Showing posts with label Photograph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photograph. Show all posts

Sunday, May 7, 2023

Ed Sheeran: Top 50 Songs

Ed Sheeran

Top 50 Songs

Singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran was born on 2/17/1991 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. He released his debut album, Plus (+) in 2011. His songs “Thinking Out Loud,” “Shape of You,” and “Perfect” are featured in the Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era, 2000-2019. His albums Multiply (X) and Divide (÷) will both be featured in the upcoming Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Albums of the 21st Century.

For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry.

Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists.

Awards:

Top 50 Songs

Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards.

DMDB Top 1%:

1. Shape of You (2017)
2. Thinking Out Loud (2014)
3. Perfect (with Beyoncé, 2017)
4. Love Yourself (written by Sheeran, performed by Justin Bieber)

DMDB Top 2%:

5. I Don’t Care (with Justin Bieber, 2019)
6. Bad Habits (2021)

DMDB Top 5%:

7. Photograph (2014)
8. The A Team (2011)
9. Castle on the Hill (2017)
10. Shivers (2021)

DMDB Top 10%:

11. Don’t (2014)
12. Sing (2014)
13. Beautiful People (with Khalid, 2019)
14. River (with Eminem, 2017)
15. Lego House (2011)
16. Bam Bam (with Camila Cabello, 2022)
17. I See Fire (2013)
18. Everything Has Changed (with Taylor Swift, 2012)
19. Galway Girl (2017)

DMDB Top 20%:

20. Happier (2017)
21. Afterglow (2020)
22. Merry Christmas (with Elton John, 2021)
23. End Game (with Taylor Swift & Future, 2017)
24. South of the Border (with Camila Cabello & Cardi B, 2019)
25. Give Me Love (2011)
26. Dive (2017)

Beyond the DMDB Top 20%:

27. Cross Me (with Chance the Rapper & PnB Rock, 2019)
28. One (2014)
29. Supermarket Flowers (2017)
30. Lay It All on Me (with Rudimental, 2015)

31. Those Kinda Nights (with Eminem, 2020)
32. Peru (with Fireboy DML, 2022)
33. How Would You Feel (Paean) (2017)
34. New Man (2017)
35. What Do I Know? (2017)
36. Barcelona (2017)
37. Eraser (2017)
38. Hearts Don’t Break Around Here (2017)
39. Blow (with Chris Stapleton, 2019)
40. Make It Rain (2014)

41. Take Me Back to London (with Stormzy, 2019)
42. Eyes Closed (2023)
43. Own It (with Stormzy & Burna Boy, 2019)
44. Remember the Name (with Eminem & 50 Cent, 2019)
45. Afire Love (2014)
46. The Joker and the Queen (with Taylor Swift, 2021)
47. Candle in the Wind (2014)
48. Bloodstream (with Rudimental, 2014)
49. Antisocial (with Travis Scott, 2019)
50. Overpass Graffiti (2021)

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First posted 5/7/2023.

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Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Def Leppard: Top 50 Songs

Def Leppard

Top 50 Songs

Hard rock group formed in Sheffield, England in 1977. One of the premiere groups in the '80s pop-metal craze often referred to as “hair bands.” Members: Joe Elliott (vocals), Steve Clark (guitar: 1977-91; died on 1/8/91 of alcohol-related respiratory failure), Pete Willis (guitar: 1977-82), Rick Savage (b), Rick Allen (drums; lost left arm in an auto accident on 12/31/84), Phil Collen (guitar: 1982-), Vivian Campbell (guitar: 92-)

Click here to see other best-of lists from performers and here to see other best-of lists from songwriters and/or producers.

Spotify Podcast:

Check out Dave’s Music Database podcast: The Best of Def Leppard, 1979-2022 based on this list. Debut: June 7, 2022 at 7pm CST. Tune in every Tuesday at 7pm for a new episode based on the lists at Dave’s Music Database.

