Wednesday, 22nd August 2018
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31 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Have First UK Top Ten Hit With ANIMAL

Animal 1987. Def Leppard 1987

Def Leppard's classic Animal single peaked at Number 6 in the UK chart on this day in 1987.

The first single to be released from the 'Hysteria' album in the UK.

It had been released on 20th July 1987 and was their first UK single since the re-release of 'Photograph' in February 1984.

'Animal' peaked at Number 6 on 22nd August 1987 in its fourth week on the Top 100 chart.

Their first ever UK Top 40 entry and hit single. Also the first ever Def Leppard Top Ten single. The previous high being 'Photograph' which reached Number 12 in the USA in 1983.

It entered at 34 on 1st August before rising to 16, 9 and then 6.

It spent three weeks in all inside the Top 10 and five in the Top 20. Eventually leaving the chart at the end of September after nine weeks.

One of three Def Leppard singles in the UK to go into the Top 10 and then move up again. The others being 'Let's Get Rocked' (1992) and 'When Love & Hate Collide' (1995).

The first of six UK hit singles from the 'Hysteria' album ending with 'Rocket' in early 1989.

The chart success of the single was helped by TV performances on ITV's The Roxy and the BBC's Top Of The Pops in July/August.

The Roxy performance was shown four times and the promo video was also shown multiple times on Channel Four's 'The Chart Show'.

Michael Jackson was at Number One in this week with the first single from his then soon-to-be-released 'Bad' album.

Other notable rock artists inside the Top 40 were Heart, Bon Jovi, The Cult, Metallica and Motley Crue.

Read some band member comments about the song.

Animal 1987.

UK Singles Chart - 22nd August 1987

  • 01 - Michael Jackson (w/ Siedah Garrett) - I Just Can't Stop Loving You
  • 02 - Spagna - Call Me
  • 03 - Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
  • 04 - Sinitta - Toy Boy
  • 05 - New Order - True Faith
  • 06 - Def Leppard - Animal

Rick Savage Interview Quotes

"It was a guitar riff that Steve and Phil came up with together. We recorded the song with all these guitar parts and then recorded the vocal, which we all thought was one of Joe's best efforts. In fact, the vocal was so good we decided to redo the backing tracks. What eventually happened is that we kept a finished lead vocal and completely rewrote the song underneath that vocal. We had to keep the same chord changes so the vocal would work, but the verses, bridge and chorus were all rewritten. The original version sounded much heavier, but once we heard the style of the lead vocal we thought it would be best to make it more of a pop song."

Phil Collen Interview Quotes

"Our first top-ten hit in England, and it broke us in Europe. It took about three years to finish recording the song. We kept changing the guitar parts. I used a clean, compressed tone reminiscent of The Fixx."

Rick Savage 1995 Interview Quotes

"I got a lot of satisfaction out of that just because it was nice to have a top ten hit in your home country and it was the lead off single from Hysteria and it just set everything up nice you know. I remember we’d tour England. England was the first place that we actually toured on the Hysteria record and the minute we started the first two bars of ‘Animal’ the crowd just lost their minds and it was like Wow this is what it’s like to have hit singles in this country you know, people do respond."

Animal 1987. Def Leppard 1987

Phil Collen - October 1988 Interview Quotes

"The song Animal we wrote - re-wrote three times and re-recorded it three times. In three different forms. And it's like it still didn't have that magic. And then one day we just changed the bridge or whatever it was and it just clicked. And we knew that we'd done something right."

"And this happened with a lot of the tracks. I think that was the main reason why they took so long. It's just getting them so that we were happy with them."

1995 - Vault Liner Note Quotes

Phil Collen

"A total nightmare to record but our first UK hit. Thank you."

Rick Savage

"1st Top Ten single in England. Gave me biggest sense of accomplishment."

Joe Elliott

"Our first big hit in England & finally broke us in our home country - At last!."


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Phil Collen - Guitar
Phil Collen - Guitar
Phil Collen - Guitar
Phil Collen - Guitar