Robert John "Mutt" Lange, music producer and songwriter
Created | Updated Aug 23, 2002
If you've been anywhere on the blue planet for the last twenty years, you will have listened to and enjoyed at least one piece of music which this man has worked on.
This is no idle statement, it's true! Let me demonstrate.
If you're a metal or hard rock fan, two names stand tall - Def Leppard and AC/DC. Think of classic Def Leppard rockers like Pour Some Sugar On Me or the AC/DC shockers Highway To Hell and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).
If you go for a lighter brand of rock, Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do It For You), Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Have you Ever Really Loved A Woman? or Foreigner - Waiting For A Girl Like You.
Punk fans - Boomtown Rats.
If you went in for synth-rock, try The Cars. Remember their song Drive - theme song of Live Aid?
For light pop, Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car or When The Going Gets Tough - or Michael Bolton's Said I Loved You But I Lied. Or The Corrs (Breathless) for that special Irish touch. Even Heart's smash All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You.
Boy band - Backstreet Boys, or even Boyzone. For a treat, Britney Spears.
Even country has not escaped - this man is married to, writes songs for and has produced the last two albums from Shania Twain.
I kid you not. Each and every one of these artists has been touched by the sheer magic.
The Early Years
Our story begins in 1975 when a South African guitarist, Robert John Lange, turns up in London. A production career begins with City Boy (their self-titled 1975 debut).
But our man Lange soon gets noticed for his near-brutal perfectionist style. Bob Geldof's band, The Boomtown Rats, uses his services for their 1977 eponymous debut. And a legend is born. Lange goes on to produce XTC's "White Music" the following year and the Rats' second effort "Tonic for the Troops".
AC/DC
Stardom hits in 1979, though. Brash up-and-coming Aussie rock act AC/DC decide to move from the somewhat raw production that characterised their early work to move into the big league. The result is Highway To Hell, the album that catapulted them onto the world stage and made Lange's reputation with the crisp production of classic tracks including the title track itself and songs like Shot Down In Flames, Girls Got Rhythm and If You Want Blood (You Got It). Lange would then produce the next AC/DC album, Back In Black, which would go on to sell over sixteen million copies worldwide and dominate rock radio playlists ever since - with the smash hits Back In Black, Hells Bells, Shoot To Thrill and the enduring You Shook Me All Night Long. A third album, For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) would follow, with the exquisitely produced title track complete with cannons blasting cememnting AC/DC's place in rock history.
Foreigner
Mutt would soon be rock producer in demand. Foreigner, purveyors of a lighter brand of rock who had already struck it big with a string of successful albums, hired Lange to produce them. Foreigner's fourth album 4 would come out in 1981, and despite public disagreements between guitarist and co-producer Mick Jones and Lange, the album would go on to become Foreigner's biggest yet - with hits including the instant classic Waiting For a Girl Like You, and the rock radio staples Juke Box Hero and Urgent.
Def Leppard
But the best was yet to come. In early 1980, Lange came across a young British band who, just signed, were managed by Peter Mansch (who also managed AC/DC at the time). Lange was impressed by the mature songwriting, and the vocal harmonies (unusual indeed for a British rock band!). Def Leppard, the band, were on their part impressed by the production quality they'd heard on the AC/DC records - and settled down to wait while Lange finished work on the Foreigner album. Leppard had been disappointed with the production work of Tom Allom (Judas Priest) on their rushed first album and were desperately looking for their big break.
The result was the towering album High 'N' Dry. Def Leppard had gone from being yet another raw band that just couldn't play fast enough to being a slick, radio-friendly rock act with sparkling backing vocals, a polished drum sound, twin guitars weaving in and out of each other and with a throbbing bass adding real crunch to the rhythm section. The result was an album with slower songs than the Leps' previous effort - but not lacking in any of the punch. From the testosterone-fuelled "Let It Go" and "Another Hit and Run" to the runaway MTV hit ballad "Bringin' On The Heartbreak", Lange had hit upon a winner. Metal purists derided the new, shiny sound, but audiophiles everywhere could not but notice the crisp, layered production values.
