Saturday, 29th August 2015
Def Leppard's classic Hysteria album entered the UK chart at Number One 28 years ago on this day in 1987.
The band's fourth studio album had been released on 3rd August and went straight in at the top.
It went on to spend 101 weeks on the chart up October 1992. This is often quoted as the total but it actually spent a further four weeks on the chart in 1994 taking it to 105 weeks in all.
The album's success followed on from 'Animal' becoming the band's first ever Top Ten single anywhere in the world by reaching Number 6 earlier in the same month.
In reaching the top of the UK charts 'Hysteria' became the first Number One album of the band's career. A feat that 'Pyromania' narrowly missed out on in 1983 in the USA.
It would take another 49 weeks before the album reached Number One on the US Billboard Top 200 chart.
On the same day as the UK chart positions were announced the band played a show in Belfast, Northern Ireland with Joe injuring his back halfway through the performance.
Joe Elliott - September 1987 Hysteria Interview Quote
"I mean all the hard work we put into that. Trials and tribulations and everything that went off. You forgot about them the minute that we got the phone call at 8 O'clock in the morning saying your album's gone straight in at Number One in the British charts. It was like Whoaaah!. We were doing cartwheels down the hotel corridor."
Joe Elliott - Classic Albums Hysteria Interview Quote
"Animal came out as a single and it was a hit. At last after ten years, ten years after we formed. We had our first British hit. And we got - I think number 6 it got to. And of course that was out about six weeks before the album or a month or so before the album. Which set the album up nicely. So it debuted at one which was great for us you know. We'd finally broke our home country after all this. 'Def Leppard aren't you an American band?'.
Rick Allen on finishing the album
"It was perfect. We all really, really liked it. I can't remember what we did as a band when we actually finished. But it was something special for all of us just to sit there and go ahhh...after I don't know how many years of recording. It was good."
The album replaced The Hits Album 6 at Number 1 and was displaced a week later by the same album and fell to Number 2.
It then fell the Number 3 in the third week as The Hits Album 6 was at 2 with Michael Jackson's Bad a new entry at 1. The first time the two had been at the top of the album charts together since their sharing of the top two spots in the US Billboard chart during 1983.
UK Album Chart Top 10 - 29th August 1987
- 01 - Def Leppard - Hysteria - New Entry
- 02 - Various Artists - The Hits Album 6
- 03 - New Order - Substance 1987 - New Entry
- 04 - Elvis Presley - Presley - The All Time Greatest Hits - New Entry
- 05 - Original Soundtrack - Who's That Girl
- 06 - Whitney Houston - Whitney
- 07 - Terence Trent D'Arby - Introducing The Hardline According To...
- 08 - Various Artists - Sixties Mix
- 09 - U2 - The Joshua Tree
- 10 - Madonna - True Blue
- Def Leppard - Hysteria Album Page
- Def Leppard - Hysteria Album Statistics
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