Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits by Def Leppard (CD, Oct-1995, Mercury)

I love Def Leppard.....one of the best bands to come out of the UK rock scene. They have stood the test of time releasing hit after hit, and this album is a testament to that!! Taking 15 hits from over 10 years in the business - the plethora of which come from their two biggest albums - Pyromania and the superb must have Hysteria!
Def Leppard are an interesting band....part rock, part metal with a catchiness that could even be deemed to have a slight pop edge; either way, they have a certain degree of commercialization about them that makes you want to listen again and again!! The lyrics they employ tend to be cheesy at best though they have some tracks that take it a bit deeper and more personal to reflect different aspects of the bands history including losing a bandmates a drug addiction - but all their songs simply rock!!
On this album it is hard to know what to single out...so lets start at the beginning with Pour Some Sugar on Me - heavily played on many a radio station even today and amongst mnay other credits - the anthem of strippers everywhere - this song is fantastic!! Taken from the multiplatinum Hysteria, its lyrics are sexist, cheap but boy do they work!! It rocks!! Photograph follows, and though never a favorite of mine, it certainly deserves a place on this compilation. Love Bites - a rock ballad is another great track as are the other Hysteria entries on this album - Rocket and Animal! Lets get Rocked is silly and cheesy....but I do like it - from Adrenalize and Rock of Ages is another stellar offering !! There is a good combination of catchy rock and ballads such as Have you Ever Needed someone so Bad!!
This is a great album...I may have these tracks and others on their albums...but it is so great to have them all here in one place to remind us what a great and they are!!

1. POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME
2. PHOTOGRAPH
3. LOVE BITES
4. LETS GET ROCKED
5. TWO STEPS BEHIND
6. ANIMAL
7. FOOLIN
8. ROCKET
9. WHEN LOVE N HATE COLLIDE
10.ARMAGEDDON IT
11.HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED SOMEONE SO BAD
12.ROCK OF AGES
13.HYSTERIA
14.MISS YOU IN A HEARTBEAT
15.BRINGING ON A HEARTBREAK

I could think of a couple of other songs that deserve to be on there and couple to be taken off. But all in all it was still not a bad Greatest Hits. #13 shouldn't be there, but I understand it was a title. I think they could have put a killer one together, but they went with the hits. 4 stars.

Greetings...my name is Floyd Turtle. I'm confined to a wheelchair. I first met Def Leppard, in 1980, when they were on their FIRST World Tour of the HIGH AND DRY album. I couldn't get backstage in San Francisco...so I started talking to roadies who were outside, loading up the groups' equipment. One of them told me that the fellow in the silver jacket (at the top of some steps) was their manager. With pen and cassette inserts in hand, I called to him and he came down the concert steps and I asked him if I could get their autographs. He said, "wait here" and he came back in about 15 minutes, with the inserts signed by all of the band members...Joe Elliott, Richard Allen, Peter Willis and Rick Savage. I then asked the manager if I could meet them. He replied that they were busy, getting ready to board their bus to go to another venue in the San Francisco Bay Area. I asked him which (of the many) busses they would be getting on...and he pointed to a bus and gave me permission to wait by it. As soon as they rushed toward the bus, I held out my hand and shook hands with each of them. I asked Joe Elliott where they were headed next, and he said, Santa Cruz. I asked him if I could come to the concert and he said "sure" and told a girl to put my name on the guest list, plus 2...meaning a total of 3 backstage passes. The next night, I banged on the
backstage door and was let inside with two girls who came with me.
They rocked my world and after the concert, while backstage, a girl approached me with a shopping bag full of squirt guns...and asked me if I wanted one. I declined, but all of the band members took one or two guns and had a great squirt gun fight. You must remember, that back in 1980, they were playful teenagers and that was their way of cooling off, after 90 minutes of rocking hard.
Richard Allen came out to my van...but that was short-lived as some fans saw him
in my van, and he decided to go back in the concert, before he got mobbed. He did have a chance to give me his 'phone number and address in Drunfeld, England.
I called Richard Allen, in Drunfeld, 26 DEC 1984 and he told me that they were working on the Hysteria album and that he was "really tired". Six days later, we got the news that he rolled his 1984 Corvette and lost his left arm. The world was devistated. I had sent Richard a Christmas card and he got it the day
he went home from the hospital. He read it and thought about me and said to himself that 'Floyd is in a wheelchair, yet it doesn't stop him from doing what he wants'...so he decided, then-and-there that he wasn't going to give up and h a custom-made set of drums (kit) built. As we all know...Def Leppard is still rocking the world, 22 years later.
Their music is legendary. I've met AC/DC, The Pretenders, Ronnie James Dio, Ratt, Krokus, Blue Oyster Cult, Lita Ford, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Annie Lennox, Mahogany Rush, Pat Benatar, The Everly Brothers and countless other groups...but Def Leppard is my favorite. If I ever wrote a book about all the great groups that I've met, you can bet that the best chapter would be about these wonderful guys. They are the most down-to-earth rockers on the planet. Vault is the-best-of-their-best. Buy it...you'll love each and every song. You
can't just listen to it once. Most of their songs tend to "hit home" with each and every one of us. The song "Photograph" was written about Marilyn Monroe. I'm sure you'll enjoy this CD immensely.

If you love the eighties and early nineties rock, this cd is for you!Def leppard is definitely one of the greatest rock groups ever, and this cd contains some of their greatest hits!! This year I had the opportunity to take my sixteen year old, hip hop music loving son to see a Def Leppard concert, in which he thought he would recognize a few of the songs from the radio that I happen to listen to.He not only rocked as hard as the rest of us die hard fans, but hasn't stopped listening to the vault cd I purchased from ebay since the concert!!He and I are both thrilled that most of the songs they played at the concert is on this very cd!!!(please don't tell his friends HA, HA ,HA)!!! It has been in my car cd player for at least a month and it's the first thing you hear as I start the car!!! It was a great purchase,that has me shopping for more!!!

I love Def Leppard song's! If your looking to find alot of there Best Hits like: Pour Sugar on me, Have you Ever needed someone so bad,or Love Bites! This is the cd to buy! Believe me you wont be disappointed!