Because of his reticence to take the spotlight, you won’t find many instances of famed music producer Robert John Lange, more familiarly known by his nickname “Mutt,” patting himself on the back. But we’re here to tell you that no producer made more of an impact than Lange in the rock and roll world during an incredibly prolific stretch from the late 1970s through the early ’90s.
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Lange could pretty much do no wrong for that time period. Here are five rock artists from that era whose fortunes took a drastic turn for the better thanks to his stewardship.
AC/DC
Lange had already been chief producer on a few dozen albums or so before he worked with the Australian hard rockers. But if you’re looking for a turning point in his career, that moment where his work started to dent the mainstream, the band’s 1979 album Highway to Hell is a good place to start. He turbocharged the riffs off Angus and Malcolm Young so the band sounded heavier than ever before. Even more impressive was his work on Back in Black in 1980, as he helped AC/DC make the switch from the deceased Bon Scott to Brian Johnson at lead singer in seamless fashion.
Foreigner
Foreigner already came equipped with someone possessing strong production skills in guitarist and chief songwriter Mick Jones. But Jones was willing to cede some of the control to Lange when the band recorded the album 4 in 1981. Lange aided the band in modernizing their sound via synthesizers, which, on this album, were often played by special guest Thomas Dolby, a future pop star in his own right. It’s difficult to imagine these hard rockers engineering a groove as swinging as the hit single “Urgent” before Lange came along.
Def Leppard
Lange first started working with these Brits on the 1981 album High ‘n’ Dry. But the pairing truly started to gel on their next record Pyromania, released in 1983. When working with Def Leppard, Lange was involved in every aspect of the music’s creation, right down to the songwriting. It’s probably no coincidence then these guys who were considered heavy metal in their early days started leaning toward pop and glam rock tendencies. By the time they all got together again on Hysteria in 1987, the winning formula they’d developed was pretty much unstoppable.
The Cars
There are probably some Cars fans who would argue that Heartbeat City, the one album where Lange helped produce the band, isn’t representative of their best work. There’s no doubt the softer, pop-friendly edges of a song like “Magic” probably wouldn’t have made it onto other Cars’ records. But Lange served his purpose in that he made these guys, known for their stoic performances and ironic distance, more accessible. His presence was worthwhile if for nothing else than the special production glow he cast upon “Drive,” the band’s definitive ballad.
Bryan Adams
Four years removed from his previous album, which had been a commercial letdown following the peaks of records like Reckless, Bryan Adams regrouped and tried to find a way to keep his footing as the ’80s became the ’90s. In stepped Lange to help out, both with production and songwriting. Lange allegedly drove a hard bargain when it came to that latter aspect, pushing Adams to the brink in search of elite material. But it all paid off, as Adams surged back to the upper echelon of the charts and delivered one of his biggest ever singles in the ballad “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You.”
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