Tag: Too Many Jitterbugs: B-Sides And Rarities

Def Leppard – ‘Too Many Jitterbugs: B-Sides And Rarities’ (2020) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic91 Comments

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the bands debut album, Def Leppard put together quite an impressive box set.  Released on March 20, 2020, “The Early Years 79-81” box set was full of goodies. Not only did we get the first two albums, ‘On Through the Night’ and ‘High ‘N’ Dry’, but we got the live album ‘When the Walls Come Tumbling Down’ which we have alread talked about. The fourth disc, “Too Many Jitterbugs’ title is actually a line from the song “Glad I’m Alive”, was chock full of Rare songs and B-Sides as well as Single Edits and remixes.  For someone new collecting Lep stuff, this is a great disc.  For someone like myself, I had most everything already in some form, but not quite everything which is why this is so great.

The set kicks off with the three songs from The Def Leppard E.P. which are “Ride Into the Sun”, “Getcha Rocks Off” and “The Overture”. The first track is “Ride Into the Sun”.  The song is very different than the two other versions of the song released later that are more familiar to most fans. The first version was a B-Side on the “Hysteria” single and the last version was on the album ‘Retroactive’.  The B-Side version was my favorite until I heard the original which is now my favorite version of this song.  It is the true intention of the song and it has a better sound and feel.  The guitar and drum work are awesome and Joe sounded so young and fresh.  The guitar solo was better and an overall more satisfying experience.  It is the more rock version of the song and pure Def Leppard at their best.

Track two on Side One is “Getcha Rocks Off”.  This track was re-recorded for their first full length album “On Through the Night”, but the title was changed to just “Rocks Off”. I think this song sounds better as well over the re-recorded version.  It doesn’t have the fake crowd noise or the weird guitar sounds that are thrown in needlessly.  The E.P. version is also a more hard rock sounding song.  

“The Overture” is an epic song at over 7 minutes long.  It was also re-recorded for the ‘On Through The Night Album’ like “Getcha Rocks Off”.  Again, due to how amazing this record sounds, I prefer this song over the version on “On Through the Night”.  What I love about the song is the changing tempos, the great double guitars of Steve & Pete.  The song takes you on a great musical journey.

“Wasted”, but this single is different than the album version which is odd. It had never been released on an album until the release of The Collection, Volume 1 (2018). it sounds more raw and like an early demo of the studio track or something. It is still great though. The same with “Hello America” as it is a single version that isn’t the album version either. I’m not sure the reason behind this, but I like different versions so I’m all good.

After that we get a previously unreleased version of “Rock Brigade”. The song is a very early version of the song which lacks the punch of the guitars on the “On Through the Night’ version and the drums don’t sound like Rick Allen’s and for that it the lesser track. But you can hear the promise of what was to come. Then the coolest song they’ve never released on a studio album, “Glad I’m Alive”. It is a fast paced, groove-tastic piece of brilliant rock that is such a shame they never did anything with this as it is perfection. It is also the namesake for this album. “Good Morning Freedom” is a B-Side to “Hello America” and opens with some great drumming from young Rick Allen. His drumming throughout is fantastically slamming. Another rocker and another gem from this band. It is more razor sharp guitars cutting through those Elliott vocals.

The rest of the album are single edits and remixes. We get the single edit for the opening track for ‘High ‘N’ Dry’ called “Let It Go” which chops 30 seconds off the album version. It cuts out a lot of the guitar wankering which is what makes the original so bad ass. Then we get a single edit for “Switch 625” and the only I can see that is different is it removed some of the fade that comes off of “Bringing on the Heartbreak”.

The next two tracks are the single edit for “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” which knocks off about 40 seconds from the original and again, doesn’t make it better. It also has a cleaner ending rather than the fade in to “Switch 625”. The next track is the original version of “Me And My Wine” and it is the version that is the B-Side to “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”. It has more punch and more of a rawness to it than the later remix version. I like it a lot! A punk attitude with dash of hard rock.

The final two tracks are the Remixes of “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” and “Me and My Wine” that were on the 1984 re-issue of the ‘High & Dry’ album. The remixes were done with added synthesizers and piano overdubs to make it sound more like what was done on ‘Pyromania’. which was out at the time of the re-issue. The remix doesn’t make them better, but they are already great songs so fine, whatever they felt was necessary. It did cause the album to sell a lot more copies so all good.

And that wraps this one up. Being a compilation of tracks, I wouldn’t delete anything on this one. A lot of great tracks with only a couple I didn’t already have in the collection. It is a lot like the bootleg I have “First Strike” which we already reviewed, but better sounding. It is nice having the songs all on one disc rather than spread out on singles or E.P.’s so for that it is worth buying. My Overall Score is a 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars as you can’t go wrong with The Early years of Def Leppard.

