Def Leppard

Released: May 14, 1996

Songwriter: Phil Collen

Producer: Def Leppard Pete Woodroffe

[Verse 1]
Let me down slow and easy
Because there ain't nothing I can do
I hope and pray, my faith won't leave me
When it comes down to me and you

[Chorus 1]
Try a little tenderness
I die a little
For a long lost sweet caress

[Chorus 2]
You lying next to me
Fulfilled some destiny
I want to cry
But I breathe a sigh
Just a little bit of letting go
I don't want you to know
I want to cry
But I breathe a sigh

[Verse 2]
Overflow of emotion
And a hurt that'll never heal
If you close the door forever
The fate of pain is sealed

[Chorus 1]

[Chorus 2]

[Verse 3]
I more than long for your affection
You tell me now that ain't so
Not even gentle persuasion
Is ever going to let me go

[Chorus 2]

[Outro]
Won't you let me breathe?
Won't you let me breathe?
Let me breathe
Won't you let me breathe?
Breathe a sigh
Won't you let me breathe?
Won't you let me breathe?
Breathe a sigh
Won't you let me breathe?

In 1977, Rick Savage, Tony Kenning, and Pete Willis were students at a secondary school in Sheffield, England. They had a band called Atomic Mass. Lead singer Joe Elliott joined later that year, and suggested a new band name. Within 10 years, that name, Def Leppard, became one of the most recognised in English rock music. To date, they have released more than 40 singles.

Def Leppard was a definitive part of the new wave of British heavy metal bands in the late 1970s. Their first three albums had tremendous momentum, each outselling the one before. Then, after the release of Pyromania in 1983, drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident. The band stuck by him through his recovery and retraining.

When Def Leppard came back, they came back hard. Their fourth album, 1987’s Hysteria, was a hard rock masterpiece that took the world by storm. By then the music video had matured as a film style, and Hysteria’s singles and videos had enough pop, sex, colour, and glam to put it over the top. Hysteria was one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1980s.

more tracks from the album

Slang

From the album

Slang (1996)

Def Leppard popular songs

Breathe a SighDef Leppard

Def Leppard

Slang