Awards:

Top 50 Songs

Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards.

DMDB Top 1%:

1. Pour Some Sugar on Me (1987)

DMDB Top 2%:

2. Photograph (1983)
3. Love Bites (1987)

DMDB Top 5%:

4. Rock of Ages (1983)
5. Hysteria (1987)
6. Bringin’ on the Heartbreak (1981)
7. Foolin’ (1983)
8. Animal (1987)

DMDB Top 10%:

9. Rocket (1987)
10. Let’s Get Rocked (1992)
11. Two Steps Behind (1992)

DMDB Top 20%:

12. When Love and Hate Collide (1995)
13. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad? (1992)
14. Armageddon It (1987)
15. Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion) (1992)
16. Make Love Like a Man (1992)
17. Tonight (1992)
18. Promises (1999)
19. Work It Out (1996)
20. Miss You in a Heartbeat (1992)
21. Too Late for Love (1983)

Beyond the DMDB Top 20%:

22. Women (1987)
23. Now (2002)
24. Rock Brigade (1980)
25. Let It Go (1981)
26. Slang (1996)
27. All I Want Is Everything (1996)
28. Paper Sun (1999)
29. No Matter What (2005)
30. Wasted (1979)

31. Breathe a Sigh (1996)
32. Rock! Rock! Till You Drop (1983)
33. Hello America (1980)
34. Heaven Is (1992)
35. Billy’s Got a Gun (1983)
36. Action (1992)
37. Desert Song (1987)
38. High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night) (1981)
39. Long Long Way to Go (2002)
40. Me and My Wine (1981)

41. Day After Day (1999)
42. Comin’ Under Fire (1983)
43. Goodbye (1999)
44. Action! Not Words (1983)
45. Four Letter Word (2002)
46. Nine Lives (with Tim McGraw, 2008)
47. 20th Century Boy (2006)
48. Elected (live, 1992)
49. From the Inside (1992)
50. Undefeated (2011)

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First posted 6/2/2022; last updated 6/8/2022.
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Saturday, May 8, 2021

Adult Top 40: Top 100+ Songs

Adult Top 40, 1996-2021:

Top 100+ Songs

In 2016, Billboard magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary of the Adult Pop Songs chart, a chart which it referred to as “Top 40 for people over 25.” They published a list of the top 50 “Greatest Of All Time Adult Pop Songs.” Dave’s Music Database has reworked the list to rank the songs based on most weeks at #1 and then, for ties, by overall points in Dave’s Music Database. All songs which spent at least 5 weeks at #1 are in the list below, pushing this a few notches past a top 100 list.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

    25 weeks:

  1. Santana with Rob Thomas “Smooth” (1999)

    23 weeks:

  2. The Calling “Wherever You Will Go” (2001)

    20 weeks:

  3. The Weeknd “Blinding Lights” (2019)

    18 weeks:

  4. Nickelback “Photograph” (2005)
  5. Matchbox 20 “Unwell” (2002)

    17 weeks:

  6. Goo Goo Dolls “Iris” (1998)

    16 weeks:

  7. Avril Lavigne “Complicated” (2002)

    15 weeks:

  8. The Fray “How to Save a Life” (2005)
  9. Panic! At the Disco “High Hopes” (2018)

    14 weeks:

  10. No Doubt “Don’t Speak” (1995)
  11. Maroon 5 with Cardi B “Girls Like You” (2017)
  12. Natalie Imbruglia “Torn” (1997)
  13. Train “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” (2001)
  14. Maroon 5 “Memories” (2019)
  15. Vertical Horizon “Everything You Want’ (1999)

    13 weeks:

  16. Adele “Rolling in the Deep” (2010)
  17. Maroon 5 “This Love” (2002)
  18. 3 Doors Down “Here Without You” (2002)
  19. Matchbox 20 “Bent” (2000)
  20. Maroon 5 “She Will Be Loved” (2002)

