About The Song
“Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a song by the English rock band Def Leppard from their 1987 album Hysteria. It reached number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 23 July 1988, behind “Hold On to the Nights” by Richard Marx. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is considered the band’s signature song, and was ranked #2 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of the 80s” in 2006.
Near the end of recording the album Hysteria, during a production break, lead singer Joe Elliott was jamming with a riff he had come up with two weeks earlier on an acoustic guitar. Producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, expressing great liking of it, suggested that it be developed into another song.
Although already behind schedule, Lange felt that the album was still missing a strong crossover hit and that this last song had the potential to be one. [citation needed] Within two weeks the song was completed, smoothed out, and included as the 5th track on Hysteria.
Elliott claims the song was at least partially inspired by the Aerosmith and Run-DMC version of “Walk This Way”, which made him realize the potential of the mixing of rap and rock.
The song’s lyrics were written after Elliott and Lange went to opposite ends of the studio control room and delivered stream-of-consciousness words into a pair of dictaphones while the song’s backing track played. They then swapped dictaphones and tried to determine what each other’s words were. In the Hysteria episode of the Classic Albums documentary series, Elliott said he thought he heard the phrase “love is like a bomb” on Lange’s tape “and that set the whole tone for the lyric.” (However, some of the key lyrics as well as the overall theme of the song are similar to those of the song “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies.)
Two intros were recorded for the song: the studio version has “Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey!” and then cuts immediately to the guitar, while the single version has “love is like a bomb” and a slightly longer progression.
By the spring of 1988, Hysteria had sold 3 million copies, which was not enough to cover the album’s $5 million production costs. Thus, the band edited footage from an upcoming concert film to make a new promo clip for “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and finally released it as the fourth single in North America.
Video
Lyrics
Step inside
Walk this way
You and me babe
Hey hey
Love is like a bomb, baby, c’mon get it on
Livin’ like a lover with a radar phone
Lookin’ like a tramp, like a video vamp
Demolition woman, can I be your man? (your man)
Razzle ‘n’ a dazzle ‘n’ a flash a little light
Television lover, baby, go all night
Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet
Little miss innocent sugar me, yeah, yeah
Now c’mon, take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up
Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C’mon, fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
I can’t get enough
I’m hot, sticky sweet
From my head to my feet, yeah
Listen, red light, yellow light, green-a-light go
Crazy little woman in a one man show
Mirror queen, mannequine, rhythm of love
Sweet dream, saccharine, loosen up (loosen up)
Loosen up
You gotta squeeze a little, squeeze a little
Tease a little more
Easy operator come a knockin’ on my door
Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet
Little miss innocent sugar me, yeah, yeah
Give a little more
Take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up
Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C’mon, fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can’t get enough
I’m hot, sticky sweet
From my head to my feet, yeah
You got the peaches, I got the cream
Sweet to taste, saccharine
‘Cause I’m hot (hot), say what, sticky sweet
From my head (head), my head, to my feet
Do you take sugar? One lump or two?
Take a bottle (take a bottle), shake it up (shake it up)
Break the bubble (break it up), break it up
Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C’mon fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can’t get enough
Pour some sugar on me
Oh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
Get it, come get it
Pour your sugar on me (oh-ooh)
Pour some sugar on me
Yeah, sugar me