Time again for that fun little game where I line up a bunch of different songs with the same name and see what’s what. The first one I did was a total no-contest but this time around we’ve got a fight on our hands. I’m personally familiar with two of the songs and have been discovering some other stuff as I’ve searched around for more with the same name.

Our song today is Hysteria. One entry will be ultra-obvious and another almost as evident. But beyond those this is a decently-used song title so I had to sort them down a bit. We have a range of contenders from different parts of the music spectrum to choose from today.

As always with these, this is not a complete list of artists who’ve recorded a song with this name. There are quite a few for this one and I’m not including everyone.

Ceremony

I’ll lead off with a new-to-me band that I found by searching “hysteria” on Spotify. This was the first unfamiliar result that came up and, well, I guess I’m the one who has been missing out. Ceremony are a punk rock outfit from California and are noted for changing their formula across albums.

Ceremony’s version of Hysteria comes from their 2012 album Zoo and was a single release as well. This is a really nice song and I’ve been jamming out to more of the band since running across them for this post. And this tune will bear consideration in the final voting even with the heavyweights it’s up against.

Def Leppard

Likely the most known variant of this song, it’s the title track from the 1987 album where the British rockers literally took over the world. This album was all-conquering and was everywhere for eons. Hysteria is one of the album’s seven (!) singles.

Not much to discuss here, this is one early favorite to win the contest. They do have obvious competition and some not-as-obvious, but winning this would just be another day at the park for this monstrous song and album.

Poppy

This one is interesting – it’s from an artist who started on YouTube by acting like an android or something then eventually wound up doing her own music. Her version of Hysteria is from her 2021 album Flux.

This cut is honestly pretty cool. Poppy appears to operate somewhat in the dreampop/shoegaze space, stuff I’m cool with but not radically familiar with either. While I don’t think this song has what it takes to win this little contest I can say I didn’t mind at all checking it out.

Gothic Sex

This name showed up when I looked on a website that catalogs this “different song, same name” stuff I’m looking for. Just imagine what you’d get if you searched for “gothic sex” on Google. The band was active in the 1990’s but does not appear to have been active since the turn of the millennium and information about them is far more scarce than people engaging in the activity.

Hysteria is from their 1994 album Divided We Fall. The song is kinda cool, kinda goofy. I don’t mind it but I don’t think this new-to-me entrant will be walking away with the trophy today.

Muse

The other known quantity in this exercise, the other British rockers are here with a hit song from their hit album. It comes from their 2003 album Absolution, regarded by several to be their best.

Hysteria features one of music’s most well-done bass lines and is a dark descent into falling apart over being into someone who can’t be had. The video features Justin Theroux having a shirtless shitfit. This version of Hysteria is right up alongside Def Leppard’s as a favorite to win the contest.

Scooter

This German outfit is apparently very successful, is described as a “happy hardcore” rave/techno outfit, and I don’t want to talk about them anymore or go over any of this shit so here’s the song that’s clearly not going to win my award chosen by me.

I’ll go ahead and cut off the entries here because I’m not doing any more of that. Out of six contestants there are three worth considering – Ceremony, Def Leppard and Muse. Ceremony’s entry is nice but I’ll have to pass it over in favor of one of the two British rock acts.

But now I have a much bigger decision on my hands than it may seem to some. Yes, Leppard’s title track is part of one of music’s most celebrated albums. But the Muse effort is from what’s widely recognized as their best albums and it’s also, at least on my list, close to the top of their best overall songs.

I went over both tracks for a little while and I even thought about calling it a tie. But that’s a cop-out. After much deliberation, the winner is Muse.

It does seem odd to pick against the titanic Def Leppard track, but Muse does edge it out for me. Maybe it was shirtless Justin Theroux who put it over the top.

Congrats to the winners and all of the entrants (except Scooter wtf was that) and I’ll be back later for another battle of different songs that are the same.