  21. Colbie Caillat “Bubbly” (2007)
  22. Matchbox 20 “If You’re Gone” (2000)
  23. Santana with Michelle Branch “The Game of Love” (2002)

    12 weeks:

  24. Ed Sheeran “Shape of You” (2017)
  25. Celine Dion “Because You Loved Me” (1996)
  26. Daniel Powter “Bad Day” (2005)

    11 weeks:

  27. Green Day “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (2004)
  28. Kings of Leon “Use Somebody” (2008)
  29. Pink with Nate Ruess “Just Give Me a Reason” (2012)

    10 weeks:

  30. Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love” (2007)
  31. Mariah Carey with Boyz II Men “One Sweet Day” (1995)
  32. Hoobastank “The Reason” (2003)
  33. Sugar Ray “Every Morning” (1998)
  34. Avirl Lavigne “I’m with You” (2002)
  35. Rob Thomas “Lonely No More” (2005)
  36. KT Tunstall “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree” (2004)
  37. Matchbox 20 “3 A.M.” (1996)
  38. Daughtry “Home” (2007)

    9 weeks:

  39. Ed Sheeran with Beyoncé “Perfect” (2017)
  40. Adele “Someone Like You (2011)
  41. Justin Timberlake “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” (2016)
  42. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now” (2009)
  43. Katy Perry with Snoop Dogg “California Gurls” (2010)
  44. Sara Bareilles “Love Song” (2007)
  45. Kelly Clarkson “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” (2011)
  46. Jonas Brothers “Sucker” (2019)
  47. Smash Mouth “All Star” (1999)
  48. The Fray “You Found Me” (2008)
  49. Lifehouse “You and Me” (2005)
  50. Dido “Thank You” (2000)

  51. Maroon 5 with Kendrick Lamar “Don’t Wanna Know” (2016)
  52. Sheryl Crow “Soak Up the Sun” (2002)
  53. Daughtry “It’s Not Over” (2006)
  54. Santana with Chad Kroeger or Alex Band “Why Don’t You and I?” (2002)

    8 weeks:

  55. Jason Mraz “I’m Yours” (2008)
  56. Taylor Swift “Shake It Off” (2014)
  57. The Lumineers “Ho Hey” (2012)
  58. Donna Lewis “I Love You Always Forever” (1996)
  59. Creed “With Arms Wide Open” (1999)
  60. Maroon 5 “One More Night” (2012)

  61. Walk the Moon “Shut Up and Dance” (2014)
  62. Tracy Chapman “Give Me One Reason” (1995)
  63. Shawn Mullins “Lullaby (Rock-a-Bye)” (1998)
  64. Ava Max “Kings & Queens” (2020)
  65. Kelly Clarkson “Already Gone” (2009)
  66. Goo Goo Dolls “Give a Little Bit” (2004)

    7 weeks:

  67. Adele “Hello” (2015)
  68. Sia with Sean Paul “Cheap Thrills” (2016)
  69. One Republic “Counting Stars” (2013)
  70. Fergie “Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)” (2006)

  71. The Chainsmokers with Coldplay “Something Just Like This” (2017)
  72. Eric Clapton “Change the World” (1996)
  73. Pink “Raise Your Glass” (2010)
  74. Ed Sheeran with Justin Bieber “I Don’t Care” (2019)
  75. Imagine Dragons “Thunder” (2017)
  76. Shawn Colvin “Sunny Came Home” (1996)
  77. Zedd with Meren Morris & Grey “The Middle” (2018)
  78. Sarah McLachlan “Angel” (1997)
  79. Shinedown “Second Chance” (2008)
  80. Pink “Fuckin’ Perfect” (2010)

  81. The Script “Breakeven” (2008)
  82. Sister Hazel “All for You” (1997)
  83. Sophie B. Hawkins “As I Lay Me Down” (1995)

    6 weeks:

  84. Gotye with Kimbra “Somebody That I Used to Know” (2011)
  85. Pharrell Williams “Happy” (2013)
  86. Robin Thicke with T.I. & Pharrell Williams “Blurred Lines” (2013)
  87. Ed Sheeran “Thinking Out Loud” (2014)
  88. Coldplay “Viva La Vida” (2008)
  89. Seal “Kiss from a Rose” (1994)
  90. Taylor Swift “Blank Space” (2014)

  91. One Republic with Timbaland “Apologize” (2006)
  92. Ricky Martin “Livin’ La Vida Loca” (1999)
  93. Train “Hey, Soul Sister” (2009)
  94. Maroon 5 with Wiz Khalifa “Payphone” (2012)
  95. Jewel “You Were Meant for Me” (1995)
  96. Lewis Capaldi “Someone You Loved” (2018)
  97. Imagine Dragons “Believer” (2017)
  98. Shawn Mendes “Treat You Better” (2016)
  99. Ed Sheeran “Photograph” (2014)
  100. Paula Cole “I Don’t Want to Wait” (1996)
  101. Nickelback “If Everyone Cared” (2005)
  102. Kelly Clarkson “Mr. Know It All” (2011)

    5 weeks:

  103. Bruno Mars “Just the Way You Are (Amazing)” (2010)
  104. Justin Bieber “Love Yourself” (2015)
  105. Katy Perry “Firework” (2010)
  106. Katy Perry “Roar” (2013)
  107. James Blunt “You’re Beautiful” (2004)
  108. Magic! “Rude” (2013)
  109. Chumbawamba “Tubthumping” (1997)
  110. Lifehouse “Hanging by a Moment” (2000)

  111. The Wallflowers “One Headlight” (1996)
  112. Dua Lipa “Don’t Start Now” (2019)
  113. Jewel “Foolish Games” (1995)
  114. Nickelback “Far Away” (2005)
  115. Shawn Mendes “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” (2016)
  116. Benny Blanco with Halsey & Khalid “Eastside” (2018)
  117. Pink “Blow Me One Last Kiss” (2012)
  118. Train “Calling All Angels” (2003)
  119. Kelly Clarkson “Behind These Hazel Eyes” (2004)
  120. Nickelback “Gotta Be Somebody” (2008)
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First posted 4/28/2019; last updated 5/8/2021.

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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Ed Sheeran’s X hit #1 in UK for first of 13 weeks

X (Multiply)

Ed Sheeran

Released: June 20, 2014

Charted: June 29, 2014

Peak: 11 US, 113 UK, 1 3 CN, 18 AU

Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 3.55 UK, 10.89 world (includes US and UK)

Genre: pop

Tracks:

Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

  1. One (5/31/14, 87 US, 18 UK, 32 CN, 72 AU, worldwide sales: 0.9 million)
  2. I’m a Mess (49 UK, UK sales: 0.2 million)
  3. Sing (4/7/14, 13 US, 14 AC, 4 A40, 11 UK, 4 CN, 11 AU, worldwide sales: 2 million)
  4. Don’t (6/28/14, 9 US, 24 AC, 10 A40, 8 UK, 7 CN, 4 AU, worldwide sales: 2.66 million)
  5. Nina (57 UK, UK sales: 0.2 million)
  6. Photograph (5/11/15, 10 US, 3 AC, 16 A40, 15 UK, 4 CN, 9 AU, worldwide sales: 2.85 million)
  7. Bloodstream (2/11/15, 2 UK, 60 CN, with Rudimental, worldwide sales: 1.28 million)
  8. Tenerife Sea (62 UK, UK sales 0.4 million)
  9. Runaway (UK sales 0.2 million)
  10. The Man (82 UK)
  11. Thinking Out Loud (9/24/14, 2 US, 119 AC, 16 A40, 26 AAA, 11 UK, 2 CN, 15 AU, worldwide sales: 11.28 million)
  12. Afire Love (7/5/14, 37 US, 59 UK, 41 CN, UK sales: 0.2 million)

Total Running Time: 50:23

Rating:

3.738 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings)

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

X, Sheeran’s second album, was nominated for Grammys for Album of the Year and Pop Vocal Album. It also took home the Brit Award for British Album of the Year. It was supported by five official singles, although everything from the album either hit the UK charts or sold at least 200,000 copies.

