Monday, 29th October 2018
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23 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD At Number One In Irish Album/Single Charts

Vault Greatest Hits 1995.

Def Leppard's Vault Greatest Hits album entered the Irish chart at Number One on this day in 1995.

The album reaching Number One meant that the band were at the top of both the album and singles charts.

A feat that not even Irish superstars U2 had achieved as noted by Joe in the liner notes for the 'Best Of Def Leppard' album in 2004.

'When Love & hate Collide' was currently at Number One in the singles chart having reached that peak a few days earlier on 26th October.

Their first and only Number One single in the country. 'Vault' would go on to spend 9 weeks on the album chart and fell to Number Two in week two.

'WLAHC' spent nine weeks on the chart on its initial run before re-entering for a tenth week.

Interestingly their sixth Top 10 single in Ireland which is more than the USA (4) and the UK (3).

This followed on from the song becoming their biggest ever hit in the UK by reaching Number Two on 21st October.

The single was released in the UK/Ireland on 2nd October on 2 CD singles.

The Vault Greatest Hits album followed on 23rd October alongside the 3 Continents In One Day event. Ireland was one of the first countries in which the album charted and where many of the songs from 'Hysteria' onwards were recorded.

Irish Album Chart - 29th October 1995

  • 01 - Def Leppard - Vault Greatest Hits 1980-1995 - (New Entry)
  • 02 - Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory
  • 03 - Simply Red - Life
  • 04 - Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness
  • 05 - Brendan Keeley - I'll Always Be Lonely

Irish Singles Chart - 26th October 1995

  • 01 - Def Leppard - When Love & hate Collide

Joe Elliott - June 2005 Quote

"Steve was in rehab so Sav and I continued writing songs and between us it was born. It was a home-made single: Stevie Lange’s backing vocals were lifted from the original demo. But it became a number one single for us in Ireland. Simultaneously with ‘Vault’. I don’t think U2 even achieved topping the single and albums chart there at the same time. What an honour."

Joe Elliott - October 1995 Interview Quotes

"When Love & Hate Collide is kind of like our encore, our "Thank you and goodnight" to that sound. It's perfect for the Greatest Hits album which is older material. It's a brand new recording but it was written in 1990. It lost the toss with 'Have You You Ever Needed Someone So Bad' because we didn't want two ballads on Adrenalize."

"We were going to save it for the next record not knowing that by the time we got started on the next record we wouldn't want to do that kind of song. It was a moment in time, a great idea, we had the song ready to go for the Greatest Hits album and it tied up a lot of loose ends."

When Love And Hate Collide 1995.

October 1995 Interview Quotes

Joe - "It's the perfect time to do it as far as we're concerned. You know looking at our career overall. We've got a brand new album that's nearly finished coming out in the Spring of next year. And it is a slightly different sound to anything we've done in the past."

Joe - "To have done a Greatest Hits after that record I think would have been a bit opening up the 80s again. And it's something that you know this is a chapter that we think it needs closing off."

Sav on WLAHC - "You hope that that's gonna become a hit as well. I mean it would look a bit out of place if it didn't. But it seems to be doing well. So I mean we're fortunate in that respect. But you need - we wanted to put a new song out there just to actually let people know what is happening. It's basically a good advertisement for the album you know. If the single does well it's like it's a brand new track as well as far as people as concerned."

Joe - "All it's done really is maybe put Slang back two, two/three months back and the way that I would justify that is Def Leppard are putting two albums out in seven or eight months which is a change from one every four years."

Joe - "We just shot a video for When Love & Hate Collide which other than being on your feet for 12 hours which gets a bit tiring. We were literally only there for 12 hours."

Vivian Campbell 1995 Interview Quote

"I'll be honest, when I first heard that there was going to be a greatest hits album before Slang, I thought, "Oh bollocks!". But then, if you think about it, it's the perfect time for Def Leppard to do a hits album because we want the new record to be perceived as something new, so the greatest hits is like closing a chapter. And if the greatest hits is successful, it'll provide a good springboard to release the new album."


Related News - 14 Years Ago BEST OF DEF LEPPARD Album/DVD Released

Related News - 23 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Release VAULT Album/Set World Record

Related News - 23 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's When Love And Hate Collide At #2 In UK

Related News - 25 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's RETRO-ACTIVE Album At Number 6 In UK

Related News - 3 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's DANGEROUS Single Premiered/Released

Related News - 34 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's PYROMANIA Album Certified 6xPlatinum In USA


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