NEXT UP: ‘RAW: Early BBC Recordings’ (2020)

THE DEF LEPPARD COLLECTION SERIES

  1. Def Leppard E.P. – 7″ Single (1979)
  2. First Strikes 1978-1979 (Bootleg CD)
  3. Girl – Sheer Greed (1980)
  4. On Through the Night (1980)
  5. When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (April 26 1980) (2020)
  6. High & Dry (1981)
  7. Too Many Jitterbugs – B-Sides And Rarities (2020)
  8. Raw – Early BBC Recordings (2020)
  9. Girl – Wasted Youth (1982)
  10. Pyromania (1983)
  11. “Photograph” 7″ Single (1983)
  12. “Too Late For Love” 12″ Single (1983)
  13. Live at the L.A. Forum 1983 (2018)
  14. Seattle, August 3, 1983 (Bootleg CD)
  15. Pyromania TV Collection (Bootleg DVD)
  16. Hysteria (1987)
  17. “Animal” 7″ Single (1987)
  18. “Women” 7″ Single (1987)
  19. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” 7″ Single (1987)
  20. “Hysteria” 7″ Single (1987)
  21. “Armageddon It” 7″ Single (1988)
  22. “Love Bites” 7″ Single (1988)
  23. “Rocket” 7″ Single (1989)
  24. Animal Instinct – The Def Leppard Story – Book Review (1987)
  25. Rarities – Volume One (2018)
  26. Live in Mountain View – August 17, 1988 (Bootleg DVD)
  27. Historia – DVD (1988)
  28. Live: In the Round, In Your Face (CD Video / DVD) (1989)
  29. Adrenalize (1992)
  30. “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” – Cassette Single (1992)
  31. “Tonight” CD Single (1993)
  32. Live Shefield 1992 (Bootleg DVD)
  33. Retro Active (1993)
  34. Visualize DVD (1993)
  35. Hard Rock Café – Singapore, Malaysia October 26, 1995 (Bootleg DVD)
  36. Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) (1995)
  37. “When Love & Hate Collide” – CD Promo Single (1995)
  38. Video Archive (1995)
  39. Slang (1996)
  40. Montreal: The Classic 1996 Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
  41. Live Bites: FM Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
  42. Live in Argentina 1997 (Bootleg DVD)
  43. Euphoria (1999)
  44. Rarities – Volume Two (2019)
  45. Rarities – Volume Three (2019)
  46. Tokyo 1999 (Bootleg CD)
  47. Cybernauts – Live (2000)
  48. X (2002)
  49. Hysteria: Classic Albums DVD (2002)
  50. Best of Def Leppard (2004)
  51. Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection (2005)
  52. Yeah! (2006)
  53. Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
  54. Man Raze – Surreal (2008)
  55. B-Sides (2021)
  56. Yeah! II (2021)
  57. Yeah! Live (2021)
  58. CMT Crossraods – Taylor Swift & Def Leppard (2009)
  59. Down ‘N’ Outz -My ReGeneration (2010)
  60. Man Raze – PunkFunkRootsRock (2011)
  61. Down ‘N’ Outz -The Further Adventures of… (2014)
  62. Def Leppard (2015)
  63. The Lost Session (2018)
  64. Personal Jesus 7″ Single (2018)
  65. Down ‘N’ Outz -This is How We Roll (2019)
  66. Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood – Vinyl (2020)
  67. Hysteria: Live – Vinyl (2020)
  68. Def Leppard Acoustic Vegas – 10″ Vinyl (2020)
  69. Down ‘N’ Outz – The Music Box E.P. (2020)
  70. Diamond Star Halos (2022)
  71. High & Dry – Picture Disc (RSD) (2022)
  72. Drastic Symphonies (2023)
  73. Drastic Symphonies – Picture Disc (2023)
  74. Definitely: The Official Story of Def Leppard (2023)

PREVIOUSLY POSTED:

  1. The Def Leppard E.P. (1979/2017)
  2. Def Leppard: Interview Picture Disc (1982?)
  3. “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” – 12″ Promo Single (1984)
  4. Live at the Top (Bootleg) (1987)
  5. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” –  5″ Shaped Picture Disc (1987)
  6. Hysteria U.S. Tour 1988 – Tour Book (1988)
  7. “Make Love Like a Man” – 12″ Single (1992)
  8. “Let’s Get Rocked” – 12″ Single (1992)
  9. Adrenalize: The 7 Day Weekend Tour (1992/1993)
  10. X: World Tour (2003)
  11. Mirrorball – Live & More (2011)
  12. Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History – Book Review (2011)
  13. Viva! Hysteria (2013)
  14. And There Will Be A Next Time…Live from Detroit (2017)
  15. Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Box Set (2017)
  16. The Story So Far – The Best of (2018)
  17. The Collection, Volume 1 (2018)
  18. Hysteria: The Singles Box Set (2018)
  19. Live at Abbey Road Studios (2018)
  20. Def Leppard: Concert Review – Charlotte, NC June 9th 2018 (2018)
  21. The Story So Far – The Best of Volume 2 (2019)
  22. The Collection, Volume 2 (2019)
  23. London to Vegas (2020)
  24. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 29 March 2019 (2020)
  25. The Early Years ’79-’81 (2020)
  26. The Collection, Volume 3 (2021)
  27. Def Leppard Funko Pop!