29 years ago today, Def Leppard released their album Adrenalize which was an instant hit. This was the first album without guitarist Steve Clark after his death in 1991 too. Instead of replacing him though, the band decided to record this album as a four-piece in Clark’s honour, with Phil Collen saying, “We had recorded demos on multitrack, I was sitting there with him when he played the original parts. I could relay that. But it was like playing along to a ghost.” Here are 6 more facts about the album you may not have known.

 

 

1) It is the last album to be categorized as ‘Glam Metal’ on top of the charts

It kept Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch off the top spot, but Nirvana’s Nevermind crept into the spotlight and challenged what rock could be.

 

 

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2) It was Def Leppard’s last album to get large-scale mainstream success

Before the musical revolution of the early ‘90s, Adrenalize topped the U.S. and U.K. charts and sold more than three million copies in the U.S. during its first two months on sale. After this album, Def Leppard explored other musical avenues.

 

 

3) Def Leppard survived because of Steve Clark

It could have destroyed them when they learned of the unexpected death of “Riff-master” Steve Clark at the age of 30. However, it was the band’s belief that Clark would have wanted them to go on playing without him. His wild spirit is what kept Def Leppard from giving up.

 

4) Steve Clark has writing credits on 6 of the 10 songs on the album

He has writing credits for ‘Heaven Is’ , ‘Make Love Like a Man’ , ‘Tonight’, ‘Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)’, ‘I Wanna Touch U’, and ‘Tear It Down’.

 

5) There were 2 bonus tracks with the Japan album release

‘Miss You in a Heartbeat (Electric version)’ and ‘She’s Too Tough’ were originally these bonus tracks.

 

6) Bart Simpson was the inspiration for ‘Let’s Get Rocked’

Singer Joe Elliott admitted once that this song is linked to Bart Simpson, more specifically about the mischievous little yellow prankster disobeying his parents, something that Elliott could relate to growing up himself.

 

 

Happy Birthday to Adrenalize and rock on!