Page 85 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019
P. 85
THE FACTS
RELEASE DATE
UK 1987, US ’88
CHART
POSITION
UK No.18,
US No.2
PERSONNEL
Joe Elliott
Vocals
I put this main riff in the gaps. It was really Phil Collen Sugar took less than two weeks. Some Sugar… on MTV pushing the single to
based on rap stuff; not your standard rock Guitar While it’s tempting to assume that Pour No.2 in the US and helping Hysteria to the
song. Run DMC was really popular back Steve Clark Some Sugar On Me was an instant smash hit, top of the album chart.
Guitar
then, and the whole Aerosmith crossover Rick Savage hard evidence shows otherwise. The song “The song became a hit because strippers
thing [with Walk This Way] was just Bass wasn’t deemed good enough to be released in Florida started requesting it on the local
happening too, so we kinda stole that idea Rick Allen as the first single from Hysteria; instead it radio station,” Collen recalls. “It had a
for the vocal. And the guitar part was really Drums followed Animal into the UK chart in second lease of life. Hysteria was all over bar
just to fill the gaps without going all the PRODUCER October 1987, reaching an unspectacular the shouting, and then all of a sudden this
way through it. So there was plenty of Robert John No.18. “When we first released it in Europe song just got popular, and then the album
‘Mutt’ Lange
space, like hip-hop or something like that.” LABEL it was ignored,” Collen confirms. went to Number One. It’s really funny how
With Lange acting as a buffer between Mercury In the US, meanwhile, Women had been it suddenly became cool because it was a
the band and their label, keeping impatient FACT chosen as the lead-off (it ultimately limped stripping song.
executives away from the studio, Elliott, In her early to No.80), followed by Animal and Hysteria. “I still get a buzz from it,” Collen adds.
Collen, Allen, bassist Rick Savage and career, Shania It wasn’t until the following year, with sales “For some bizarre reason, in America
Twain performed
guitarist Steve Clark laid down the new of Hysteria stalling at three million, that the women seem to feel compelled to take their
track, which now had the working title. Pour Some Sugar US record company finally released Pour shirts off when we play it. Pour Some Sugar
On Me in bars in
Pour Some Sugar On Me. According to Elliott, Canada. She Some Sugar On Me as a last-ditch attempt to On Me is like anything; if you’re rehearsing
the phrase was a “metaphor for whichever later married claw back some of the album’s huge it in the rehearsal room, it’s really fucking
sexual preference you care to enjoy”. Mutt Lange, production costs. boring. But as soon as you play it in front of
In stark contrast to the other tracks on before they The result was nothing short of a an audience who are into it, it makes all the
divorced in 2010.
Hysteria, the basic recording process for phenomenon, with the popularity of Pour difference.”
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