Def Leppard News - 20 Years Ago Def Leppard's Breathe A Sigh At Number 43 In The UK

20 Years Ago Def Leppard's Breathe A Sigh At Number 43 In The UK

Wednesday, 30th November 2016

Def Leppard's classic single Breathe A Sigh was reached Number 43 on this day in 1996 in the UK.

The fourth and final UK single to be released from the Slang album.

It had been released on 18th November during their UK 'Slang' tour.

It entered the charts at Number 43 on 30th November 1996 which was also its peak position.

This was also its only week on the chart. The first UK single since 'Too Late For Love' in 1983 not to have a promo video made for it.

The follow up to All I Want Is Everything which had peaked at Number 38 in late September.

A song written by Phil Collen.

Prodigy were at Number One on this day with their single 'Breathe'.

Other rock artists and band friends on the Top 100 chart this week were Queen (17) and Bryan Adams (31).

Bryan Adams song 'Star' was co-written/produced by Mutt Lange and also co-written by Michael Kamen who arranged the strings on the 1993 version of 'Two Steps Behind'.

Read more about the song.

UK Singles Chart - 30th November 1996

01 - Prodigy - Breathe
02 - Fugees - No Woman, No Cry
03 - Mark Owen - Child
04 - Warren G feat. Adina Howard - What's Love Got To Do With It
05 - Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart
43 - Def Leppard - Breathe A Sigh - (Peak Position)

Breathe A Sigh 1996.

Breathe A Sigh - Song Description By Phil Collen 1996

"In sharp contrast to All I Want Is Everything, this song took ages and about seven different versions until we were happy with it. This ranged from a piano version to a reggae thing."

"My original demo tried to sound like Mariah Carey does gospel with a country twang, and I didn't think it would be right for us. But after all the different versions and being very close to bailing on this song, we tried it one more time. This time we based it around a pop, hip-hop drum feel and Sav's cool bass line."

"We then added sustained electric guitars and a classic Def Leppard multi-tracked backing vocal type of thing kind of inspired by Boys II Men. It was getting there but was made better by the help of Brad Buxer's percussion programming. Then we were ready for the lead vocal. The original inspiration for the vocal phrasing was Aretha Franklin so we went that rout. Stuck a jazz guitar in the intro and !Voila! The hardest song to record, but the biggest achievement!!!"