Def Leppard News - 28 Years Ago Def Leppard's Armageddon It At Number 3 In The USA

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28 Years Ago Def Leppard's Armageddon It At Number 3 In The USA

Armageddon It 1989.

Def Leppard's classic single Armageddon It reached Number Three on the Billboard Top 200 chart on this day in 1989.

The single was the sixth to be released from the 'Hysteria' album in the USA and hit Number 3 on this day in 1989.

The third Top Three hit in a row and fourth Top Ten single from the album.

The song entered the Top Ten on 7th January having jumped from 12 to 9.

It would go on to spend five weeks in the Top Ten at positions - 9, 5, 3, 3 and 6 reaching its peak of #3 on 21st January 1989.

The last time the band would enter the US Hot 100 Top Ten. The closest they would come to this again would be with 'Two Steps Behind' when it got to #12 in October 1993.

In all the single spent 19 weeks on the Hot 100 chart.

On the same day the 'Hysteria' album was at Number 5 on the Top 200 chart with Bon Jovi at Number 4, Poison at Number 3 and Guns N' Roses at Number 2 and Number 10.

The 'Historia' video collection was also at Number One on this day on the Top Music Video Cassettes chart (in its 25th week).

Phil Collins was at Number One in this week with his single 'Two Hearts'.

Other rock artists inside the Top 40 that week were Poison (6), White Lion (9), Bon Jovi (11), Joan Jett (19) and Guns N' Roses (38).

The Sales chart figures shown in this picture have the actual Hot 100 positions on the right beside the artist name.

US Hot 100 Chart - 21st January 1989

01 - Phil Collins - Two Hearts
02 - Taylor Dayne - Don't Rush Me
03 - Def Leppard - Armageddon It - (Peak Position)
04 - Bobby Brown - My Prerogative
05 - Sheriff - When I'm With You

Phil Collen - 2004 Best Of Sleeve Quote

"The original version was something that Joe, Sav, Steve, Mutt and myself came up with in Dublin. A very fun song Indeed - kinda like T. Rex meeting Eddie Cochran. With huge backing vocals."

Joe Elliott - 2004 Best Of Sleeve Quote

"Nobody recalls who came up with the title. But I’m not to blame!. The lyric on the chorus was something that we sang to fill in the spaces. When the time came to change it. We’d left it too long. We tried a billion other lyrics but nothing else fitted. Sav mentioned it was similar to a ZZ Top song. But by then nobody cared."

Def Leppard Armageddon It - Band Quotes

Phil Collen - "Tongue in cheek. T. Rex meets Eddie Cochran with backing vocals."

Phil Collen - "A fun song to do live. It's kind of like T. Rex's "Bang a Gong." A good party song. It never gets boring to play and it translates well to acoustic."

Joe Elliott - "Armageddon It was the last one. Mutt and I were only ones in the studio. And as soon as I finished doing the last bit of that song, it wasn't so much a feeling of anti-climax as it was an inner sense of being totally relieved. I didn't jump up and down."

"We didn't hug each other and drink tons of champagne. It was more like 'Oh we're finished, man. This is great.' We shook hands, sat down, looked at each other and we both let out a big sigh."

Def Leppard - Armageddon It Single Page
Def Leppard - Hysteria Album Section
Related News - 20th January 2017
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