This section looks at the 'Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad' UK single chart peak. The third of five hit singles from the 'Adrenalize' album.
"It's a silly love song thing about missing your girlfriend."
Def Leppard's classic single Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad reached Number 16 in the UK charts on this day in 1992.
The third single to be released from the Adrenalize album.
It was released on 31st August 1992 (not September as wrongly printed on past Discographies with UK singles).
It peaked at Number 16 in its third week on the chart having entered at 45 on the 12th September before going up to 34 a week later.
Three weeks were spent inside the Top 40.
This song followed on from second single 'Make Love Like A Man' which reached Number 12 in July and 'Let's Get Rocked' which had been the band's biggest UK hit to date reaching Number 2 in April.
The Shamen were at Number One on this day with their (obviously not about drugs) single 'Ebeneezer Goode'.
Def Leppard were sandwiched between Pearl Jam at 15 with 'Jeremy' and Suede at 17 with 'Metal Mickey'.
Read more about this song.
UK Singles Chart - 26th September 1992
- 01 - The Shamen - Ebeneezer Goode
- 02 - Dr. Alban - It's My Life
- 03 - Undercover - Baker Street
- 04 - Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer
- 05 - Brian May - Too Much Love Will Kill You
- 16 - Def Leppard - Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
1992 - Phil Collen/Rick Allen Interview Quotes
Phil - "I was in Australia writing and missing my girlfriend and writing lyrics and stuff. So I had all this music finished already and that was originally the verse. It was the first line in the verse and Mutt Lange said: "Wow, we should make this the chorus". And then that evolved and then Joe got involved in some of the lyrics and stuff and it turned out to be what it is."
Rick - "The video, we ended up making that in Soho in London. It was great actually it was a really good vibe. In this sort of old theatre. Hadn't been used for about 15 years but it was the perfect setting for the kind of video."
1992 - Phil Collen Interview Quotes
"It's a silly love song thing about missing your girlfriend. That's what it was about when I first wrote it. I was in Australia and my wife was in America somewhere. Then we changed it a bit. I wrote all the music, except for the bridge, which Mutt did."
Early 1990 - Joe Elliott Interview Quote (Album Update)
How many other songs are done? (apart from Tear It Down)
"Three. 'Tonight', 'Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)' and one tentatively called 'I've Never Wanted Something So Bad' ."
1992 - Joe Elliott Article/Interview Quotes
"'Heaven Is', 'Stand Up', 'Have You Ever' are all relationships between a man and a woman, but a more '90s way. The frustration thing always works well in lyrics. 'Have Your Ever Needed Someone So Bad' Somebody out there is going to say, "Yeah, I have". 'Make Love Like A Man' was Phil's idea, as was 'Have You Ever'."
March 1992 - Joe Elliott Interview CD Quotes
"The next song is a song called .Have Your Ever Needed Someone So Bad'. Which is definitely in the running as one of our longest ever titles. It's another - I wouldn't call it a ballad like 'Tonight'. It's more of a power ballad in the mode of something like Purple Rain really. It's just a two chord loping verse thing. Big old chorus harmonies."
"And it's nice that it's a song that I get the chance to really 'sing' because I'm not screaming my arse off trying to reach the notes. I can understand why (Robert) Plant kind of stopped doing that after Zepp too because it gets a bit boring being this kind of screeching hyena all the time. To do that is great. But to do it for ten songs is like really annoying and I can't really listen to it."
"It's nice to vary a little bit. We experimented a lot on the last album with changing keys and doing songs that were really awkward for a guitar to be in a certain - you know, like Pour Some Sugar On Me is in something like C-sharp. Which would be a lot easier if it was in A. But A is such a common key for a guitar that it basically limits your vocal range."
"So when we experimented on the last album of changing keys to suit the voice. It worked so well that we just took it for granted that we were gonna do it this time. That we'd have an idea for a song and we'd literally play it everywhere on the guitar and I would sing over the top of it until we found a range. That was a combination of comfortable and clarity. I could sing something lower but it would be too low like Tom Waits."
"So we do it where it's like, it's not such a struggle but it's like a great range. So it's a bit of a compromise. Sometimes they say 'Can you just go up one semi-tone and make life easier for me please on the guitar?' And I can do it, you know. But if it's go up like a fifth, it's like forget it!. I don't wanna sing it up there. It's too difficult!."
"So on this particular song, as on a couple of the others on the album, it's the verse is like low and whispery. And it builds up to a climax where you don't mind you know kind of busting your balls a little bit to get the high notes 'cause you're not doing it all the way through the song. You do it all the way through the song, you tend to get this Scanners effect and your head just bursts. And it's like uhhh time to go home I think!."
"But again apparently it could be a single. We just write these songs and people keep telling us that they're singles. We don't really think - we don't sit down and say 'Right this is - we gotta write a single' and just like try and copy every hit single that's ever been. It just comes out like that. You know it's not a conscious effort. We've always made a conscious effort to have songs that are - have got a commercial sound about them. But we don't actually try and write it like 'Well it's only got to have three chords' because that's what a hit single is. It's like whatever it is is whatever it is you know."
"But it works you know. It works. It's a good song. I like it a lot."
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