10 Greatest Classic Rock Songs Of The 1980s

By the mid-80's, it was a very good time to be Def Leppard. After a few well-performing outings on albums like High n Dry, the band hit the hard rock jackpot with Pyromania, which turned them into everyone's favorite pop metal band. Then comes the hard part: you're on top of the world....but can you do it again?

The band spent over 3 years slaving away on the followup Hysteria until it was an all-out classic, but the best tune actually came at the 11th hour. When combing through material for the next album, Joe Elliott hit upon a chorus that producer Mutt Lange thought was the best hook he had heard in years. Recording it quite quickly, the band had hit upon what would be the biggest single of their career.

Though the initial sales of Hysteria did reasonably well, it wasn't until "Sugar" took off that the band surpassed their previous album's glory and became bonafied superstars. Instead of being a blip on the radar, Def Leppard were now a band that could go toe-to-toe with any other rock band that came before them. While there were plenty of imitators of Def Leppard on the glam rock scene at the time, "Sugar" shows that when it comes to this band's energy, no one else even comes close.