Pour Some Sugar On Me - Remastered 2017

There are a mash-up of influences on this song, which is typical of Def Leppard, whose frontman Joe Elliott told Songfacts, "Everything I've ever listened to seeps in." Joe can't always identify the specific influences, but the first record he bought was "Sugar, Sugar," which was a huge hit for the cartoon band The Archies in 1969. Near the end of that song, there is a line that goes "Pour a little sugar on me, baby," which Elliott says was at least subconscious inspiration for this song. The lyrics started out as phonetic sounds to fit the music, which they refined later into actual words. Joe says that this was done in the style of "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" by T. Rex, which contains vaguely lascivious lyrics that don't make any sense ("a hubcap, diamond star halo"?) but sound great.

The lyrics are clearly about sex - Elliott says "Pour Some Sugar On Me" is "the metaphor for whatever sexual preference you enjoy" - but they are shrouded in enough metaphors to make the song safe for radio and MTV. Def Leppard, with Mutt Lange producing, were one of the best-selling bands of the '80s, succeeding with a formula of polished songs perfect for pop radio but with enough rock swagger to keep guys interested - which is where lyrics about sex and drums and rock and roll come in. The massive commercial success for the band did not translate into credibility, but songwriters tend to write about life experiences, and lead singer Joe Elliott had no interest in writing about an assembly line. He explained to Q magazine in 1988: "I used to work on the treadmill making knives and forks; it don't cross over into a lyric. There's nothing in Sheffield (England) to write songs about - you can't write, 'This is Steel City!' and mean it. It's come across like bloody heavy metal Hovis ad! It's a great place with great people, but in my upbringing there was a lack of community spirit. I'm an only child; I found my own entertainment. The whole idea of being in a band is to escape boredom, so you create escapism."

Hysteria was the follow-up to Def Leppard's 1983 album Pyromania, which was also a huge hit. Both albums were produced by Mutt Lange, who is known as a perfectionist in the studio. Hysteria was also delayed because drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a car accident in 1984. He had to learn to play with one arm.