Saturday, 22nd August 2020
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33 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA Album Enters The US Charts

Hysteria 1987.

Def Leppard's classic Hysteria album entered the US Billboard Top 200 chart on this day in 1987.

The album had been released on 3rd August 1987 and took just over three weeks to enter the Top 200 chart.

11 months later it would peak at Number One on 23rd July 1988 in its 48th week on the Billboard charts.

'Hysteria' entered the Billboard Top 200 chart on 22nd August 1987. The first of 133 weeks on the chart.

By the following week the album had entered the Top 10 at Number 4 and would stay inside the Top 10 for the last 18 weeks of the year.

More impressively '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.

By May 1990 it had sold over 10 million copies in the USA alone. 12 million by 1998.

The band were given a Diamond Award in March 1999 in recognition of it being one of the albums that had sold over 10 million copies in the USA.

Read some band member comments about this album and view the Lep History album release feature.


Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Visit the Album News section for more news on new music (based on band member quotes).


In August 2017 the album re-entered the US charts for a 134th week following the release of the 30th anniversary edition.

US Top 200 Chart - 22nd August 1987

  • 01 - Whitney Houston - Whitney
  • 02 - Whitesnake - Whitesnake
  • 03 - Heart - Bad Animals
  • 04 - LL Cool J - Bigger And Deffer
  • 05 - U2 - The Joshua Tree
  • 36 - Def Leppard - Hysteria (New Entry)

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."


Def Leppard 1987.

Read the full related 'Hysteria' album release story in the Lep History section.

This section will be expanded to include all major historical events and releases.




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