Hit Paraders top 100 Bassists, Guitarists and Vocalists of all time

The issue would be too long for me to post them all here but I will give you the rundown on Def Leppard's ranking in the new issue of Hit Paraders top 100 Bassists, Guitarists and Vocalists of ALL time.

Categories

Top 100 Bassists of all time and ranking at #72

Rick Savage

Top 100 Drummers of all time, ranking at #47 Rick Allen

Top 10 European Bassists ranking at #8

Rick Savage

Top 10 European drummers ranking at # 5 Rick Allen

Top 100 Guitarists ranking at #8

Steve Clark

Top ten Guitar Duos ranking at # 8

Phil Collen and Steve Clark

Top 100 Guitarists ranking at #69

Phil Collen (Hit Parader gives him the unsung hero award)

Steve Clark at #67

Viv Campbell at # 62 (Hit Parader says Viv is the most respected Guitarist)

Now THIS is an odd category

Top 10 MOST Neglected Guitarists ranking at # 5

Phil Collen

Top 10 Non American Non English Guitarists ranking at # 4

Viv Campbell

Top 100 Vocalists of all time ranking at #30

Joe Elliott (Hit Parader says he hardly makes women swoon at the mere mention of his name)

Top Hair Metal Vocalists ranking at #10

Joe Elliott

It's great to see the boys still making it in the top 100 in the very magazine that used to feature them on the Front Cover at least four times a year. However, things have changed and Def Leppard no longer graces the covers of magazines BUT they are still among the most popular bands and will always rank #1 in the eyes of their fans and after 30 years of music, I think they have earned their place in history as a band that will forever be a part of the people that made them famous.

We should ask Hit Parader, Metal Edge, Classic Rock Magazine, just what it takes to make the cover now days if you were the band that everyone talked about when you first made it big.

It seems to be a contest of who can make THEM the most money and who seems to be the most talked about, THOSE are the bands that make the covers and if you fall between the cracks as the newer bands come out and pinch the asses of the critics and the magazine people, then you seem to be no longer important.

I have yet to figure out why Def Leppard is less important than bands like Velvet Revolver or more important, depends on who you ask about it when the members are made up of bands that no longer exist in original format, three of the members, formerly of Guns N Roses and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and they are a new group as in newly formed but old as in being already established as being from former bands that were once one of the the hottest bands around and getting together to form another band.

Guns N Roses and Stone Temple Pilots were popular at the same time as Def Leppard and at the height of Guns N Roses popularity, Slash, Axl and Duff had a big falling out and Slash, Duff and Matt Sorum left the group after Axl's temper and their differences ripped them apart.

Def Leppard's obstacles over the years were not within their control and Def Leppard seemed to be cursed with Rick Allen's accident in 84 and Steve's passing in 91.

At the height of their own fame, Def Leppard began to wonder if perhaps it wasn't meant to be because they kept getting hit with all these things that kept happening, possibly keeping them from becoming bigger than the Beatles but that is a shot in the dark, considering the Beatles would go down in history as having made a dent in the fame of Elvis Presley and when you become bigger than the most Idolized man from the late 60's on, you could choke on trying to become bigger then them.

Most of the bands that made it big at the same time as Def Leppard are either in other bands, after the original bands broke up or simply don't exist anymore and or were devastated by tragedy like the death of Robin Crosby of Ratt, who died of complications of AIDS.

Def Leppard idolized Queen and in looking at this issue of Hit Parader today, I can't even recall Freddy Mercury being mentioned but maybe I missed it. Who does the ranking for their lists? Would the fans change things if it were up to them?

I remember my issues of Hit Parader back in the 80's when Def Leppard were on the cover and pulling out the wall posters and plastering them on my walls as a teenager. I may be biased but I thought the rock of the 80's at the height of popularity were the best and only the best bands have survived the test of time and Def Leppard is among them, how many other bands can say that in the time of 80's rock to now?

Keep those issues of Hit Parader if you have them, treasure them and years from now, look at them again and remember Def Leppard in their most shining moment and in the present because they will always be a part of our lives.

As the new tour continues, Def Leppard is once again bringing the 80's back to life and marking a place for style and class into the present and the future.

This issue of Hit Parader, is on the shelves now. Buy it today. To suscribe online go to Hit Parader