Sheeran said he “started off making another acoustic record, and it turned into a neo-soul-funk record.” WK He credited producers like Rick Rubin and Benny Blanco for pulling him out of his comfort zone. WK All Music Guide glibly called Ed Sheeran “the UK’s answer to Jason Mraz,” AMG noting that Sheeran, like, Mraz, “plays around with hip-hop cadences but at his core he’s a singer/songwriter…who prefers love tunes to songs of protest.” AMG Not only can Sheeran “ramble out a rap, but he’s also quite comfortable with luxurious, shimmering textures and buoyant melodies.” AMG

“Naturally, these traits surface clearly on Sing, a collaboration with Pharrell Williams that contains some of the natural ebullience of ‘Happy.” AMG Sheeran noted that he tried to channel Justin Timberlake’s debut album, Justified. WK It ended up as the first single from the album.

Sheeran wrote the second single, Don’t, about a girlfriend, singer Elle Goulding, who cheated on him with a close friend. He said he played the song for his friend Taylor Swift and her response is that she would never want to piss him off that much. WK Sheeran first recorded it with Blanco, then again with Rubin, and finally the two producers came together for the final version. WK

The ballad Thinking Out Loud was released as the third single. Sheeran said the song, written about his then-girlfriend, was his favorite from the album. He said it was a soul song and “the only happy song on the album.” WK However, All Music Guide said, “When Sheeran sings slow, he rarely sings sad: he’s a hybrid of Chris Martin and David Grey, a boy next door who hasn’t lost his shaggy romanticism. His sweetness isn’t cloying, not even when the productions are aimed straight down the middle of the road, which they often are on.” AMG

Photograph, the fifth single from the album, was written with Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol, as was Nina. McDaid called the latter a “self-deprecating” love song about “heartbreak.” WK Sheeran referred to “Photograph” as the song “that will change my career path,” WK believing it to be the one song that would sell the album. WK

“His boyishness doesn’t give these immaculate confections grit so much as a wet, wide-eyed puppy dog heart…Whenever the mildly manic rapping surfaces…it’s a bit of sand in the Vaseline, preventing X from operating as smoothly as it’d like. Nevertheless, these gangly excursions in rap are evidence of Sheeran’s youth and his generation, something that keeps X from being merely a bit of excellently crafted mature pop and gives it some appealing character.” AMG

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Other Related DMDB Pages:

First posted 3/7/2019; last updated 4/30/2022.

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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Nickelback All the Right Reasons hit #1

All the Right Reasons

Nickelback

Released: October 4, 2005

Peak: 11 US, 13 UK, 14 CN, 2 AU

Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, 0.6 UK, 18.0 world (includes US and UK)

Genre: mainstream rock

Tracks:

Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Follow You Home
  2. Fight for All the Wrong Reasons
  3. Photograph (8/20/05, 2 US, 18 UK, 16 AC, 1 AR, 3 MR, 1 AA, sales: 0.8 m, air: 0.5 m)
  4. Animals (11/26/05, 97 US, 1 AR, 16 MR, air: 0.1 m)
  5. Savin’ Me (3/11/06, 19 US, 29 AC, 11 AR, 29 MR, 2 AA, air: 0.3 m)
  6. Far Away (1/28/06, 8 US, 40 UK, 5 AC, 1 AA, air: 0.4 m)
  7. Next Contestant
  8. Side of a Bullet (3/17/07, 7 AR)
  9. If Everyone Cared (2/3/07, 17 US, 17 AC, 37 AR, 1 AA, air: 0.2 m)
  10. Someone That You’re With
  11. Rockstar (7/29/06, 6 US, 2 UK, 4 AR, 37 MR, 6 AA, sales: 3.09 m, air: 0.5 m)