With both Leppard and Lange happy, the band began planning the third Def Leppard album Pyromania. Here, though, Mutt presented the band with a proposition they could not turn down. Mutt's idea was that rather than him just producing songs already written by the band, he
would actually co-write them, and build the songs together as they were being written. "Pyromania" would take months to complete as Lange and his assistant Mike Shipley (now a major producer in his own right) would strive to attain the levels of perfection he wanted. "Pyromania" would be a landmark album for both Lange and Def Leppard, who would jokingly refer to him as their sixth member!
Hit after hit storned the charts from the album, which eventually made it out in early 1983, though Mutt as a reclusive figure would never hit the public eye. "Photograph", "Foolin'" and "Rock of Ages" would all become instant anthems. Hard Rock as the 80s would really know was born, as the album would go on to inspire many a copycat band and producer. Mutt had transformed a raw New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) band into a more mature and polished act with raw power tempered with classy pop sensibilities.
The Cars
As the band embarked on tour, Mutt turned his attention to other projects. Almost as if to prove he wasn't to be pigeonholed as a hard rock man, he took on The Cars' Heartbeat City album project. The result was a synth-driven album with a few tastefully placed licks and guitar crunches and the hallmark sound Lange had made his own. Instantly recognisable as a Mutt Lange album, the hits included the quiet and serene Drive - which would become the theme for Live Aid - and Magic.
Def Leppard again - Hysteria
Exhausted and burnt out, Mutt turned down the next Def Leppard album as a project to work on, even though he had taken part in the the early songwriting stages. Def Leppard began abortive attempts at working with Jim Steinman (the man behind Meat Loaf) and producing themselves with another of Lange's assistants, Nigel Green. As things were to happen, Mutt would eventually end up producing the album - one which many regard as the single finest piece of his work. Hysteria, to this day the largest selling hard rock or heavy metal album ever, was a statement that nobody could do the sound better than the man himself. Three years and several million dollars in the making - the album would feature hit after hit after hit - Women, Animal, Hysteria, Armageddon It, Rocket, the classic ballad Love Bites, and the wonder of it all, the true anthem, the raunchy classic Pour Some Sugar On Me. Def Leppard were now far removed from their metal roots - but Mutt Lange had found the band he could work best with. Gods of War is regarded as one of the finest examples of the crafting of a wall of sound, while the section of Hysteria just before the guitar solo is often used by audiophiles in evaluating hi-fidelity equipment.
Bryan Adams
Shania Twain
This is no idle statement, it's true! Let me demonstrate.
If you're a metal or hard rock fan, two names stand tall - Def Leppard and AC/DC. Think of classic Def Leppard rockers like Pour Some Sugar On Me or the AC/DC shockers Highway To Hell and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).
If you go for a lighter brand of rock, Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do It For You), Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Have you Ever Really Loved A Woman? or Foreigner - Waiting For A Girl Like You.
Punk fans - Boomtown Rats.
If you went in for synth-rock, try The Cars. Remember their song Drive - theme song of Live Aid?
For light pop, Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car or When The Going Gets Tough - or Michael Bolton's Said I Loved You But I Lied. Or The Corrs (Breathless) for that special Irish touch. Even Heart's smash All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You.
Boy band - Backstreet Boys, or even Boyzone. For a treat, Britney Spears.
Even country has not escaped - this man is married to, writes songs for and has produced the last two albums from Shania Twain.
I kid you not. Each and every one of these artists has been touched by the sheer magic.
The Early Years
Our story begins in 1975 when a South African guitarist, Robert John Lange, turns up in London. A production career begins with City Boy (their self-titled 1975 debut).
But our man Lange soon gets noticed for his near-brutal perfectionist style. Bob Geldof's band, The Boomtown Rats, uses his services for their 1977 eponymous debut. And a legend is born. Lange goes on to produce XTC's "White Music" the following year and the Rats' second effort "Tonic for the Troops".
AC/DC
Stardom hits in 1979, though. Brash up-and-coming Aussie rock act AC/DC decide to move from the somewhat raw production that characterised their early work to move into the big league. The result is Highway To Hell, the album that catapulted them onto the world stage and made Lange's reputation with the crisp production of classic tracks including the title track itself and songs like Shot Down In Flames, Girls Got Rhythm and If You Want Blood (You Got It). Lange would then produce the next AC/DC album, Back In Black, which would go on to sell over sixteen million copies worldwide and dominate rock radio playlists ever since - with the smash hits Back In Black, Hells Bells, Shoot To Thrill and the enduring You Shook Me All Night Long. A third album, For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) would follow, with the exquisitely produced title track complete with cannons blasting cememnting AC/DC's place in rock history.
