Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits

I've never been a big fan of greatest hits packages because, in my point of view, they usually fail to capture the band's essence. Def Leppard is one of those disappointments. Don't get me wrong; Def Leppard is a great rock band which survived some turbulent times. However, like Skid Row's greatest hits (which had virtually every song written by the bassist, so you would hardly find any songs on there written by other bandmembers), this one features many songs mostly written by producer Mutt Lange, which is a shame because there was A LOT of material not present on this album.

With that said, I still recommend getting this. It will still get you hooked onto Def Leppard despite the bad tracklist. After all, "Photograph" got me hooked in the first place. I'd get it used, though, because more than 12 bucks is NOT worth this.

Here's the tracks:
"Pour Some Sugar on Me" - good song. I have no complaints here, even it being the first track.

"Photograph" - Let's face it, Photograph ROCKS! Great song. As said above, it got me hooked to Def Leppard.

"Love Bites" - one of the best of their ballads. Great chorus.

"Let's Get Rocked" - even though this song has some of the DUMBEST lyrics ever, it still rocks. I never was a fan of Adrenalize, but I'm glad this one's here.

"Two Steps Behind" - this is the acoustic version. Not bad, BUT THE ELECTRIC VERSION IS WAY BETTER. This one doesn't capture Leppard very well.

"Animal" - I never did like this track at all that much, and even though it was a hit, they should've replaced this one with my favorite from Hysteria, "Gods of War."

"Foolin'" - A very good ballad. I'm glad it's here.

"Rocket" - I like this song, BUT THIS IS THE RADIO EDIT. What's worse, they could've fit the original! That ticks me off.

"When Love & Hate Collide" - this one's actually new. It's a ballad, but I never really liked this one. It just doesn't sound like Def Leppard, and therefore, DOES NOT BELONG.

"Armageddon It" - Great song, no complaints.

"Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?" - A ballad off of Adrenalize, but like "When Love & Hate Collide," this one isn't that great at all. Suggestion: Replace it with "White Lightning" and/or "Tear it Down," also from Adrenalize.

"Rock of Ages" - Great song, no complaints.

"Hysteria" - I really like Hysteria, but this one doesn't capture the band's essence all that well.

"Miss You in a Heartbeat" - Another ballad?! Not bad, but could've been dispensed for other songs, like maybe from the first album or my personal favorite from Pyromania, "Die Hard the Hunter."

"Bringing on the Heartbreak" - Another ballad, yet again. I really like this one, but UNFORTUNATELY they took off the Switch 625 instrumental piece that this song fades into. SHAME. Steve Clark must be rolling in his grave now.

All in all, this is definitely not one of the best greatest hits CDs ever. They should've made a Double Disc set. THAT would've pleased the Def Leppard fan much more. This song caters more towards the Hysteria/Adrenalize crowd, which is quite a shame because 1) Pyromania is their BEST album, 2) On Through the Night is an excellent piece of metal history and it has hardly any pop influence whatsoever AND IT'S EXCLUSION IS ALMOST INEXCUSABLE, and 3) For some of the really good songs, they cut essential parts from them. As such, this is disappointing to the extreme. My suggestion is to buy the individual albums, but if you feel the need to get this, I'd get it for a low price.


Lack somes...Great C.D.   January 19, 2000
Valery Kharlamov
12 out of 16 found this review helpful

There is no question that this album is awesome because it has almost all the best Def Leppard songs off all time wich are all classics. But there's two problems with that greatest gits C.D. 1: they could had easily put on 17-18 songs instead of only 15 . 2) Hysteria is maybe over-represented and Rocket shouldn't be there and also the track Two steps behind is really weak and maybe one of their most average song they ever made. Anotehr thing where are the songs from On trough the night? they call it 80-95 and there's no songs from 1980's album. Wasted and Rock Brigade should certainly be on that cd. The greatest hits Cd as to show all the work from the band not only a part of it. Also songs like Lady Strange and Let It Go should be there. The adrenalize CD is in fact under-represented and a song like White Lightning should be on that. In all a very interesting album with all their more powerful successful hits ( Sugar-Photograph-Love Bites) surely a must buy but we miss Too Late For Love...


Best of the Best   November 2, 2002
Randy Given (Manchester, CT USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Wow, this album rocks. I had some of the Def Leppard albums in college, but they wore out. I got this album as a replacement and it is great. All my favorite Def Leppard hits on one album. The recording quality is great. I might have arranged the songs in a different order, but there is not one that I disagree with being on this album. Cranked loud, it shows the greatness of the band (my favorite band is still Pink Floyd, but this band knows how to rock).