This was the last Def Leppard album to feature original guitarist Pete Willis. He co-wrote four songs on the album, and he recorded rhythm guitar tracks on all of the album's songs. However, before the band finished recording the album, they kicked Willis out of the band for alcohol abuse -- which I always find a little ironic when hard rock and metal bands in the '80s booted members for drinking too much, since they were all partying their balls off. Willis was replaced by Phil Collen, who added guitar solos and some additional guitar parts to the songs. Collen, of course, has been in the band since then.
Pyromania reached #2 on the Billboard album chart, kept out of the #1 spot by Michael Jackson's Thriller, which prevented Pyromania from becoming the first hair band album to reach #1 -- a feat that Quiet Riot would achieve in November 1983. The album featured the band's first three Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Photograph" (#12), "Rock of Ages" (#16), and "Foolin'" (#28). The first two also hit #1 on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart, while "Foolin'" and "Too Late For Love" were both Top 10 songs on that chart. Pyromania sold about 100,000 copies each week for most of 1983, and it was eventually certified diamond in the U.S. Their follow-up, 1987's Hysteria, was also certified diamond, making Def Leppard the only band that released two diamond-selling studio albums in the '80s.
The video from Pyromania I'm going with is the first song on the album, "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)," which was never released as a single, but has remained a fan favorite over the years. It's a driving rock song with great riffs and an arena-ready chorus. The video was shot in 1984 in Japan during the Pyromania tour. As you can see, Rick Allen still had two arms at this point, as the car accident that claimed his left arm would happen on New Year's Eve that year.
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