Total Running Time: 41:33

The Players:

  • Chad Kroeger (vocals, guitar)
  • Ryan Peake (rhythm guitar, backing vocals)
  • Mike Kroeger (bass, backing vocals)
  • Daniel Adair (drums, backing vocals)

Rating:

3.542 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings)

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

Before Nickelback became the go-to punching bag of 21st century rock, they were one of the most successful rock bands on the planet. They formed in 1995 in Alberta, Canada. Their first two albums, 1996’s Curb and 1998’s The State, only reached #182 and #130 on the Billboard album chart. In 2001, however, the band exploded with the success of #1 single “How You Remind Me” and its parent album, Silver Side Up, got to #2 and sold ten million copies worldwide.

The 2003 follow-up, The Long Road, was another hit peaking at #6 and selling five million worldwide. Then 2005’s All the Right Reasons became the commercial highlight of Nickelback’s career, topping the Billboard album chart and selling 18 million copies worldwide. It is one of only a handful of rock albums to generate five or more top-20 hits in the U.S. WK

At this point, the disconnect between fans and critics was apparent. AllMusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine called them “unspeakably awful,” STE a saying they “favor clumsy, plodding riffs, still incessantly rewrite the same chords and melody, still harmonize exactly the same way on every song, [and lead singer Chad] Kroeger still sounds as if he’s singing with a hernia [and] he still writes shockingly stupid lines.” STE The New York Times’ Kelefa Sanneh called the album “another brash but sullen CD with more of the worst rock lyrics ever recorded.” WK

On this, their fourth outing, “Nickelback ditches any pretense of being a grunge band and finally acknowledges they’re a straight-up heavy rock band. Not that they’ve left the angst of grunge behind…there’s lots of tortured emotions threaded throughout the 11 songs here. But where their previous albums roiled with anger – their breakthrough ‘How You Remind Me’ was not affectionate, it was snide and cynical – there’s a surprisingly large sentimental streak running throughout All the Right Reasons, and it’s not just limited to heart-on-sleeve power ballads like Far Away and Savin’ Me, the latter being the latest entry in their soundalike sweepstakes.” STE

“Kroeger is in a particularly pensive mood here, looking back fondly at his crazy times in high school on Photograph (‘Look at this photograph/ Every time I do it makes me laugh/ How did our eyes get so red?/ And what the hell is on Joey’s head?’), lamenting the murder of Dimebag Darrell on Side of a Bullet (where a Dimebag solo is overdubbed), and, most touching of all, imagining ‘the day when nobody died’ on If Everyone Cared.” STE

“Appropriately enough for an album that finds Kroeger’s emotional palette opening up, Nickelback try a few new things here, adding more pianos, keyboards, and acoustic guitars to not just their ballads, but a few of their big, anthemic rockers; they even sound a little bit light and limber on Someone That You’re With, the fastest tune here and a bit of relief after all the heavy guitars.” STE

In yet another vein, “despite the attempted sarcasm of Rockstar, he still shows no discernible sense of humor.” STE “All this makes for a more varied Nickelback album, but it doesn’t really change their essence.” STE

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First posted 2/19/2010; last updated 3/3/2024.

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Monday, August 8, 2005

Nickelback “Photograph” released

Photograph

Nickelback

Writer(s): Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake, Daniel Adair (see lyrics here)

Released: August 8, 2005

First Charted: August 20, 2005

Peak: 2 BB, 11 DG, 3 RR, 16 AC, 118 A40, 17 AR, 3 MR, 18 UK, 3 CN, 3 AU, 14 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.6 UK, 2.69 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.50 radio, 360.80 video, 377.58 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Poor Nickelback. They’ve become the punching bag of rock and roll in the 21st century. Sure, they aren’t exactly the equivalent of Beethoven, but it’s hard to grasp how a band who’ve sold more than 40 million albums have been ridiculed like they were a flash-in-the-pan one-hit wonder. The band was formed in 1995 by the Kroeger brothers Chad (vocals, guitar) and Mike (bass) with their cousin Brandon (drums) and Ryan Peake (rhythm guitar). The band cycled through a few drummers before Daniel Adair landed the job in 2005.

