10 Rock Songs That Were Written By Accident

In the days of making Hysteria, Def Leppard knew that there was no room for filler. After already coming off the massive success of Pyromania, they needed something that was going to equal that album or they would be entering the downward slide of their career. Producer Mutt Lange saw this as making their greatest hits album just on one disc, and the real blockbuster smash actually came from just a few minutes in the studio.

Having worked for the better part of three years trying to make the record, the band were running through the vocals for the song Armageddon It, which they were convinced was the last track that they needed to do before everyone went on a coffee break. As Joe Elliott returned to the control room, he picked up an acoustic guitar and started to sing the melody of what would become the chorus of Sugar, which made Mutt’s eyes light up when he came back into the studio.

Though the label was a bit hesitant to have them delay the album yet again to include another song, the whole thing ended up being worth it, propelling Hysteria into the stratosphere and turning Def Leppard into one of the biggest bands in the world at the time. Pyromania was the kind of success that most artists would never be able to see again, and from just a few minutes with an acoustic guitar, Leppard managed to practically double what they did the first time around.