Def Leppard News - 30 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA Album At Number One In USA

Monday, 23rd July 2018

30 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA Album At Number One In USA

Hysteria 1987.

Def Leppard's classic Hysteria album reached Number One on the US Billboard Top 200 chart on this day in 1988.

The band's fourth studio album was released on 3rd August 1987 and took 49 weeks to reach the top spot.

It replaced Van Halen's 'OU812' at the top of the US charts.

It would go on to spend 6 weeks at number one (including a 3 week stint in September) and 133 weeks in total on the chart.

On 16th March 1999 the band received a Diamond Award for over 10 million sales of the album in the USA alone.

Read the Making of the HYSTERIA Album 30th anniversary special from August 2017.

Hysteria Album - Weeks At Number One in USA

23rd July 1988 - 1 - (Number One after 49 weeks on chart)
30th July 1988 - 1
6th August 1988 - 2
13th August 1988 - 1
20th August 1988 - 2
27th August 1988 - 2
3rd September 1988 - 1
10th September 1988 - 1
17th September 1988 - 1

The album had already gone to Number One in the UK on 29th August 1987 and spent a total of 101 weeks on the UK charts.

'Hysteria' remained in the Top 10 for almost all of 1988 - 48 weeks out of 52. In the four weeks it went outside the Top 10 it was at #11 for three weeks and #12 for one.

Due to the continued success of the singles 'Armageddon It' and 'Rocket' it also spent the first 11 weeks of 1989 in the Top 10.

In all a total of 77 weeks were spent in the Top 10 out of its total of 133 weeks on the chart. Over half of its chart run.

'Pour Some Sugar On Me' was also at Number Two on the Hot 100 chart on the same day.

The 'Hysteria' Singles (click to enlarge)

Phil Collen - 'Hysteria' Postcards from 'Work It Out' Single 1996

"Our most popular album to date."

"It was Mutt's idea to make a rock version of 'Thriller' - rock songs that were hit singles. We were fortunate enough to have seven strong singles from this record."

"Mutt Lange was very influential here. We seemed to be making a video every few weeks."

"We were in the top ten all over the world at one time or another."

Phil Collen - 27th July 2015 Interview Quote - Read More

"I do think Hysteria was a kind of a sparkling star on our career. You know, icing on the cake and all that. But I think this is the best thing we've done since then. It's called Def Leppard. It's really diverse."

Vivian Campbell - August 2014 Interview Quote - Read More

"I actually bought 'Hysteria' twice, I wore out the cassette I played it so often and then I bought one of those new fangled compact discs."

Buy 'Hysteria 30th Anniversary Edition' Online