, in many ways, was the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder (and were more dangerous) than the Sheffield-based quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well. Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the group actually owed more to the glam rock and metal of the early '70s, as their sound was equal parts
. By toning down their heavy riffs and emphasizing melody,
, and skillfully used the fledgling MTV network to their advantage. The musicians were already blessed with photogenic good looks, but they also crafted a series of innovative, exciting videos that made them into stars. They intended to follow
quickly but were derailed when their drummer lost an arm in a car accident, the first of many problems that plagued the group's career.
managed to pull through such tragedies, and they even expanded their large audience with 1987's blockbuster
. As the '90s began, mainstream hard rock shifted away from
's signature pop-metal and toward edgier, louder bands, yet the group maintained a sizable audience into the late '90s and were one of only a handful of '80s metal groups to survive the decade more or less intact.
Def Leppard had their origins in a Sheffield-based group that teenagers
Rick Savage (bass) and
Pete Willis (guitar) formed in 1977. Vocalist
Joe Elliott, a fanatic follower of
Mott the Hoople and
T. Rex, joined the band several months later, bringing the name Deaf Leopard with him. After a spelling change, the trio, augmented by a now-forgotten drummer, began playing local Sheffield pubs, and within a year they had added guitarist
Steve Clark to the lineup, as well as a new drummer. Later in 1978, they recorded their debut EP,
Getcha Rocks Off, and released it on their own label, Bludgeon Riffola. The EP became a word-of-mouth success, earning airplay on the BBC. The group members were still in their teens.
Following the release of
Getcha Rocks Off,
Rick Allen was added as the band's permanent drummer, and
Def Leppard quickly became the subject of the British music weeklies. They soon signed with
AC/DC's manager, Petter Mensch, who helped them secure a contract with Mercury Records.
On Through the Night, the band's full-length debut, was released in 1980 and instantly became a hit in the U.K., also earning significant airplay in the U.S., where it reached number 51 on the charts. Over the course of the year,
Def Leppard relentlessly toured Britain and America, playing their own shows while also opening concerts for
Ozzy Osbourne,
Sammy Hagar, and
Judas Priest.
High 'n' Dry followed in 1981 and became the group's first platinum album in the U.S., thanks to MTV's strong rotation of "Bringin' on the Heartbreak." MTV would be vital to the band's success in the '80s.
As the band recorded the follow-up to
High 'n' Dry with producer
Mutt Lange,
Pete Willis was fired from the band for alcoholism, and
Phil Collen, a former guitarist for
Girl, was hired to replace him. The resulting album, 1983's
Pyromania, became an unexpected blockbuster, due not only to
Def Leppard's skillful, melodic metal, but also to MTV's relentless airing of "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages."
Pyromania went on to sell ten million copies, establishing
Def Leppard as one of the most popular bands in the world. Despite their success, the band was about to enter a trying time for their career. Following an extensive international tour, the group re-entered the studio to record the follow-up, but producer
Lange was unavailable, so they began sessions with
Jim Steinman, the man responsible for
Meat Loaf's
Bat Out of Hell. The pairing turned out to be ill-advised, so the group turned to their former engineer,
Nigel Green. One month into recording,
Allen lost his left arm in a New Year's Eve car accident. The arm was reattached, but it had to be amputated once an infection set in.
Def Leppard's future looked cloudy without a drummer, but by the spring of 1985 -- just a few months after his accident --
Allen began learning to play a custom-made electronic kit assembled for him by Simmons. The band soon resumed recording, and within a few months
Lange was back on board, having judged all the existing tapes inferior and ordered the band to begin work all over again. Recording sessions continued throughout 1986, and that summer, the group returned to the stage for the European Monsters of Rock tour.
Def Leppard finally completed their fourth album, now titled
Hysteria, early in 1987. The record was released that spring to lukewarm reviews, with many critics claiming that the album compromised
Leppard's metal roots for sweet pop flourishes. Accordingly,
Hysteria was slow out of the starting gates -- "Women," the first single, failed to really take hold -- but the release of "Animal" helped the album gather steam. The song became
Def Leppard's first Top 40 hit in the U.K., but more importantly, it launched a string of six straight Top 20 hits in the U.S., which also included "Hysteria," "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Love Bites," "Armageddon It," and "Rocket," the latter of which arrived in 1989, a full two years after the release of
Hysteria. During those two years,
Def Leppard's presence was unavoidable -- they were the kings of high-school metal, ruling the pop charts and MTV, and teenagers and bands alike replicated their teased hair and ripped jeans, even when the grimy hard rock of
Guns N' Roses took hold in 1988.
Hysteria proved to be the peak of
Leppard's popularity, yet their follow-up remained eagerly awaited in the early '90s, as the band took a break from the road and set to work on a new record. During the recording process, however,
Steve Clark died from an overdose of alcohol and drugs.
Clark had historically battled with alcohol, and following the
Hysteria heyday, his bandmates forced him to take a sabbatical. Although he did enter rehab,
Clark's habits continued, and his abuse was so crippling that
Collen began recording the majority of the band's guitar leads. Following
Clark's death,
Def Leppard resolved to finish their forthcoming album as a quartet, releasing
Adrenalize in the spring of 1992.
Adrenalize was greeted with mixed reviews, and even though the album debuted at number one and contained several successful singles, including the Top 20 hits "Let's Get Rocked" and "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad," the record was a commercial disappointment in the wake of
Pyromania and
Hysteria. After its release, the group added former
Whitesnake guitarist
Vivian Campbell to the lineup, thus resuming
Def Leppard's two-guitar attack.
In 1993,
Def Leppard released the rarities collection
Retro Active, which yielded another Top 20 hit with the acoustic ballad "Two Steps Behind." Two years later, the group released the greatest-hits collection
Vault while preparing for their their sixth album.
Slang arrived in the spring of 1996, and while it proved more adventurous than its predecessor, it was greeted with indifference, indicating that
Leppard's heyday had indeed passed and they were now simply a very popular cult band. Undaunted,
Leppard soldiered on, returning to their patented pop-metal sound for
Euphoria, which was released in June of 1999. Despite the success of "Promises," the record failed to produce any additional hits, resulting in a return to adult pop balladry on 2002's
X. The two-disc
Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection arrived in 2005, followed in 2006 by
Yeah!, a strong collection of covers. In 2008, the band released their ninth studio album,
Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, which debuted at number five and was supported by a lucrative summer tour.
– Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
