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Sunday, December 13, 2015

"Rock of Ages" by Def Leppard

Song#:  1489
Date:  06/11/1983
Debut:  75
Peak:  16
Weeks:  15
Genre:  Hard Rock



Pop Bits:  With the help of producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, Def Leppard refined their metal sound and scored a #1 Rock hit (#12 Pop) with "Photograph," the lead single from their third album Pyromania. This next single supplied similar results reaching #1 at Rock and hitting the Pop Top 20. It was a one-two punch that made them worldwide stars and put pop-metal on the map.

ReduxReview:  This was a terrific follow-up song to "Photograph" and another classic in their catalog. Back in the day I actually kind of got sick of these singles from the group as they were so popular in my area and on MTV. The songs just got played to death. So for a long while after I didn't have much interest in listening to Pyromania. Enough time has past that now I can hear these once again and totally love them.

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) Mutt Lange is one of the great rock producers, but he is very precise. His want for perfection typically leads to numerous takes of a song. During the recording sessions he would typically begin each take with a count off like "one...two...three...four" and the band would start. While recording "Rock of Ages," there were so many takes that soon Lange was just using nonsensical words for the count off. On one specific take he channeled the German language and said something like "gunter glieben glauchen globen." Again, the words were meaningless, but the band liked it so much that they decided to not edit it out and left Lange's mutterings at the beginning of the song.  2) Apparently, Joe Elliott came up with the song title thanks to a hymn book left by a member of a children's choir that had just used the studio. He saw the hymn titled "Rock of Ages" and though it would fit with a song they had been working up.

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