This section looks at the 'Make Love Like A Man' UK single release. The second of five singles to be taken from the 'Adrenalize' album.
"It's not really meant to be controversial it's just a bit of fun."
Def Leppard released their classic Make Love Like A Man single on this day in 1992 in the UK.
The second single to be released from the Adrenalize album.
It was released on 15th June 1992 reaching Number 12 and spending five weeks on the UK chart.
The song was well received by fans at the time but is now not considered to be one of their finest moments. A sentiment shared by Joe - read his quote below from a 2014 interview.
The CD single release featured three extra tracks - 'Miss You In A Heartbeat', 'Action' and 'Two Steps Behind'. All of these were later re worked and ended up as the three singles from the 1993 'Retro-Active' album.
'Two Steps Behind' was the first ever all acoustic song to be recorded and released by the band.
They performed 'Make Love Like A Man' on BBC TV show Top Of The Pops just ahead of the UK tour in June.
It made it's live debut on 19th May 1992 in Madrid, Spain during the opening show of the 13-Day club tour of Europe.
1992 - Phil Collen Interview Quote
"It's really tongue in cheek. When I first suggested it to Mutt and Joe, I said, 'We'll change the lyrics later on,' and they were like, 'No, no, no, that sounds great - we can't change it.' So we left it like that. It's not meant to be serious, and it's not about any of us."
7" Single Band Message
"Single #2 from Adrenalize - 'Make Love Like A Man' is our tongue-in-cheek look at a significant facet of human existence, while the 2nd track 'Miss You in a Heartbeat' is a Phil Collen composition originally recorded by Paul Rodgers' group, The Law. For 2 additional Def Leppard gems."
"check out the CD and 12" and have a really good time!."
CD/12" Single Band Message
"Single #2 from Adrenalize - 'Make Love Like A Man' is our tongue-in-cheek look at a significant facet of human existence. Take Note! Meanwhile, we've got a couple more unreleased tracks for you. 'Miss You in a Heartbeat' is a Phil Collen song of somewhat recent vintage - first recorded by Paul Rodgers' group, The Law. 'Two Steps Behind' is an Elliott composition performed totally acoustically - bass, 2 guitars and voice. Our first recorded acoustic performance!"
"And finally, a version of a song by a group Joe really wishes he could've been in - 'Action' by Sweet. For those too young to remember, go listen to Sweet's Greatest Hits - a revelation - and for those who remember the original, let me say that in our efforts to duplicate every part recorded by messrs, Connolly, Priest, Scott and Tucker, we discovered some very interesting bits...don't worry, guys, we won't let on."
Joe Elliott - 1992 Interview CD Quotes
"Third song is a song called Make Lov Like A Man."
"Which again for all the feminists that would get offended, please don't it's only a bit of a, you know, a bit of a laugh."
"And Phil came up with the initial riff and hook."
"And he said like "You know I'm not sure about this, I think we might offend a fe people ya know. it's like Make Love Like A Man."."
"And I think it was me and Mutt looked at him like obviously, get a sense of humour come on."
"People have really gotta pick up on the fact that it's tongue in cheek."
"Who's tongue in who's cheek I don't know."
"But it's a very positive thing."
"It's like 'Women' off the last album."
"We thought a few people might think it was sexist, but it was actually putting a woman on a peddlestall to be quite honest and saying how wonderful they are you know."
"Which is basically what everybody in the band thinks about women, most of the time."
"And the same thing with Make Love Like A Man."
"It's the friendly aggression of getting your partner and throwing her down on the mattress."
"Or her throwing you down on the mattress if you're lucky."
"Again it's just a humour thing you know."
"We didn't wanna get stuck in that kind of ohh they're all miserable mode."
"So we like to dance round a little bit of controversy I'd guess you'd call it."
"But it's not really meant to be controversial it's just a bit of fun."
April 2014 - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes
A song you wouldn't want to sing live again?
"Make Love Like A Man I think."
I love that song!
"Nah I don't. I do not love it. I tolerate it, I tolerate it. I don't know it just, it just falls short. I think the irony that we tried to impress upon it didn't quite register. To me it's just a notch too stupid. Occasionally when you're in a great mood they all work. When you go on stage and everything's fired up they all work. But on the night's where you like, you're really kind of tired and truth be known you just wish you could skip past it to the next one. It's the only song that I ever really think bite that. But you've gotta have one I mean everybody's got one I'm sure. I mean Robert Plant refuses to do Stairway To Heaven and you know that's a much better song."
"No, no it's not like it's awful. It's just you asked me which is my least favourite - it's not my least favourite song. There's other songs that we've recorded that I really don't like. But we don't do them live."
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