Pour Some Sugar on Me

Production

Near the end of recording the album Hysteria, during a production break, lead singer Joe Elliott was jamming with a riff he had come up with two weeks earlier on an acoustic guitar. Producer Mutt Lange, expressing great liking of it, suggested that it be developed into another song. Although already behind schedule, Lange felt that the album was still missing a strong crossover hit and that this last song had the potential to be one. Within two weeks the song was completed, smoothed out, and included as the twelfth track on Hysteria.

By the spring of 1988, Hysteria had sold 3 million copies, but it still was not enough to cover the album's production costs (the most expensive ever at the time). Thus, the band edited footage from an upcoming concert film to make a new promo clip for "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and finally released it as the third single in North America.

Joe Elliott got the name of the song when he was sitting in the basement of his London flat. He asked Mutt Lange for some sugar to put in his tea. Lange, in return, asked Elliott if he wanted one lump or two and Elliott said, "I don't care, just pour some sugar on me" and the name stuck.

Reception

The somewhat delayed success of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (due to the new promo release) sent sales of Hysteria higher than the band ever imagined. It reached number 1 on the Top Pop Albums chart (now the Billboard 200) a year after release, and sold four million copies during the single's run. The song reached number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (denied the top spot by "Hold On to the Nights" by Richard Marx), number 18 in the UK Singles Chart and number 26 on the ARIA charts (Australia).

MTV ranked "Pour Some Sugar on Me" number 1 in its "Top 300 Videos of All Time" countdown in May 1991. In 2006, VH1 ranked the song number 2 on its list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the '80s." AVN ranked the song as the "#1 song used by strippers during their set" of all time.

In 2012 due to royalty conflicts with their record company regarding profits from online sales, the band re-recorded the song, along with "Rock of Ages", under the title "Pour Some Sugar on Me 2012" and released both digitally in June 2012 (similarly, a re-recorded version of the single "Hysteria" entitled "Hysteria (2013 Re-Recorded Version)" was also released online the following year).

Music video

Two different music videos for the song were produced. The first version shows the band playing inside a derelict Irish stately home (Mount Merrion House at Stillorgan, Dublin) while it is being demolished by wrecking-balls and a burly, sledgehammer-wielding, female construction worker. Generally disliked by the band members, and filmed before "Pour Some Sugar on Me" became a huge mega-hit in the US, a second video simply of the band playing the song live was released for American MTV (the original video was only ever shown in the UK). The American video was edited from the band’s full-length 1989 video release, “Live: In the Round in Your Face”, recorded at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, CO, in February 1988. The music video for the song had an extended, distortion-laden intro in lieu of the album version’s “Step inside, walk this way” intro. Most compilations use the extended music video-style intro. (deflepparduk tour history)

Intros

There are two intros to the song. The studio version which has "Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey!" and then cuts right to the guitar; and the single version which has "love is like a bomb" which has a slightly longer progression to it.

Cover versions

In popular culture

Track listing

7": Bludgeon Riffola / Mercury / 870 298-7 (USA)

1. "Pour Some Sugar on Me"
2. "Ring of Fire"

US Vinyl, 12"

1. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" [Extended Version]
2. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" [Album Version]
3. "I Wanna Be Your Hero"

CD single: Bludgeon Riffola / Mercury / 8724872 (Germany)

1. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" [Extended Version]
2. "Release Me"
3. "Rock of Ages" [Live Medley]