| Pyromania is the third studio album by British rock band Def Leppard, released in 1983. It broke the band across North America and in Japan, and would sell over 10 million copies in the US alone. It featured new guitarist Phil Collen and was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.
The album was partially recorded with original guitarist Pete Willis, whose rhythm guitar tracks and backing vocals appear on all songs. Midway through the recording sessions, Willis was fired for excessive alcohol abuse and replaced by Phil Collen, who contributed guitar solos and other parts that had not yet been recorded by Willis. On the original LP release, Willis is visible in the background of the photograph of singer Joe Elliott, while Collen is given his own personal photo as the new full-time member of the group.
The album is noteworthy for Lange's intensive production process. During his tenure as guest moderator on audiophile website Gearslutz.com, the album's engineer Mike Shipley noted the following in a thread on the album's production:
"The tape was constantly going over the heads 20 hours a day for 13 months to the point where it started to shed so bad huge chunks of the oxide started to literally fall off the tape. I had to make copies of the multi track and chop in small pieces as the tape started to deteriorate...... somewhat nerve wracking .... but using the full transfer always sounded muddy so we kept going back to the original master or rather what was left of it , and trying to finish before it totally disitegrated!!!!! "
Three songs from Pyromania, "Photograph", "Rock of Ages", and "Foolin'", became Top 40 singles in the US, benefiting from their popularity on the 24-hour music channel MTV.A guest musician on the album is Thomas Dolby, best known for the eighties pop standard "She Blinded Me with Science". For contractual reasons, Dolby was credited on the album sleeve under the pseudonym Booker T. Boffin.
The song "Rock! Rock! Till You Drop" is featured in the 2001 movie Rock Star. In 2004, it was ranked 384 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
A Deluxe Edition of Pyromania was released on June 8th, 2009, includes a digitally remastered version of the album, plus a live Bonus CD "Live LA Forum - September 11th 1983".
In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at number 35 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s" Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply. |
