Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” Lyrics Meaning
“Pour Some Sugar on Me” is, succinctly put, a song about intimate activities in the bedroom. However, being released in the era that it was, it uses a lot of colorful, indirect metaphors to get its point across. And the point is simply this – the singer has hooked up with a lady, i.e. the addressee, whom he is very much looking forward to sleeping with.
And the titular phrase is basically an allusion pointing to his desire to engage in “sweet” bedroom fun with this woman. That is to say that it is not meant to be taken literally. Rather the word “sugar”, as presented, is basically a euphemism for a rousing sensual experience.
Music Video
In 1991, MTV placed the music video to this track at number 1 on its list of the “Top 300 Videos of All Time”.
Actually there are two official music videos to this song. The American version, as it is oft referred to, was filmed in Denver at the McNichols Sports Arena and directed by Wayne Isham.
And the original version, which was filmed in Ireland, had Russell Mulcahy as its director.
Release Date of “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
This song was released on 3 August 1987 as part of Def Leppard’s fourth album titled “Hysteria”. Mercury Records released it as a single in the US, and Phonogram Inc. did likewise in the UK.
Writing Credits
Besides Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who produced “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, the other credited writers of the song are the members of Def Leppard. So in all, the following is the song’s full list of writers:
- Robert Lange
- Steve Clark
- Phil Collen
- Joe Elliott
- Richard Savage
- Pete Willis
And it is Elliot who is recognized as the originator of the riff which eventually led to “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. He credited Run DMC’s 1986 cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” as inspiration. And other songs which he has acknowledged as having influenced the track are “Sugar, Sugar” (1969) by The Archies (which was the first record he had ever purchased) and “Bang a Gong” (1971) by T. Rex.
“Pour Some Sugar on Me” was the last song Def Leppard had written for “Hysteria”. However, the band was able to write and record the tune relatively-quickly. And it went on to contribute greatly to the overall monumental success of the album.
“Pour Some Sugar on Me 2012”
Def Leppard re-recorded and released this track in 2012, this time around being entitled “Pour Some Sugar on Me 2012”. This effort was a result of the band having beef with their record company concerning royalties from their previous songs which were being sold online.
Success of “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
“Pour Some Sugar on Me” peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. And the song. It also charted in 7 other countries, including reaching as high as number 18 on the UK Singles Chart.
And later in 2006, VH1 placed the song itself at number 2 amongst its ranking of the “100 Greatest Songs of the ‘80s”.
