For some of us hard rock fans who grew up during a certain time period, Def Leppard's Pyromania was required listening. And on February 5, 1983,the album Pyromania started a 92 week run on the US charts, eventually reaching the #2 spot.

Pyromania, the band's third album, finally opened the doors to rock super-stardom. Def Leppard had minor success with "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" from their previous release, High 'n' Dry, but Pyromania brought them more radio airplay, tons of new fans, and major financial rewards.

Pyromania was loaded from start to finish with great songs. There were the three singles, "Photograph", "Rock of Ages"(which included the spoken word intro provided by album producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange), and "Foolin'". All three of which were Top 40 hits.

Fortunately, Def Leppard had plenty of strong material to work with, so even the deeper tracks were gems. "Die Hard the Hunter", "Billy's Got A Gun", "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)", "Too Late For Love" and more were a great mix of hard rockers and darker-edged ballads. Whether you were listening to Top 40 radio or Rock radio, it seemed like the Leppard lads were darn near inescapable.

If nothing else, the combination of hard rock hooks with catchy pop choruses on Pyromania paved the way for the Lep's fourth album, Hysteria, which was an unprecedented monster. Hysteria is still one of the biggest-selling rock albums of all-time. By the way, earlier I mentioned that the highest chart position reached by Pyromania was #2. Do you know which album kept Def Leppard out of the #1 spot?Perhaps you've heard of it. Michael Jackson's Thriller.

 

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