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Wednesday, May 12, 2021

"Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard

Top 10 Alert!
Song#:  3491
Date:  04/23/1988
Debut:  93
Peak:  2
Weeks:  24
Genre:  Hard Rock, Glam Metal


Pop Bits:  Def Leppard finally cracked the Pop Top 10 with "Hysteria," the third single from their fourth album of the same title. It just broke the threshold at #10. With their profile significantly raised, the band needed to unleash something even stronger to keep up the momentum and decided on this track. It ended up being the right choice. Although the song debuted low on the chart, it soon caught on and made its way to the Pop Top 10. It spent two weeks at #3 before being able to move up to the #2 spot for a week. The same week the song peaked, the album would finally reach #1 after 49 weeks on the chart. It would end up spending six non-consecutive weeks at the top. It seemed that the band had reached the peak of their career, but the next single would push them even higher.

ReduxReview:  If there ever existed a genre called bubblegum metal, this song would be listed as the example. If you tossed The Archies, Run-D.M.C., and T.Rex in a blender, pureed them, then pushed the slurry through an amp turned up to eleven, this is what may have come out. It was a loud, hooky track fully of groan-inducing innuendo that became instant ear candy. Frankly, it was just trashy fun; and I mean that in a good way. Back in the day wherever you were, if this came on folks would just smile and start rockin' out. I bet folks still do. The song had mass appeal and despite grumblings about the sexual lyrics and that Def Leppard had gone too commercial, it became a hit and a signature song for the band. It really should have hit #1, but Richard Marx's dreary "Hold On to the Nights" inexplicably leapfrogged over it to take the top spot.

ReduxRating:  9/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) The Hysteria album would end up generating seven singles. All of them would go Top 10 at Rock except for one. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" wouldn't even get close stalling at a minor #25. While it is not truly known why rock radio slighted the song over the other singles, one could speculate that the pop-oriented nature of the track along with its pseudo-rap section and its goofy sex metaphors made radio programmers' eyes roll. It wasn't the Def Leppard they wanted to promote and it seems like they didn't. However, with the video all over MTV, kids demanded to hear it and it seems that pop radio took up the slack and helped to make the song a major hit.  2) This was the final track recorded for the album. It was a spur of the moment thing. Recording the album had been a long and costly process. With an eleventh song, "Armageddon It," nearly finished, the band was ready to call it a day and get the LP out, but producer Mutt Lange encouraged them to keep writing songs. On a break in the last recording session, band member Joe Elliott was toying with a tune on guitar when Lange walked in. He loved what he was hearing and wanted to expand the tune and get it recorded. Within a few days, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was finished. The last minute add turned into a #2 hit that pushed the album to #1. Although the vinyl single would not reach gold level sales, later in 2005 the digital version of the track was certified gold, which showed the song's long-standing popularity.

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