I didn’t buy the “Hysteria” album when it came out. I know its sacrilegious to say it, but Def Leppard was out of the news cycle and the magazines for quite some time. You know the saying, Out of mind, out of sight. I had heard about Rick Allen’s car accident and the troubles the band had with producers. Plus I was still spinning “Pyromania” so I didn’t feel like I needed a new Def Leppard album.
When “Woman” came out as a single, it didn’t do any real business in Australia. Then came “Animal” and it just cracked the Top 50, but like “Woman”, it was largely ignored. I do wish I purchased the 7 inch singles for these releases at the time, as getting singles with B sides that had unreleased material moved you into the “cool” crowd amongst your mates. Well that’s how it was in Australia. Plus I was a collector.
Then came “Pour Some Sugar on Me”.
It had this “I Love Rock N Roll” riff with a bit of “Since You’ve Been Gone” and I was all in. It was the last song recorded on the album, featuring a signature riff written by Joe Elliot and a vocal line inspired by the mash-up of Aerosmith and Run-DMC on “Walk This Way”. Mutt Lange, always the song doctor, heard “hit potential” and within two weeks, the song was recorded and added to the album as the twelfth track.
The 7 inch single I have has “I Wanna Be Your Hero” as the B-side which as I understand is the UK and Australasia version, however the USA version has “Ring Of Fire” and the 12 inch version of the song has “I Wanna Be Your Hero”.
“I Wanna Be Your Hero” was originally called “Love Bites”. As we all know they used the title for a completely different song.
I was hooked as soon as the arpeggio guitars start. The vibe and feel reminds me so much of the “High N Dry” and “Pyromania” albums. Songs like “Comin Under Fire”, “Foolin”, “Too Late For Love” and “Another Hit And Run”. Maybe that’s why it became a B side as the band felt like they were re-writing their past, which according to Angus Young is totally fine to do. And AC/DC don’t look like they are losing doing it.
Check out the song structure, with verse, pre, verse, pre and then the CHORUS cranks in. And the music behind the Chorus, is very “Photograph” like.
Going back to “Pour Some Sugar Of Me”, in Australia it was played regularly by music television, and suddenly I was interested in the album.
Def Leppard was everywhere again and “step inside I did”.
destroyerofharmony 
Our B-side was Ring of Fire. But I prefer I Wanna Be Your Hero!
Same here
It took them time to catch on with Hysteria in North America too. Pretty much the same reason, having been gone for so long. Of course, when they did, that train didn’t stop.
Hey Harmony destroyer friends. This is that Bubba dude from NYC. Doing a radio show from here today if anyone wants to check it out. Take care all…
Let’s kick off February w/ a bang. Today at High Noon, Bubba Guitar’s back on the MakerParkRadio cyber airwaves letting the music play for at least 4 hours from 12 ’til 4 NYC time. Feel free to stop by the chat room, say hello, send over a request, suggestion whatever. We aims to please. Listen via the website, Makerparkradio.nyc, tunein.com, order your speaker etc etc, you’ll figure it out…Take care, see ya in a few hours.
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Appreciate your honestly in not buying Hysteria the first day it dropped. I did and I liked it right away and still do. But when I listen to it now I really like Side 2 basically the non singles lol. Great stuff Pete..
I rate it very highly.
My favorite tracks for jamming on guitar are Woman, Gods Of War, Love Bites, Armageddon It and Hysteria.
The B-Sides were always great. I always bought their singles for the reason.
For some reason, the band looks like they’re sunburnt on the picture in the back (or maybe that was just the lighting)! If I’m not mistaken, I think the pictures on the Hysteria singles make up the album cover yeah?
Yes the band pictures looked very casual compared to the leathers and looks of other high profile acts like Jovi, Crue, Whitesnake and GNR.
And yes, all of the singles did make up the hysteria album cover.
Not that there’s a problem with casual! Why spend money on expensive wardrobe for a photoshoot?
Ok cause I thought the individual singles had very random backgrounds. It wasn’t until Mike’s 7 inch single or picture disc show on the LeBrain Train where it started to make sense.