25 years ago today, I went to Great Northern Mall to buy Def Leppard’s brand-new cassette, Hysteria. There was no such thing as a “leaked” album back then, the only song I had heard was the first single, “Women”, as the video had been given to MTV in July to help hype the upcoming release.
I remember throwing this in the Sony Sports Walkman and being amazed by the expensive-sounding production and the glossy hooks and choruses. This was not Pyromania and it was definitely not the NWOBM-sound of On Through the Night and High N’ Dry. This was a HUGE sounding record that was designed to sell millions of copies to people who would, without a doubt, pay big money to see Def Leppard in an arena. And you know what? I absolutely loved it at the time and I love to this day. Yeah, I skip over “Pour Some Sugar on Me” because MTV ruined that song for me but the rest of the songs (“Rocket”, “Gods of War”, “Hysteria”, etc.) I still listen to on a pretty regular basis. Happy Birthday, Hysteria!