Human League - Hysteria (30th anniversary)

Today (May 7th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Hysteria, the fourth studio album from Human League. The record spent thirteen weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 62.

Click here for my full review.

Human League - Hysteria

Happy fifty-seventh birthday today to Phil Oakey, English composer-songwriter, producer and lead singer of the Human League.

After the highly successful 1981 album Dare, a key album in the new-wave synth-pop movement (click here for my review), the British band had a hard time getting the next full-length album going. They put out a couple EPs including 1983's Fascination! (click here for that review) during the interim. Finally, on May 7th of 1984, they released their fourth studio album Hysteria.

Def Leppard - Hysteria

After their 1983 release Pyromania, Def Leppard faced a number of challenges with the biggest being drummer Rick Allen's loss of an arm in a car accident in December of 1984. After a number of false starts, they locked in producer "Mutt" Lange and were able to release their fourth studio album in 1987. Hysteria was a commercial success - scoring the number 1 spot on the Billboard and UK album charts, generating seven singles, and selling over 20 million copies worldwide. The album was also ranked as number 472 on the Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.