This section looks at the 'Sotify Singles' streaming session release. Including a cover of Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus' and the band's own classic 'Hysteria'.

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"They wanted a classic Def Leppard song."

Def Leppard's Spotify Singles session was released on this day in 2018 on the streaming service featuring two songs.

The 'Spotify Singles' session was released on Spotify on 18th July 2018 with two songs included.

A cover of the 1989 Depeche Mode classic 'Personal Jesus' and 'Hysteria'.

'Personal Jesus' was initially played during the pre-show PA music as the 30 minute countdown clock ended on the 2018 tour with Journey and then throughout the year.

The new show intro had been premiered at the start of the tour in Hartford, CT on 21st May 2018.

The cover version and 'Hysteria' had been recorded on 16th May at Spotify's studios in New York after a few days of rehearsal at S.I.R. Studios in the same city.

This release coincided with the 40th anniversary of Def Leppard's first public live concert in 1978 at Westfield School in Sheffield.

Joe commented on the session soon afterwards in an interview with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM radio.

View the cover artwork below and listen to both songs which were also added to the 'Spotify Singles: Rock This' playlist.

The Def Leppard version stayed true to the electronic sound of the original with thumping bass and programmed electronic drums. Like the cover of 'Rock On' it was Leppardised with rocking guitars added. Especially in the outro section.

The original was released in August 1989 and eventually included on their classic 1990 album 'Violator'. It reached Number 13 in the UK and Number 28 in the USA.

It has also been covered in the past by Marilyn Manson and Johnny Cash.

The studio version of the cover lasts for 3:56. The version used in the show intro lasts for around 4:44 (listen to that via the video playlist link).

This song would go on to be released commercially in October 2018 in a remixed form as part of 'The Story So Far...The Best Of Def Leppard' 2CD greatest hits album.

Def Leppard - Spotify Singles Session

• 01 - Hysteria (Recorded At Spotify Studios NYC) - 6:05
• 02 - Personal Jesus (Recorded At Spotify Studios NYC) - 3:56 (Depeche Mode Cover)
• Format - Digital/Streaming
• Label - Bludgeon Riffola
• Recorded - 16th May 2018 in New York
• Release Date - 18th July 2018

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Trunk Nation - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

Spotify Singles Session

"So we're based in the New York area let's say because we're kind of back and forth everywhere round Manhattan doing stuff. We were in a place called S.I.R. which is a very famous rehearsal space where Bowie and everybody in the world's probably used it, The Who. We were in there for a couple of days rehearsing for a, the tour and b, for a session that we did for Spotify. I don't know whether I'm allowed to mention then on your show. Yeah we did a session for them. Just two songs. I won't say any more because I don't want to spoil the surprise for whenever it's gonna get broadcast, but bit of fun. One of ours and a cover of somebody else's stuff ."

Joe Elliott (2018)

"We did a session for them. Just two songs. I won't say any more because I don't want to spoil the surprise for whenever it's gonna get broadcast, but bit of fun. One of ours and a cover of somebody else's stuff."

Phil Collen (2018)

"The studio totally influences your vibe. There's something obviously about the comfort of a studio and the vibe of the people and everything. which was wonderful I gotta say, coming in here. So whenever, whatever studio we go in we're always gonna bring that. there's always gonna be that Def Leppard thing. And we always make it work."

Vivian Campbell (2018)

"They wanted a classic Def Leppard song, which we decided was gonna be 'Hysteria', and something that was a little bit outside of our genre, not a hard rock band. Don't be covering AC/DC or something like QUEEN or whatever. My first choice was ABBA. I thought that we would rock the hell out of ABBA because of our vocals. So I wrote back to everyone. I said, 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' by ABBA. I think we could do a good rock version of it. Plus, there's a little harmony line in it, an instrumental line, that would have been a great rock guitar line. I know it's a bit of a happy song, but I think we could have darkened it up a bit."

"Anyway, that got shot down in flames. But, fortunately, my second suggestion was, 'Why don't we do 'Personal Jesus' by Depeche Mode?' And everyone picked up on that. So, we did it. And, to be honest, it was probably a much, much easier song to do than anything by ABBA. But I still think we could rock the shit out of ABBA some day."

Spotify Undercover October 2018 - Phil Collen Interview Quotes

"The hardest part about covering a song, you obviously like the song you're covering when you do it. Or you think you can do a good version of it."

"You wanna please the artist you've originally done it for, but you wanna make it you're own."

"You never know, you don't wanna mess up your idol's song. You don't wanna screw it up."

"You wanna bring something to it."

"Sometimes it kinda coll bringing a new flavour to it."

"We done a covers album called 'YEAH!'. And we made a point to not do Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin."

"The run of the mill stuff."

Choosing The Cover Song

"When this session came up, what was really interesting everyone was going 'Oh you know maybe we could do a Eagles song or an ABBA song'."

"It was like no that's naff, that's passe."

"Let's do something that we wouldn't have normally done, because that's getting a bit old. That's old school and it's not just to be Opposite and Mr. different for the sake of it."

"It would be really cool to do something that's quite vital and Ronan who's our our front guy used this song Personal Jesus to test the PA."

"And Vivian said 'Hey why don't why we do Personal Jesus? Depeche Mode'."

"And it was like that's one song everyone agreed on. And it wouldn't have been a normal thing."

"You know it's really stale when rock bands do Zeppelin or Thin Lizzy you know."

"Stuff that we grew up with and that you're supposed to do, that's obvious for rock bands."

"It's kind of nice doing something that's a little left field of our genre you know."

