Pour Some Sugar on Me
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2014) |
"Pour Some Sugar on Me" | |
---|---|
Song | |
B-side | "I Wanna Be Your Hero" (UK), "Ring of Fire" (U.S.) |
"Pour Some Sugar on Me" is a song by English heavy metal band Def Leppard from their 1987 album Hysteria. It reached number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on 23 July 1988, behind "Hold On to the Nights" by Richard Marx. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was ranked #2 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" in 2006.[1] A live performance of the song was featured in the music video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
Production
Near the end of recording the album Hysteria, singer Joe Elliott was jamming with a riff he had come up with recently on an acoustic guitar. Producer Mutt Lange, expressing great liking of it, suggested that it be developed into another song. Although already behind schedule Lange felt that the album was still missing a strong crossover hit and that this last song had the potential to be one. Within two weeks the song was completed, smoothed out and included as the twelfth track on Hysteria.
By the spring of 1988, Hysteria had sold 3 million copies, but it still was not enough to cover the album's production costs (the most expensive ever at the time). Thus, the band edited footage from an upcoming concert film to make a new promo clip for "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and finally released it as the fourth single in North America.
Joe Elliott got the name of the song when he was sitting in the basement of his London flat. He asked Mutt Lange for some sugar to put in his tea. Lange, in return, asked Elliott if he wanted one lump or two and Elliott said, "I don't care, just pour some sugar on me" and the name stuck.
Reception
The somewhat delayed success of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (due to the new promo release) sent sales of Hysteria higher than the band ever imagined. It reached number 1 on the Top Pop Albums chart (now the Billboard 200) a year after release, and sold four million copies during the single's run. The video remained at number 1 on the request show Dial MTV for 85 days, tying the longest run ever on Dial MTV (The streak ended on 7 Oct. 1988 being topped by Britny Fox's video "Long Way to Love"). The song reached number 1 in Canada, number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number 18 in the UK Singles Chart and number 26 on the ARIA charts (Australia).[2][3]
MTV ranked "Pour Some Sugar on Me" number 1 in its "Top 300 Videos of All Time" countdown in May 1991. In 2006, VH1 ranked the song number 2 on its list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the '80s."[1] AVN ranked the song as the "#1 song used by strippers during their set" of all time.
In 2012 due to royalty conflicts with their record company regarding profits from online sales, the band re-recorded the song, along with "Rock of Ages", under the title "Pour Some Sugar on Me 2012" and released both digitally in June 2012 (similarly, a re-recorded version of the single "Hysteria" entitled "Hysteria (2013 Re-Recorded Version)" was also released online the following year).
Music video
Two different music videos for the song were produced. The first version shows the band playing inside a derelict Irish stately home (Mount Merrion House at Stillorgan, Dublin) while it is being demolished by wrecking-balls and a burly, sledgehammer-wielding, female construction worker. Generally disliked by the band members, and filmed before "Pour Some Sugar on Me" became a huge mega-hit in the US, a second video simply of the band playing the song live was released for American MTV (the original video was only ever shown in the UK). The American video was edited from the band’s full-length 1989 video release, “Live: In the Round in Your Face”, recorded at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, CO, in February 1988. The music video for the song had an extended, distortion-laden intro in lieu of the album version’s “Step inside, walk this way” intro. Most compilations use the extended music video-style intro. (deflepparduk tour history)
Intros
There are two intros to the song. The studio version which has "Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey!" and then cuts right to the guitar; and the single version which has "love is like a bomb" which has a slightly longer progression to it.
Cover versions
- Singer-songwriter Emm Gryner performed an acoustic version of the song on her 2001 covers album Girl Versions.
- The band The Maine covered the song for the Fearless Records compilation Punk Goes Classic Rock in 2010.
- Glam metal band L.A. Guns covered the song for their 2010 cover compilation, Covered in Guns.
- Sugarland has covered the song during their live shows.
- Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx in the 2012 film Rock of Ages
- Pop-rock band R5 covered this song during their live shows. It was sung by sister Rydel Lynch.
- The song has been sampled in One Direction's song "Midnight Memories".
- The song was sung by Adam Levine, CeeLo Green, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera, along with Rick Savage, Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell and Rick Allen on the finale of the 5th season of The Voice
- Unsolved Youth covered this song at the Rock Drop Festival.
In popular culture
Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs, appearing as their 2 Broke Girls characters Max and Caroline, performed a pole dance to the song in a promo for the show that aired during Super Bowl XLVII.
The song was used in the Family Guy episode "The Simpsons Guy", accompanying a grotesquely sexual car wash routine performed by Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson.
Track listing
7": Bludgeon Riffola / Mercury / 870 298-7 (USA)
- "Pour Some Sugar on Me"
- "Ring of Fire"
US Vinyl, 12"
- "Pour Some Sugar on Me" [Extended Version]
- "Pour Some Sugar on Me" [Album Version]
- "I Wanna Be Your Hero"
CD single: Bludgeon Riffola / Mercury / 8724872 (Germany)[4]
- "Pour Some Sugar on Me" [Extended Version]
- "Release Me"
- "Rock of Ages" [Live Medley]
Charts
Chart (1988-1989) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian ARIA Charts[5] | 26 |
Dutch Mega Charts[6] | 94 |
German Media Control Charts[7] | 50 |
Irish Singles Chart[8] | 8 |
New Zealand Singles Chart[9] | 16 |
UK Singles Chart[10] | 18 |
US Billboard Hot 100[11] | 2 |
Year-End Chart
Chart (1988) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard Hot 100[12] | 19 |
Notes
- ^ a b Rock On The Net: VH1: 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's"
- ^ Chart positions @ Finnishcharts.com Retrieved June 2009
- ^ Neil Warwick, Jon Kutner, Tony Brown (2004) The complete book of the British charts: singles & albums Omnibus Press, 2004
- ^ "Def Leppard website". Retrieved 14 May 2011.
- ^ http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Def+Leppard&titel=Pour+Some+Sugar+On+Me&cat=s
- ^ http://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Def+Leppard&titel=Pour+Some+Sugar+On+Me&cat=s
- ^ http://www.officialcharts.de/song.asp?artist=Def+Leppard&title=Pour+Some+Sugar+On+Me&cat=s&country=de
- ^ http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement?page=2
- ^ http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Def+Leppard&titel=Pour+Some+Sugar+On+Me&cat=s
- ^ "UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". everyHit.com. 16 March 2000. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
- ^ http://musicvf.com/Def+Leppard.art
- ^ http://blog.xuite.net/kanlen/tw/56220281-1988-Billboard+Year-End+Hot+100+(1988%E5%B9%B4%E5%91%8A%E7%A4%BA%E7%89%8C%E5%B9%B4%E7%B5%82%E6%8E%92%E8%A1%8C%E6%A6%9C)