Def Leppard, in some ways, was the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder, and were more dangerous, than the Sheffield quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well.

Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the group actually owed more to the glam rock and metal of the early '70s -- their sound was equal parts T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. By toning down their heavy riffs and emphasizing melody, Def Leppard was poised for crossover success by 1983's Pyromania, but skillfully used the fledgling MTV network to their advantage.

The group was already blessed with photogenic good looks, but they also crafted a series of innovative, exciting videos that made them into stars. They intended to follow Pyromania quickly but were derailed when their drummer lost an arm in a car accident, the first of many problems that plagued the group's career.

Def Leppard managed to pull through such tragedies, and they even expanded their large audience with 1987's blockbuster Hysteria. As the '90s began, mainstream hard rock shifted away from Leppard's signature pop-metal and toward edgier, louder bands, yet the group maintained a sizable audience into the late '90s and were one of only a handful of '80s metal groups to survive the decade more or less intact.

The group was formed in Sheffield, England in 1977; founding members included lead singer Joe Elliot (b. 1 August 1959), bassist Rick Savage (b. 2 December 1960) and guitarist Pete Willis. Drummer Rick Allen (b. 1 November 1963) and guitarist Steve Clark (b. 23 April 1960) joined the band shortly thereafter.

Their discography includes 14 studio albums and several singles and live productions.

"Pour some sugar on me" is part of "Hysteria" album in 1987. It reached number 2 on the U.S. Hot 100. It later became an MTV classic, and is generally regarded as their signature song. The title of the song alludes to the coda of the 1969 bubblegum pop classic "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies.