This section looks at the 'When Love & Hate Collide' UK single chart peak. The biggest UK hit single of the band's career.
"When Love & Hate Collide is kind of like our encore."
Def Leppard's classic single When Love & Hate Collide reached Number 2 in the UK charts on this day in 1995.
In doing so it became the band's biggest ever UK hit single and the best selling.
The song was released on 2nd October ahead of the Vault Greatest Hits 1980-1995 album.
Its success resulted in two appearances on the legendary music show Top Of The Pops.
The song was prevented from reaching Number One by Simply Red's hit Fairground. A song that was in the midst of a four week run at Number One.
The song spent one week at Number 2 on 15th October. In all it had a five week run in the Top 10 having entered at Number 7.
The first six weeks of its 10 week run on the Top 100 chart were spent inside the Top 10. 8 of the 10 weeks were in the Top 40 meaning it easily out performed 'Let's Get Rocked'. The previous biggest hit the band had enjoyed in the UK (Number 2 in 1992). 'Animal' was their only other Top 10 hit reaching Number 6 in 1987.
Later in the same month the song would reach Number One in Ireland.
Def Leppard 1999
On the same day it was also in its second week at Number One on the Rock chart where it would spend 6 weeks at the top and 28 weeks in all. It entered at #1 on 14th October when it debuted on the main chart at #7. The first four weeks were spent at the top and it would return there in both December and January 1996.
The song was written by Joe Elliott and Rick Savage for the Adrenalize album. They demoed the song at Sav's house in Ireland during 1990. This demo recording was released as part of the UK 2CD single set. It featured the last ever recorded guitar solo by the late Steve Clark.
Mutt Lange's ex-wife Stevie Lange sang background vocals on the chorus. Her original vocals from that demo were used on the finished version recorded in 1995 when the band took a break from making Slang to finish off this song and promote 'Vault' with a two month acoustic promo tour.
Simply Red were at Number One on this day with their single 'Fairground'.
Other rock artists in the chart this week were Bon Jovi (22) and Red Hot Chili Peppers (29).
A Mutt Lange co-written/produced song called 'Can I Touch You...There?' was at Number 34 for Michael Bolton.
UK Singles Chart - 21st October 1995
- 01 - Simply Red - Fairground
- 02 - Def Leppard - When Love & Hate Collide - (Peak Position)
- 03 - Smokie (ft. Roy Chubby Brown) - Who the F**k Is Alice?
- 04 - Shaggy - Boombastic
- 05 - Eternal - Power Of A Woman
UK Rock Singles Chart - 21st October 1995
- 01 - Def Leppard - When Love & Hate Collide - (Peak Position/Second week of 6)
- 02 - Bon Jovi - Something For The Pain
- 03 - Iron Maiden - Man On The Edge
- 04 - Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains
- 05 - Paradise Lost - Forever Failure
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."
Def Leppard 1999
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."
Phil Collen - June 2005 Quote
"You can have too many ballads. We left ‘When Love & Hate Collide’ off ‘Adrenalize’ because we already had ‘Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad’. We recorded it in two weeks. Which was pretty good for us."
Vivian Campbell - June 2005 Quote
"The record company were looking for a syrupy-sounding single for a greatest hits album. But we were working on ‘Slang’. At the time and had nothing at all in that vein. Joe and Sav had written ‘When Love & Hate Collide’ years previously. They had a dodgy demo of it. The suits at the label really loved it. So we broke from the production of ‘Slang‘ and concentrated on making it an old-school Leppard production number."
Def Leppard 1999
When Live & Hate Collide - 1995 UK Press Release Quotes
"Def Leppard - When Love & Hate Collide - Release Date - 2nd October 1995."
"A brand new single from Sheffield's biggest which is taken from their forthcoming Greatest Hits album "VAULT" release at the end of October."
"They will be in the UK for promo later this month and then back to the USA where they are completing their 7th album due for release early next year."
"Def have sold over 100 million albums worldwide."
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