Def Leppard

Released: May 23, 2006

Songwriter: Alan Hull

Producer: Def Leppard

When winter's shadowy fingers
First pursue you down the street
And your boots no longer lie
About the cold around your feet
Do you spare a thought for summer whose passage is complete?
Whose memories lie in ruins
And whose ruins lie in heat ?
When winter...
Comes howling in

When the wind is singing strangely
Blowing music through your head
And your rain splattered windows
Make you decide to stay in bed
Do you spare a thought for the homeless tramp who wishes he was dead?
Or do you pull the bed-clothes higher
Dream of summertime instead?
When winter...
Comes howling in

The creeping cold has fingers
That caress without permission
And mystic crystal snowdrops
Only aggravate the condition
Do you spare one thought for the gypsy with no secure position?
Who's turned and spurned by village and town
At the magistrate's decision?
When winter...
Comes howling in

When the turkey's in the oven
And the Christmas presents are bought
And Santa's in his module
He's an American astronaut
Do you spare one thought for Jesus, who had nothing but his thoughts?
Who got busted just for talking
And befriending the wrong sorts?
When winter...
Comes howling in

When winter...
Comes...
Howling...
In

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

Yeah!

From the album

Yeah! (2006)

Def Leppard popular songs

Winter SongDef Leppard

Def Leppard

Yeah!