With new album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge out now, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott chooses his essential Leppard tracks, from Photograph and Promises to new song Love

In this Def Leppard interview, vocalist Joe Elliott chooses his essential tracks from both new Def Leppard album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and the band's extensive back catalogue.

Joe Elliott's Essential Def Leppard Songs

Photograph

From: Pyromania

Joe: “Because for the kind of music we make, it is the classic pop song. It’s got all the right bits to it – it’s got a good storyline, it’s got great heart behind it, great melodies, brilliant guitars and it’s all wrapped up in about three and a half minutes, which all the best songs are. We took a leaf out of the Beatles’ and the Stones’ book and kept it short.”

Promises

From: Euphoria

Joe: “Again it’s another classic Leps song – it’s got melodies, it’s got all the arrangements and all the subtleties and dynamics. Dynamics is a word that gets used less and less these days but for us they’re very very important. We like the way that songs build then go back down a bit, crescendo back up again. It’s a very important aspect for me and something that you can’t ignore.”

Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad

From: Adrenalize

Joe: “I think that’s probably one of our better slow songs. It was from the Adrenalize album – I actually preferred it to Love Bites, which was a bigger hit for some reason in America and in England. That said, Love Bites got to Number 1 but the other one actually sold more.”

Def Leppard's Hysteria Album

Gods Of War

From: Hysteria

Joe: “For a more epic kind of feel, I think Gods Of War is a great song. It covers a lot of ground – it doesn’t get to the chorus for nearly three minutes, although many people have pulled me up and said: ‘You know that song? For the first three minutes I thought you’d already sung the chorus and then you come up with it there’. It’s got the bridges and it’s a great arrangement that Mutt (Lange, long time Leppard producer) helped us devise. It was hard work but worth it.”

New Def Leppard Album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge

Love

From: Songs From The Sparkle Lounge

Joe: “I’ve got to take my hat off to Rick Savage and I will take a plaudit for forcing him to do it. I earned it for pushing him and saying: ‘You’ve got to finish that song that you started.’ He may well have done anyway but I definitely gave him a push over the edge. I think it’s the most ambitious thing that he’s ever written and it was certainly a stretch to do. We’d certainly acknowledge the Queen influence on that song but we tried to put our own spin on it. I think a few of the tracks on the new album actually reference other bands – there’s a track on there called Bad Actress which is kind of from the AC/DC book of songwriting but so what, you know? It’s good to do a song like that every now and again.”

Click here for an interview on Joe's most Spinal Tap moment or here for more of the singer's essential Leppard tracks.