10 Most Expensive Rock Albums Ever Made

2. Hysteria - Def Leppard ($4.5 Million)

In 1987, British glam rockers Def Leppard finally released their first album in four years. It had to be good, otherwise people stood to lose a lot of money.

The biggest reason for the album's hefty budget were the delays caused by drummer Rick Allen's car accident in 1984. Allen's left arm was ripped completely off during the crash and doctors were unable to reattach it successfully.

Naturally, this meant that the musician needed time to recover. The fact that he was able to return to the band at all and play on the record with just one arm is a minor miracle.

Figures relating to the cost of the album vary wildly. Some are as low as $3.5 million, whilst others are as high as $8 million. The most agreed upon number is $4.5 million, which would be $12.3 million in modern terms.

Whatever the figure was, the band needed to sell five million copies of Hysteria just to break even, according to guitarist Phil Collen. And did they?

Well, as it stands, Hysteria has 12 million copies in the US alone and a total of about 14 million worldwide.

Phew.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.