Songoftheday 10/6/15 - A wild ride over stony ground, such a lust for life the circus comes to town...

"Animal" - Def Leppard
from the album Hysteria (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day comes from the British pop-metal band Def Leppard, whose third album Pyromania became the first big success of the new heavy metal era, selling over ten million copies and spinning off three top-40 pop hits with "Photograph", "Rock Of Ages", and "Foolin". After touring behind the album, the band were set to record their next release when drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in an automobile accident on New Years Eve of 1984. Instead of replacing him, Allen learned to drum with his feet and one arm using a new kit, and a full five years after the release of Pyromania the band re-emerged with Hysteria. Slickly produced again by "Mutt" Lange, the record actually got off to a rather slow start, with the first single "Women" stalled on the American pop chart way down at #80 (it did climb to #7 on Billboard's Rock radio chart). Although that darker track harkened back to their previous work, their next single, "Animal", was a chunk of shiny, bright family-friendly metal, the song took years to complete and has the Mutt Lange touch that defined the band in the 80s. The video was shot at a traveling circus....

"Animal" became the band's third top-20 pop hit in America in December of 1987, while climbing to #5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally, where this song was the first to be released as a single from the album, the song was their first top-40 hit in their native UK at #6, while reaching the top-10 in Ireland (#3) and New Zealand (#8).

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...and here's the band on their tour behind the album in 1988...

...and an "unplugged" version in a local pub...

...and lastly live in 2011 in Ireland...

Up tomorrow: Aussie new-wavers request your presence this evening.