This section looks at the 'Let's Get Rocked' USA single chart peak. The first of five hits from the 'Adrenalize' album in the USA.
"The humour went over everyone’s heads like an airplane."
Def Leppard's classic single Let's Get Rocked peaked at Number 15 in the US singles chart on this day in 1992.
The first single from the Adrenalize album peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 on this day.
It entered at Number 27 before rising to 15 in its fifth week on the chart.
It spent five weeks inside the Top 20 and made the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles 1992 list at Number 98.
The single did not leave the Hot 100 chart until 8th August when it's last position was 93.
Two days later the band played their first US show since October 1988 in New York City at Madison Square Garden. A benefit with Bryan Adams and Richard Marx three days before starting their main US In The Round tour.
The single was released in March 1992 and spent a total of 18 weeks on the chart.
The song had reached Number 2 in the UK on 4th April 1992 becoming their biggest hit there to date.
Kriss Kross were at Number One with their single 'Jump'.
Another song co-written and produced by Mutt Lange was at Number 13 - 'Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven' by Bryan Adams.
Future Adrenalize tour support band Ugly Kid Joe were at Number 9 with their big hit 'Everything About You'.
US Singles Chart - 9th May 1992
- 01 - Kriss Kross - Jump
- 02 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
- 03 - Vanessa Williams - Save The Best For Last
- 04 - Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven
- 05 - En Vogue - My Lovin (You're Never Gonna Get It)
- 15 - Def Leppard - Let's Get Rocked - (Peak Position)
Song Trivia
The 'wolf whistle' in the song is actually done by Joe's then wife Karla Elliott as none of the band could do it as well as her.
Phil Collen - 2004 Best Of Sleeve Quote
"My son was two or three when it came out and he thought it was great. Maybe you had to be that age to appreciate it?."
Joe Elliott - 1992 Interview CD Quotes
"Right first song Let's Get Rocked. Let's Get Rocked is, and should be taken, with a very heavy pinch of humour."
"I think it's pretty obvious that we we'd been watching The Simpson's a lot. And we didn't wanna fall into the trap of because of what had happened to Steve, of writing more songs for the album of which Let's Get Rocked was one of them."
"We were six songs in. We were very happy with the six songs and we had four that needed either tarting up or writing."
"I think what we had. Out of the four. We wanted to put out a ten track record this time instead of a twelve track record."
"So we had the four basic ideas. We either had one and a half songs finished with like, you know, two and a half songs to write sort of thing."
".Let's Get Rocked was the last thing done. It was written in about two and a half days. Recorded in ten which for us is like phenomenally fast."
"And because this was all written after Steve had died it would have been very easy for us to kind of write a lot of songs about that experience and it would've sounded a bit morbid you know. And sort of like taking advantage of the situation."
"So we decided to do the complete opposite and instead of making like this heavy metal Leonard Cohen record. We went out there to try and make something that was a bit of fun."
"That went back to the humour of say some of the early Queen albums. Where they had that vaudeville sound. You know like Killer Queen or Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon with a bit of the humour of Glam Rock. Things like Slade."
"And as i say having watched The Simpson's the whole character of the lyric is all about a kid who basically is having one of those relationships that you tend to have with your father when you're a 16 or 17 years old. Where you won't take out the trash and you won't walk the dog and you won't mow the lawn."
"And it's just a kid that wants to go out and just rock and roll you know. And it's, as I've said before, it's very deep and meaningless."
"And we're quite of the fact that it is because I think that people like Sting and to a lesser extent Peter Gabriel and R.E.M and maybe Midnight Oil. That everything, well not everything, but they seem to be very. What's the word?."
"Environmentally aware. I think it's good to have an alternative to that. I mean obviously we don't want the planet to die either. And I guess everybody tries to use environmentally friendly products you know for either the hair spray or washing liquid you know. We don't have to sing about it."
"And I think it's nice to have an alternative. All these bands are relevant. I think they're good. I think R.E.M. stand for a very positive thing. As do Midnight Oil. As does Sting and his rainforest thing."
"And Geldof with Live Aid and all this kind of thing. It's very relevant. But so is Rockin' All Over The World and so is Tie Your Mother Down."
"And, you know, as far as we're concerned so is Let's Get Rocked. So we just put this little arrangement together which basically was just a complete vehicle for the voice 'cause there's like hardly anything going off on the verse."
"It's just me talk-singing in a very kind of Prince/Bolan-esque way the lyric about this kid that's like just wants to be a lazy pig."
"Just hang out reading Hustler, watching the Playboy channel and going to rock gigs. And things like that which I guess it's very Hollywood in its...in the way it could be taken. But it's actually just supposed to be very tongue in cheek and just some lazy kid you know."
"I mean I actually sing it in, it's sounds very Americanized the way it's been done. But that again is intentionally humorous in that respect. You can't sing the word dude in a Yorkshire accent."
"So it has to be done in a kind of a transatlantic accent. And again it's, I'm playing a character role. It's not necessarily me I'm just the guy that's singing it you know. You have to be a bit of an actor as well when you're singing and song."
"And you have to change your tack for different lyrics, different approach you know."
"It's the first single off the album and because of the nature of the song it really needs to be because it's supposed to be a bit of a humorous thing and jokes don't get better with repeating them."
"So it needs to kind of be out pretty early otherwise people might either miss the point or get tired of it you know."
Joe Elliott - 2004 Best Of Sleeve Quote
"The humour went over everyone’s heads like an airplane. I still believe if a white-man funk song like that had been done by Prince - and it’s not too far a stretch of the imagination - It would’ve been viewed completely differently. We’d just purged our souls of the death of Steve Clark with the song ‘White Lightning’. And we felt like doing something to lighten the atmosphere. It was escapism. What can I say? We used to eat at 6pm and watch ‘The Simpsons’... It must have rubbed off."
Joe Elliott - 1992 Interview Quote
"The first song released was the last completed - it was arranged and recorded in less than two weeks. It sounds like Def Leppard, but it's got a Prince-like approach to the verse, that kind of meter and arrangement. It's not going to win Grammy nominations, but it's fun."
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