Def Leppard's Joe Elliott looks back on the story behind their first UK and US hit single, Animal, from 1987
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00:00 [Music]
00:16 My recollection of animal is fading somewhat because it's a long time ago.
00:22 [Music]
00:36 The one thing about that song, as opposed to everything else on the album, or anybody
00:41 that's ever been in a band and had a song that they've lived with for a while but then
00:45 ended up rewriting parts of it, I sang the lead vocal to a completely different backing
00:50 track.
00:51 It's vastly different.
00:53 [Music]
01:22 I did the vocal for it in Paris.
01:25 We went to work in Paris.
01:26 I remember we were there when Live Aid was on.
01:28 We were there for the Bastille day and we were working in this little studio and I did
01:33 the vocal.
01:34 We spent a couple of days just experimenting with it and then nailing it down.
01:38 And then when we took the tapes back to Holland where we went to finish the album off, between
01:42 Holland and Dublin, we kind of grew tired of the backing track.
01:47 But everybody was commenting on how much they liked the lead vocal so I think it would have
01:51 been much better if they said, "Well look, what I'm going to do is I'm going to strip
01:54 all the track off and just leave the vocal playing against the drums.
01:58 I want you guys to just play underneath and see what you come up with."
02:02 And totally updated the song to the point where it's almost timeless now.
02:07 It was starting to age even before it was released in its original form.
02:11 [Music]
02:33 [Music]
02:47 [Music]
02:52 (thunder)