The Bombastic Sex Anthem that Saved Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’

Def Leppard had a lot riding on their fourth album Hysteria. The hard rocking band from Sheffield, England, who were originally part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, had scored big with their third album Pyromania, notably the anthems “Photograph,” “Rock of Ages,” and “Foolin’.” Released in January 1983, Pyromania would be certified six times Platinum by October 1984 and turn the band into rock superstars. But could they maintain that status?

The British quintet entered the recording studio in August 1984 to start the all-important follow up, originally to be called Animal Instinct. It would ultimately end up being a poppier album than any of their previous efforts. On top of the pressure of creating a follow-up to a massive rock album, drummer Rick Allen had been in a car accident on New Year’s Eve 1984 and lost his left arm. Rather than replace him with someone else, the band found someone to develop a MIDI-triggered kit for him to play and keep him recording and performing with them. But it did lead to a hiatus during the creation of Hysteria.

After a protracted recording period of nearly two and a half years—which had originally involved working with producer/songwriter Jim Steinman, among others, before producer Mutt Lange took the reins—and three more months of mixing, Hysteria emerged in August 1987. While it topped charts in the UK and other countries, the album was not quite the success the label hoped for in America. Part of the problem was that the band had been away for a long time—these were still the days when artists still released albums every year or two. Also, the first couple of singles underperformed. Despite solid radio airplay, lead single “Women” stalled at No. 80 on the Hot 100 singles chart, and “Animal” just broke the Top 20 at No. 19, although the title track hit No. 10. But that was just not enough.

Despite the slicker sound, the album had only managed to sell 3 million copies by January 1988. While a triple-Platinum sequel does not sound bad, Hysteria was possibly the most expensive album recorded in the UK at the time, and it was estimated that it would need to sell 5 million copies to break even. America was an important factor in that global tally.

“Pour Some Sugar on Me”

Then something happened around the spring of 1988—the album’s salvation arrived in an unlikely way as “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” the last song to be recorded for the album, almost a castaway, came to life. When Lange heard singer Joe Elliott noodling with it on acoustic guitar, he knew the song had to be included on the album.

“These girls in these strip clubs in Florida keep requesting this song on the local radio because they’re dancing to it, because it’s got this sexy groove and it’s got all the things we were talking about,” guitarist Phil Collen told Essentials Radio on Apple Music in 2022. “It’s got this rock thing, it’s got this rap thing, it’s got these heavy drums and you can apparently dance to it in a good seductive way. Anyway, they’re requesting it like crazy. It starts catching on fire. So it’s on all the stations down in Florida, it starts going to No. 1. It gets picked up, goes to other places … so anyway, that’s how it kicked off. And it started a snowball effect.”

That effect continued for another several months. “Pure Some Sugar on Me” rose to No. 2, the album rocketed to No. 1, and then the momentum kept building. The next single “Love Bites” soared to No. 1, “Armageddon It” climbed to No. 3, and “Rocket” shot to No. 12 (in early 1989).

In June 1988, Hysteria reached 4 million in sales and sold a million a month after that through September. By January 1989, it had reached sales of 9 million domestically and would sell 3 million more over the next decade. Globally, the album sales shot over 20 million.

A Perfect, Bombastic Sex Anthem

So what is it about the song that took hold of the masses? Simply put, it was the perfect, bombastic sex anthem to fit in what was going on with the late-’80s pop metal/hair band phenomenon that had brought groups like Bon Jovi and Whitesnake to mainstream prominence and led to a whole series of clones that would last through to early 1992. But this one song in particular, love it or hate it, broke them big. Guys liked the dirty implications, and many women seemed to enjoy the sexy, slinky vibes as well.

Listen, red light, yellow light, green-a-light go
Crazy little woman in a one man show
Mirror queen, mannequine, rhythm of love
Sweet dream, saccharine, loosen up

“Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a tune that remains very popular today and is one of Def Leppard’s most performed songs in their history. It also saved their career and even pushed it to the next level. It’s one of the band’s least-deep songs, but it’s clearly a feel good/feel sexy anthem that has resonated across the decades. Funnily enough, it was the last song recorded for Hysteria and took the least amount of time. Somehow the label executives did not think it was good enough to release until they were desperate to boost album sales.

“I still get a buzz from it,” Collen admitted to Classic Rock magazine in 2022. “For some bizarre reason, in America women seem to feel compelled to take their shirts off when we play it. ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ is like anything; if you’re rehearsing it in the rehearsal room, it’s really f–king boring. But as soon as you play it in front of an audience who are into it, it makes all the difference.” 

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Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia