Songoftheday 3/16/19 - I believe that there's something deep inside, that shouldn't be from time to time..
from the album Retro Active (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
Today's song of the day comes from the biggest British pop-metal band ever, Def Leppard, who had dialed it back in the fall of 1993 with the acoustic "Two Steps Behind" from the Last Action Hero movie, which climbed into the pop top 20 in America. A second release, the dark metal of the "Desert Song", made it to #12 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, but failed to reach the pop or singles charts anywhere else. For the third offering from Retro Active, the boys went back to a softer sound with the ballad "Miss You In A Heartbeat". Written by band guitarist Phil Collen, it originally was intended and recorded by the rock supergroup the Law featuring Bad Company's Paul Rodgers and the Who's Kenny Jones. Their single, put out in 1991, went to #38 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart...
For Def Leppard, they included it in their odds-n-sods collection, but with the success of "Two Steps Behind", it was a natural to put this out as well...
"Miss You In A Heartbeat" became Def Leppard's fifteen and so far last top-40 pop hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in January of 1994. Internationally, the song was an even bigger hit up north, climbing to #19 in Canada. A fourth single, a cover of glam rock band Sweet's "Action", became a moderately successful hit in the UK (#14) and Ireland (#19).
The following year, the band released their first greatest hits set, Vault, which included a new song, "When Love & Hate Collide". That power-ballad stalled down at #58 in the U.S. (their final Hot 100 hit to date), the song was huge in Britain, matching their single "Let's Get Rocked" as their highest-charting hit at #2. In 1995, Def Leppard returned with a darker, new album, Slang. The set had no success in pop radio and peaked at #14 on the American albums chart, though single "Work It Out" went to #6 on the Mainstream Rock radio list. Four years later, they reunited with producer Robert "Mutt" Lange for their Euphoria project, and from that three single reached the rock radio tally, with "Promises" spending three weeks at #1 there and just missing the pop Hot 100, "bubbling under" at #102.
The first Leppard record from the new millenium, X, was even lesser received, with lead single "Now" stopping at #26 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart, but did manage to spend their first week on the Adult Top-40 radio format list. And it was a top-40 hit in their native Britain at #23, as well as track "Long, Long Way To Go" (UK #40), which so far is their most recent charting hit in the country. Also, "Four Letter Word" is their latest rock radio hit in America at #30. With another hits set, Rock Of Ages, and a cover of the Badfinger classic "No Matter What" was a more sizable Adult-top 40 hit, spending 21 weeks on the list and peaking at #24. They have continued to release albums, but it's been a sort of mess, as the band was one of the last hold-outs in the digital age to have their work on iTunes and the like, and then battles with the record company had only their recent live versions appear until the last couple of years when finally streaming came to Def Leppard. Their most recent album, the indie self-titled release, came out in 2015, and yet another hits set arrived last year.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
And here's the band on Unplugged and Unshaved with Collen singing "Miss You In A Heartbeat"...
And finally, the "electric" version of the song...
Up tomorrow: A grunge band from Seattle make the bigtime with a family member.
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