The group landed a #1 hit with “How You Remind Me” from their third album, 2001’s Silver Side Up. Their next album, 2003’s The Long Road, gaven them another top-10 hit. Their commercial peak, however, came in 2005. The band exploded in 2005 with their fifth album, All the Right Reasons. it sold 18 million copies worldwide and gave the band three more top-10 hits with “Photograph,” “Far Away,” and “Rockstar.”

The song “is about reviewing the memories - missed and forgotten - from the band's childhood in Hanna, Alberta. The lyrics are a chronicle of real events and personal landmarks lead singer Chad Kroeger recalled as he wrote it.” SF He said, “It’s just nostalgia, growing up in a small town, and you can’t go back to your childhood. Saying goodbye to friends that you’ve drifted away from, where you grew up, where you went to school, who you hung out with and the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid, the first love – all of those things. Everyone has one or two of those memories that they are fond of, so this song is really just the bridge for all that.” WK

The video was shot in Hanna, Alberta, with the band revisiting old stomping grounds. The photograph which Chad holds up in the video was the inspiration for the song. The picture is of him and Joey Moi, the band’s producer, at a New Year’s Eve party. In the song he says, “What the hell’s on Joey’s head?” It’s a chiller for champagne. SF The shot of Chad holding up the photo has become a meme with people substituting other images in the photograph.

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First posted 1/27/2026.

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Saturday, February 5, 1983

Def Leppard “Photograph” charted

Photograph

Def Leppard

Writer(s): Joe Elliott, Pete Willis, Rick Savage, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Steve Clark (see lyrics here)

Released: February 3, 1983

First Charted: February 5, 1983

Peak: 12 US, 13 CB, 23 GR, 16 RR, 16 AR, 66 UK, 32 CN, 4 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 22.61 video, 67.14 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Def Leppard formed in Sheffield, England, in 1976. Their first two albums generated three entries on the UK charts, none reaching higher than #45. 1983’s Pyromania, however, was a huge success in the United States, reaching #2 on the album chart and selling more than ten million copies. The album generated three top-40 hits and four top-10 hits on the album rock chart. Two songs, “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages,” went all the way to #1 on the latter chart.

“Photograph” was the lead single from the album and the band’s first chart entry in the United States, going all the way to #12. It had “all the makings of a crossover hit,” SF owing a debt to producer Mutt Lange, who’d previously worked on the band’s High N’ Dry album as well as the blockbuster albums Back in Black by AC/DC and Foreigner 4 by Foreigner. It featured his trademark sound of big, polished guitars alongside layered vocals.

“Nothing about ‘Photograph’ is second rate – this was the first time Def Leppard had finally utilized all their talent in creating a truly inescapable, infectious rock anthem.” AMG “The Marilyn Monroe-influenced lyrics are sleazy, and the vocals are filled with Joe Elliot's raw screeches.” AMG “This was the song that truly began and defined the pop-metal craze that would dominate the rock scene for the entire decade.” AMG

The video – which featured a Marilyn Monroe lookalike – became a phenom on MTV, wrangling its way to the all-time champion in the network’s Friday Night Video Fights, which pitted two videos against each other every Friday night and then allowing viewers to vote for their favorite. While lead singer Joe Elliott suggested the song was also about Monroe, WK the song is really about a more generic experience about young lust in which the song’s protagonist is crazy about this girl, but all he has is a photograph to remind him of her. WK

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First posted 12/28/2022.

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