"Instead of being you know just following the whole normal thing."

A Great Song

"The classic elements of a great song are grooves and melody. And memorable grooves and melodies work even better."

"You know you can stray off of that a little bit but this one it's all groove."

"It's like a dance track. You know I know I'm sure when they recorded it they didn't do it like a band."

"Which is something we do. We'd never played Love Bites together when we released it."

"It was a studio song we done bits and pieces here. We done this year. Next year we done some of this in another studio."

"Tracked like crazy vocals. We release it, it goes to Number One on Billboard and we've never played it."

"Our only Billboard Number One single, you know, 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' was Number Two. 'Armageddon It' was Number Two."

"We've had Top Ten's and all of that. This was Number One and we didn't know how to play it."

"It was a real struggle playing the guitar and singing at the same time there's so many vocals on it."

"But we finally got it."

"Again you know you go back to the groove and melody. What is essential to the song."

"They're the parts you do 'cause there's like six parts on he chorus or the pre-chorus and you go choose two of them. 'Cause there's only two guitar players. Choose the main vocals, back it up with harmony and always enforce the main melody."

Studio Creativity

"The studio does influence your creativity. There's something obviously about the comfort of a studio and the vibe of the people and everything."

"This was wonderful I gotta say. Coming in here."

"It worked a treat and everyone's cool in the control room."

"Very on it and quick which is great. You know considering we've been recording for years with Mutt Lange."

"You know we have to give props to Mutt Lange our producer back in the day because he was so inspiring."

"People go 'Oh is he a taskmaster?' And it's like no he was a teacher and he would inspire us. He had these great ideas."

"And you'd go...you wouldn't understand what he was talking about at first and then when you finally got it you went 'Oh my god' Goose bumps."

"And he did that basically with our sound. I think he made us able to go into an environment like this and not ever feel intimated but just have fun."

Depeche Mode Connection?

"We do have a connection with Depeche Mode and what it is it's actually an inspiring story."

"You know they've been around for years, since the 80s obviously like us."

"And we saw something kind of trending with them recently and I actually found it really inspiring."

"It was this thing, it was an article, it said who sells out more than Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and it had all this thing and it was around the world and it was Depeche Mode."

"We felt almost like a tear of pride and joy for them you know."

"It's like wow that is so cool. The fact that they carried on never stopped, done their thing. That's really cool."

"We kind of see ourselves that way."

"And their British as well I don't know if that's got anything to do with it."

"So there was so many connections and that inspired us. We're having a bit of an Indian Summer in our career, you know, the tickets are flying out the window."

"We obviously just went digital with you guys. So it's really good and it makes you feel proud when you see someone else that you respect, like Depeche Mode, doing that."

Depeche Mode Memories

"I do remember it hearing them in the 80s and my perception hasn't changed. I always thought it was cool."

"I think Depeche Mode changed. They were really poppy and kind of like a lot of other bands that disappeared."

"Then all of a sudden they started doing stuff like Personal Jesus and it was like whoah!."

"This is a darker side. This is cooler. Lyrically it means something very different it can go a lot of different places, it makes you think."

"You know a good song is something that makes you think.And the lyric makes you think you go 'What's he talking about?'."

"You can be on the phone..Personal Jesus?. It makes you think. You know a great song but it has an element of cool that was different, you know, to some of the earlier Depeche Mode stuff."

Recording

"So you never, when you're recording stuff the beauty of it is it's a starting point."

"And even when you're writing a song it can actually mean something else to what you started it off."

"That's a great thing to do in the studio you hear things that you wouldn't normally hear and they'll be a gap."

"Or you hear the essence of something and you can enhance it."

"I mean that was just an idea I had today. I just went and recorded this sustain thing."

"My guitar, my Jackson PC1, has a sustainer on it and it actually sounds like an E-Bow."

"An E-Bow's this block that you used to hold on strings and it would make it sustain forever."

"I used it on Hysteria and a bunch of those albums but I've got them built into my guitar now."

"So it was like let's orchestrate a little bit of guitar thing in this area that really needed something say like violins. And you can actually make it sounds like strings if you keep overdubbing."

"I've done great stuff and again influenced by Brian May of Queen 'cause he used to do this stuff all the time. Sometimes it's a bit weird if you put harmonies in 'cause all of a sudden it goes from this really cool sounding thing to like some really uncool European metal."

"So this particular one as someone said it sounds druid-esque. This note just changed the slant on it and instead of being cool it just made it sound a little silly."

"You know there's fine line between really cool badass and quirky and wrong and silly. So yeah we got druid-esque on that one and we kicked that one out it was like a minor note on there. And yeah it was like it's killing our vibe."

Guitars On Personal Jesus

"The notes I used in the end were just octaves."

"One's like a screaming feedback that comes in and then a higher version of that that wasn't screaming and I double tracked both of them."

"This all took about three minutes but it sounds great in the end yeah."

"You can sing every melody. You could play it on a piano."

"It's really simple and it's got a great groove."

"It repeats and like I said it's got an electronic kind of thing about it that's also very hip."

"And it still sounds hip to this day. It sounds cool current and nasty."

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.@DefLeppard's new #SpotifySingles are pure Hysteria. @depechemode fans, this one's for you... https://t.co/oA7nEHmFC5 pic.twitter.com/q939csPOA7

— Spotify (@Spotify) July 19, 2018

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View the YouTube Playlist with all show intro clips of the song.

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related pages/releases

• Spotify Singles EP Section
• Personal Jesus Song Section
• Personal Jesus Single Section