WCSX Classic Cuts : Animal
WCSX Classic Cuts
Def Leppard: “Animal”
The Hook: It means a lot to them because it was their first British Top 10 single.
Album: Hysteria
Year: 1987
Writers: Joe Elliott, Steve Clark, Phil Collen, Rick Savage and Robert John “Mutt” Lange
Stats: Peaked at number-five on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks chart and number-19 on the Hot 100 singles chart.
Background: Def Leppard had enormous success in the U.S. beginning with “Photograph” in 1983. But they didn’t even get close to a Top 10 single at home in Britain until four years later, when “Animal” reached number-six there. Guitarist Phil Collen talks about what that meant to them.
Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen on what “Animal” becoming their first British Top 10 single meant to them. OC:…sold out. :24
“It was actually a big deal, because, obviously, we’re from there, and we were totally ignored. But I can understand why. The music we do is really based on American music. We sing with an American accent. Mick Jagger sings with an American accent because he learned from blues singers — that’s what you do — and it was an American art form. I can totally get that, why in England they weren’t getting it. Because it sounded very much like an American band they thought we’d sold out.”
