10 Best Hard Rock Ballads

Def Leppard were riding high off of their hard rock masterpiece Pyromania when producer Mutt Lange challenged the band to have their next record be even bigger. Throwing caution to the wind, Leppard spent years honing down their craft to create Hysteria, whose massive hit singles made it their unofficial greatest hits album.

During the writing process, Lange brought one of his demos to the group that had a bit of a country twang to it. With input from the rest of the band, the tune went from sounding like a Don Henley production to pure glam rock perfection. Over beautiful chord arpeggios, vocalist Joe Elliott sings like a love-sick troubadour who has been wronged one too many times (like all country normally is.) When the lush vocal harmonies come in, the song begins to float above the surface as the protagonist's yearn for genuine love becomes too much to bear. The song's use of vocal squeals also went on to be used in many different vocal-led genres, from pop music to modern R&B.

By moving away from their rock and roll roots, Def Leppard's foray into the pop realm yielded the ideal combination between Queen-like vocal perfection and modern pop sensibilities.