DEF LEPPARD Guitarist: Radio Single Needed

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell spoke to Canada's ChartAttack.com about the group's recently released (in Europe) second retrospective disc, "Best of Def Leppard". The collection was set for release, shelved, then set for release with conditions, for North America in December. The group's record company, it seems, want a fresh original to use as a single for the album, and the European single, a cover of THE KINKS' "Waterloo Sunset", has been ruled out for release in the U.S.

"They've heard a few songs from the covers record," said Campbell. "I'm not sure how many. But 'Waterloo Sunset' was probably the most single-potential and they obviously don't feel that it is — I don't know why. Maybe it's the song or our version of it. But of the covers record, we cut 14 tracks, of which 'Waterloo Sunset' is one. And 'Waterloo Sunset' is far and away the most DEF LEPPARD-sounding of all 14 songs. I mean, if you didn't know it was a cover, you'd swear it was a DEF LEPPARD song. It just sounds so LEPPARD; it's got a lot of LEPPARD cues to it."

With regards to the band's upcoming covers album, which is tentatively planned for release next spring, Campbell said, "We cut that covers record last January and February. And the songs that we cut for that were songs from our youth, songs that we grew up listening to on the radio in England and Ireland, a lot of glam rock. And it was obviously a very different and more innocent era for music. And I think we're going to allow ourselves to be carried along that particular way, for the next record, have that try to influence our writing a bit, be a bit more innocent and to be perhaps a little less methodical."

Read the ChartAttack.com article at this location.