Yeah! (Def Leppard album)
2006 studio album by Def Leppard
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Yeah! is the ninth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard. It is the first cover album by the band. It was originally intended to be released on 20 September 2005, but it was announced on 31 March 2006 that the album would be released on 23 May 2006. The album charted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200[7] and No. 52 on the UK Albums Chart.[8]
| Yeah! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 23 May 2006 | |||
| Recorded | 2003–2006 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 53:43 | |||
| Labels | ||||
| Producers |
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| Def Leppard chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Yeah! | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | C+[2] |
| Gigwise |  [3] |
| The Irish Times | [4] |
| musicOMH | [5] |
| Rolling Stone | [6] |
Artwork
The accompanying booklet contains photographs of the band members recreating classic images from 1970s album art.
- Rick Savage – Freddie Mercury from the album Queen II
- Vivian Campbell – Marc Bolan from T. Rex's Electric Warrior
- Joe Elliott – David Bowie from the rear cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
- Rick Allen – Lou Reed, Transformer
- Phil Collen – The Stooges, Raw Power
There are also four group photographs in the CD booklet – on the cover, the centre, inside back cover and the back cover.
- The inside back cover (back of the CD holder) has a picture with the original triangle Def Leppard logo (from the On Through the Night album), with a shaft of light passing through it and creating a rainbow, a la the cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.
Reception
Rating the album 4.5 out of 5, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised Yeah! as the band's best effort since Hysteria, noting how the band "no longer sound as slick and calculated as they did on their albums after Hysteria; they sound alive and vigorous, making a convincing case that they're now their own best producers." Erlewine concluded that "few bands could achieve an artistic comeback via a covers album, but as this glorious record proves, there are few bands like Def Leppard."[9]
In a 3 out of 5 review, Andy Greene of Rolling Stone wrote that Yeah! was the band's "most convincing album in fourteen years", citing "Rock On" and "Stay With Me" as highlights. He concluded by saying that "none of the arrangements veer far from the originals, but they don't need to - it's good enough to just hear the band having fun and to see where all the Hysteria came from."[10]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "20th Century Boy" | Marc Bolan | T. Rex | 3:41 |
| 2. | "Rock On" | David Essex | David Essex | 2:53 |
| 3. | "Hanging on the Telephone" | Jack Lee | The Nerves | 2:23 |
| 4. | "Waterloo Sunset" | Ray Davies | The Kinks | 3:38 |
| 5. | "Hell Raiser" | Sweet | 3:20 | |
| 6. | "10538 Overture" | Jeff Lynne | Electric Light Orchestra | 4:31 |
| 7. | "Street Life" | Bryan Ferry | Roxy Music | 3:26 |
| 8. | "Drive-In Saturday" | David Bowie | David Bowie | 4:07 |
| 9. | "Little Bit of Love" | Free | 2:34 | |
| 10. | "The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll" | Ian Hunter | Mott the Hoople | 3:28 |
| 11. | "No Matter What" | Pete Ham | Badfinger | 2:57 |
| 12. | "He's Gonna Step on You Again" | John Kongos | 4:05 | |
| 13. | "Don't Believe a Word" | Phil Lynott | Thin Lizzy | 2:19 |
| 14. | "Stay with Me" | Faces | 4:30 |
Bonus material
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15. | "How Does It Feel" | Slade | 5:20 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15. | "Action" (Live) | Sweet | 4:03 | |
| 16. | "When I'm Dead and Gone" | McGuinness Flint | 3:17 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15. | "No Matter What" (Live) | Pete Ham | Badfinger | 2:58 |
| 16. | "Winter Song" | Alan Hull | Lindisfarne | 4:35 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15. | "American Girl" | Tom Petty | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | 3:34 |
| 16. | "Search and Destroy" | The Stooges | 3:27 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "American Girl" | Petty | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | 3:34 |
| 2. | "Backstage Interview No. 1" | 3:12 | ||
| 3. | "Search and Destroy" |
| The Stooges | 3:27 |
| 4. | "Backstage Interview No. 2" | 2:01 | ||
| 5. | "Space Oddity" | Bowie | David Bowie | 5:27 |
| 6. | "Backstage Interview No. 3" | 2:43 | ||
| 7. | "Dear Friends" | Brian May | Queen | 1:28 |
| 8. | "Heartbeat" | Jobriath | Jobriath | 2:44 |
- All of bonus song recordings were later included in Yeah! II, a bonus album of cover songs released as part of The Collection: Volume Three box set released in 2021.[11]
Personnel
- Joe Elliott – lead vocals, piano, all instruments on "Space Oddity", art direction on inner sleeve
- Phil Collen – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Stay with Me" and "Search and Destroy", all instruments on "Search and Destroy"
- Vivian Campbell – guitar, backing vocals
- Rick Savage – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals and all instruments on "Dear Friends"
- Rick Allen – drums, percussion
Additional personnel
- Emm Gryner—backing vocals, piano on "The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll"
- Ian Hunter—spoken intro on "The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll"
- Justin Hawkins – backing vocals on "Hell Raiser"
- Marc Danzeisen – drums and harmony/backing vocals on "American Girl"
- t42design – artwork
- Vartan – art direction on cover
- Clay Patrick McBride – photography on cover art, back cover, trays
- Mick Rock – photography on inner sleeve
Charts
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[12] | 95 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[13] | 161 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] | 73 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[15] | 48 |
| Scottish Albums (Official Charts)[16] | 4 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[17] | 25 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] | 57 |
| UK Albums (Official Charts)[19] | 52 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (Official Charts)[20] | 4 |
| US Billboard 200[21] | 16 |