An incident where he was barely able to play on a recording session for Stagefright was the final straw. Willis had been drinking way too much for a while, and in particular during the recent album-making process. He was a founding member and had been important in getting the band off the ground, but after finishing his work on the backing tracks for the album he was asked to leave. The song would be one of Pete Willis’ last contributions to the group. Boffin.” Look for it in the album credits! And so it was actually Mutt that picked up a new moniker for me, which was Booker T. Said Dolby: “By that time my name was known as a solo artist and I felt it might be a bit confusing to people to see my name on a rock record like that. The band ended up giving Dolby an unusual credit. Along with Lange, the songwriter credits on Photograph go to guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis, bass player Rick Savage, and lead singer Joe Elliott.Īnother person who worked with Lange and the band on the song/album was Thomas Dolby, pretty much immediately after recording his hit She Blinded Me With Science. He was so integral to the band’s sound and creative process that he ended up getting a songwriter credit on every Pyromania track. The Pyromania album was produced by Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, whose first work with the band was producing their previous album High ‘n’ Dry.
They were all in their early 20s when the song was released, except for drummer Rick Allen who was 19. It helped that everyone in the band were extremely photogenic and very young. The song would be the band’s first hit, and was the beginning of the band setting themselves apart from contemporaries like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest by appealing to a wide swath of female fans. The production was slick yet groovy, it had catchy ‘gang’ backing vocals, a huge-sounding chorus, and passionate, lovesick lyrics. It seemed to have what was needed to take the band to the next level. Photograph was selected as the first single from the new album and released on 3 February. In fact they had started detesting that particular label. The band didn’t particularly want to limit themselves to being “metal” though. Their first two albums had done well and saw the band gaining appeal in the hard rock and metal world, especially after touring with both Blackfoot and Rainbow in 1981. As 1983 rolled on, the lads in Def Leppard were ready to release their third album Pyromania on an unsuspecting world.
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