The Def Leppard song used to mock Duran Duran
When Def Leppard was starting out, hair metal had yet to come into its own. Born in the same rock scene that birthed acts like Saxon and Iron Maiden, the group’s early days saw them mining the same kind of rock and roll that came from the dark side of the tracks, whether that was the gloom of Black Sabbath or the raw riffs of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Once acts like Van Halen gained traction by making songs that were more radio-friendly, the band began channelling their favourite acts from their childhood.
Across records like High N Dry and Pyromania, it’s clear that every member is wearing their influences on their sleeve. Sure, there may be a few nods to rock and roll heavyweights like AC/DC in their guitar riffs, but the melodies that Joe Elliott is singing are much more indebted to the golden age of glam rock, from early David Bowie to Mott the Hoople.
While the band became successful off the back of hits like ‘Photograph’ and ‘Foolin’, Elliott was given a proposition by their producer, Mutt Lange. Instead of making the logical artistic follow-up, the band set out to make Hysteria even bigger than before, practically writing a greatest hits album before they had made one.
Never ones to back down from a challenge, much of Hysteria would turn the band into gods of the hair metal scene, with songs like the title track and ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ still being the most celebrated hits from the time. Amid the hard rockers like ‘Armageddon It’ and ‘Gods of War’, Lange came in with a song that veered towards the spectrum of country music.
Structured as a guitar-infused ballad, ‘Love Bites’ would become one of Leppard’s biggest hits, showing the sensitive side of themselves and featuring the cleanest guitars ever heard on their records. When it came time to record the vocals, Elliott decided he would have some fun by mocking one of the most famous pop acts at the time.
Outside of the fixtures of hair metal, Duran Duran was becoming the staple pop band of the time, blending new wave, dance music, and pure pop into a collage on albums like Rio and Notorious. When they decided to go into ballad territory, Elliott recalled using a vocal technique that vocalist Simon Le Bon was known for.
When talking about his approach to the vocals in Classic Albums, Elliott said that the band would put little squeals at the end of every single syllable, explaining, “We used to call them the ‘Simon Le Bon’ bits because he used to squeal every line he sang. It’s a good country trick, because it’s a way of bringing across emotion.”
While the song may have had a few tongue-in-cheek jabs at the biggest pop band in the world, it wasn’t long until Def Leppard found themselves at the top as well, with over half of the track listing for Hysteria becoming hits and remaining fixtures of the band’s setlist to this day. Even though they had gotten their start playing raucous hard rock, it sometimes benefits to have a few pop tricks up one’s sleeve.