Foreigner
Mutt would soon be rock producer in demand. Foreigner, purveyors of a lighter brand of rock who had already struck it big with a string of successful albums, hired Lange to produce them. Foreigner's fourth album 4 would come out in 1981, and despite public disagreements between guitarist and co-producer Mick Jones and Lange, the album would go on to become Foreigner's biggest yet - with hits including the instant classic Waiting For a Girl Like You, and the rock radio staples Juke Box Hero and Urgent.
Def Leppard
But the best was yet to come. In early 1980, Lange came across a young British band who, just signed, were managed by Peter Mansch (who also managed AC/DC at the time). Lange was impressed by the mature songwriting, and the vocal harmonies (unusual indeed for a British rock band!). Def Leppard, the band, were on their part impressed by the production quality they'd heard on the AC/DC records - and settled down to wait while Lange finished work on the Foreigner album. Leppard had been disappointed with the production work of Tom Allom (Judas Priest) on their rushed first album and were desperately looking for their big break.
The result was the towering album High 'N' Dry. Def Leppard had gone from being yet another raw band that just couldn't play fast enough to being a slick, radio-friendly rock act with sparkling backing vocals, a polished drum sound, twin guitars weaving in and out of each other and with a throbbing bass adding real crunch to the rhythm section. The result was an album with slower songs than the Leps' previous effort - but not lacking in any of the punch. From the testosterone-fuelled "Let It Go" and "Another Hit and Run" to the runaway MTV hit ballad "Bringin' On The Heartbreak", Lange had hit upon a winner. Metal purists derided the new, shiny sound, but audiophiles everywhere could not but notice the crisp, layered production values.
With both Leppard and Lange happy, the band began planning the third Def Leppard album Pyromania. Here, though, Mutt presented the band with a proposition they could not turn down. Mutt's idea was that rather than him just producing songs already written by the band, he
would actually co-write them, and build the songs together as they were being written. "Pyromania" would take months to complete as Lange and his assistant Mike Shipley (now a major producer in his own right) would strive to attain the levels of perfection he wanted. "Pyromania" would be a landmark album for both Lange and Def Leppard, who would jokingly refer to him as their sixth member!
Hit after hit storned the charts from the album, which eventually made it out in early 1983, though Mutt as a reclusive figure would never hit the public eye. "Photograph", "Foolin'" and "Rock of Ages" would all become instant anthems. Hard Rock as the 80s would really know was born, as the album would go on to inspire many a copycat band and producer. Mutt had transformed a raw New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) band into a more mature and polished act with raw power tempered with classy pop sensibilities.
The Cars
As the band embarked on tour, Mutt turned his attention to other projects. Almost as if to prove he wasn't to be pigeonholed as a hard rock man, he took on The Cars' Heartbeat City album project. The result was a synth-driven album with a few tastefully placed licks and guitar crunches and the hallmark sound Lange had made his own. Instantly recognisable as a Mutt Lange album, the hits included the quiet and serene Drive - which would become the theme for Live Aid - and Magic.
Def Leppard again - Hysteria
Exhausted and burnt out, Mutt turned down the next Def Leppard album as a project to work on, even though he had taken part in the the early songwriting stages. Def Leppard began abortive attempts at working with Jim Steinman (the man behind Meat Loaf) and producing themselves with another of Lange's assistants, Nigel Green. As things were to happen, Mutt would eventually end up producing the album - one which many regard as the single finest piece of his work. Hysteria, to this day the largest selling hard rock or heavy metal album ever, was a statement that nobody could do the sound better than the man himself. Three years and several million dollars in the making - the album would feature hit after hit after hit - Women, Animal, Hysteria, Armageddon It, Rocket, the classic ballad Love Bites, and the wonder of it all, the true anthem, the raunchy classic Pour Some Sugar On Me. Def Leppard were now far removed from their metal roots - but Mutt Lange had found the band he could work best with. Gods of War is regarded as one of the finest examples of the crafting of a wall of sound, while the section of Hysteria just before the guitar solo is often used by audiophiles in evaluating hi-fidelity equipment.
Bryan Adams
Shania Twain
