. like the “Photograph” single from last week. However, this I actually found in the wild here in the States so I grabbed it up quickly. You have “Too Late for Love” on one side and the other side has two tracks, “Foolin'” from Pyromania and “High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night)” off the ‘High ‘N’ Dry’ album. I’m sure that was done to help drive sales of the prior album…and it worked.
I love to collect singles with picture sleeves and I love to find them in the wild. I generally will never buy a single on eBay or Discogs. However, there was one big exception and that was for the song “Photograph” by Def Leppard. The song is off the album ‘Pyromania’ and was the very first single released for the album and it was huge. It was released in January 1983 and went to #12 on the Top 40 and #1 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart for an impressive six weeks. The U.K. didn’t see them have as much success as it only went to #66, but the band was not overly loved in its home country because they felt the band were sellouts to the U.S. market..which truth be told, they were. But the single I wanted was a U.K. only release and I had to buy it online as I wasn’t expecting to ever find it in the wild in the U.S.
Now, why I did I have to have this U.K. only version? Simple…the cover is a 3-Dimensional cover that folds out to look like an actual camera. The Pop-up camera picture sleeve was very rare and only limited to 500 copies and I have now have one. See it below…
…but that isn’t the only cool thing about it. When you look into the view finder you see a photo of Marilyn Monroe. But…the song is NOT about Marilyn Monroe. She is only in the video for the song, see the info below which will talk more about the song. Now, I think this was pretty cool and a must have for any Def Leppard collector.
The tide was changing, Def Leppard’s success was palpable at this point, but not quite there…YET! Robert John “Mutt” Lange was back as producer and the band hit the studios in January 1982 and went through November of that year at Park Gates studio in London. All didn’t go smoothly, there was one big issue and that issue was Pete Willis.
Pete’s drinking problem was…well, becoming a problem. It was causing issues that were impacting his work and the band. It got so bad that on July 11, 1982, mid-way through work on the album, the band fired Pete. This was not a rash decision as it was discussed fully amongst the band because on July 12, 1982, the very next day, the band announced his replacement in the likes of Girl’s guitarists, Phil Collen. By this point in recording, Pete had already recorded all his rhythm parts and those are still on the album. Phil came in and added a few guitar parts and as well as some solos, he had it easy.
The album was finished, it was called “Pyromania” and it would basically change the landscape of music for quite some time. It saw the band’s sound go from heavy metal to a more polished hard rock sound that was more radio friendly. They worked on their craft diligently with Mutt and their playing and their songwriting was getting better and better. The band was now Phil, Steve Clark, Rick Allen, Rick Savage and Joe Elliott, this is considered the classic line-up to some. The album saw the light of day on January 20, 1983 and would shoot up the charts going to #2 on the Billboard Charts. It was held out of the #1 slot thanks to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ album.
Thanks to MTV and the Leppard videos, the band would sell over 6,000,000 copies within the first year or so and go on to sell over 10 million copies making it Diamond Status. There would be 4 singles from the album and it would change me forever as this was the album that made me a lifelong fan and collector of the band’s music. It changed my listening habits and the 80’s hard rock sound was it for me and that would be all I listened to during the 80’s…heck even today I still love it as much as back then!
2 Loud 2 Old Music 