Moving into the next stage of the Lange phenomenon, I want to look less at some multi-album dominance, and just peek at some of the one-offs that Mutt took on during the 80's and beyond.
Again, any great producer would look at what Mutt did with with Def Leppard and AC/DC and call it a huge success, and certainly the record labels had the same thought! Thus why he was brought in to produce several other big acts at the time, and to no surprise created massive successes.
We can rev it up again with Foreigner, who worked with Mutt on 1981's Foreigner 4. Having the songwriting reigns purely with Lou Graham and Mike Jones for the first time, and bringing in session players to complete the act (including a young Thomas Dolby), 4 delivered 3 top 10 singles, and made #1 on the Billboard album chart. Urgent, Juke Box Hero and Waiting for a Girl Like You put the band into the headlining arena rock category with Journey, Styx, and R.E.O. Speedwagon. Interestingly, the bands 2nd studio album Double Vision DID sell more copies (certified 7x platinum vs 4's 6x platinum), but two singles reached the top 10 from that album (Hot Blooded, and the title track). So although 4 didn't quite have the sales dominance, it created a culture and massive world tour backing. Did I mention Mutt also received a Grammy nomination for producer of the year?
Moving right along, the mid-80's continued to be successful for Mutt and any band he put his producing hands on.
With The Cars, Mutt produced Heartbeat City. Spawning two top ten singles (You Might Think, Drive) and two top twenty singles (Magic, Hello Again). Of course, to be noted here is the fact that this album came at the peak of the MTV dominance of cable television, and the band took full advantage of this by creating original and quirky videos for each of these songs.
The album itself reached #3 on Billboards album charts.
With Loverboy he was brought in to try and seal the wound with the departure of Mike Reno and guitarist/producer Tom Dean by writing a title track for Lovin' Every Minute of It. The track reached the top 10 status, and was the only highlight of an otherwise mediocre album (not produced by Mutt).
Then (just to mix it up) Mutt made the jump into the pop/R&B world to work with Billy Ocean, producing the hit single with perhaps the worst name ever for a hit single, "Get Out of My Dreams, Get into my Car".
Soon after Mutt teamed with Bryan Adams to create his smash-hit "Everything I Do, I Do it For You" written for Robin Hood-Prince of Thieves. Remember that one? Sorry. But as painful as it is to almost all members of the male sex, this song was a huge hit, and the movie did extremely well despite Kevin Costner.
OK, so point being, this is one of THE best producers/hit-makers of our time. This is a known fact to music geeks, but hopefully now a better known fact for most who just think that a hit single is sheer luck and great teeth (that's 50% of it).
The latter part of Mutts career spirals into a path of country-pop, Shania Twain gossip mag articles and seclusion. So I'm not going to go there. But I'm hopeful that he continues to produce, and that he'll find a way to again redefine himself within the world of rock. Nickelback's 2008 release, Dark Horse, had Mutt once again working in rock. However it seems that the combination here led to an attempt to get the band to continue on their familiar thread of big ballads and rock/country riffs, only this time with Mutt adding some of the elements that made his earlier rock album such a huge success. Certainly the album SOUNDS good, but it doesn't have the charisma and pure delight of his work in the 80's.
Regardless, I'm impressed with this career, and impressed that he's been able to redefine, reestablish and influence a generation of bands and producers.
Jack this is great stuff. Had no idea our musical paths were so entwined. I used to write the scripts for the Headbangers Ball on MTV.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk over a few brews.
best
Andrew