Def Leppard News - 31 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA Album 9xPlatinum In USA

Saturday, 4th January 2020

31 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA Album 9xPlatinum In USA

Def Leppard 1987

Def Leppard's classic Hysteria album was certified 9 times platinum in the USA on this day in 1989.

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 replacing Van Halen's 'OU812'.

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

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. Just ahead of reaching the top spot it was certified for 5 million sales on 13th July 1988 and was at Number 2 in the same week.

It was certified 9 times platinum on 4th January 1989 having gone 8 times platinum in late November 1988.

By May 1990 it had sold over 10 million copies in the USA alone and by August 1998 reached over 12 million sales there and an estimated 20 million worldwide.

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.

August 2017 marked the 30th anniversary of the band's most successful and best known album.

Hysteria 1987.

Hysteria Album - USA Certification

4th January 1989 - 9x Platinum - (9 Million Album Sales)

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 2019.