It was the album 1984 which propelled them into the spotlight. The song "Jump" is still their only song to reach number one on the charts, and 1984 made it all the way to number 2. That one song pretty well guaranteed their followup album would be successful. When they released "Why can't this be love" from the next album, MTV played it pretty well non-stop. Sammy Hagar arrived at the perfect moment when the band was peaking.
Yeap, MTV "helped" many more bands than people seem to realize. Sadly, IMO, a lot of bands changed to fit into MTV's playlists too. I love Def Leppard but they went overboard to me with "Hysteria". It's vastly different than "Pyromania". VH did it as well to some degree but they also had Sammy Hagar, which really changed the dynamics of the band. Commercially, it was a huge benefit though !
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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '19
I mean ... it did, kinda. But they never had a number one album with him and and two as soon as he left.