Pour Some Sugar on Me Edition Part 1

Summary

Podcast Summary: Hit Parade | Pour Some Sugar on Me Edition Part 1

Host: Chris Molanphy
Date: November 15, 2025
Theme: The rise, sound, and influence of super-producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, and his anthemic approach to pop and rock from the 1970s to the 2000s—with particular focus on his era-defining work with bands like AC/DC, Foreigner, and Def Leppard.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Chris Molanphy dives deep into the career of the enigmatic producer Mutt Lange. As the architect behind hits for Def Leppard, Billy Ocean, AC/DC, Foreigner, Shania Twain, and more, Lange remains one of pop history's most influential—and mysterious—background figures. The episode dissects his signature sound, trail-blazing production techniques, and career-defining collaborations, exploring how he shaped decades of music and made his artists stadium-filling superstars.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Makes a Smash Hit? The "Mutt Lange Touch"

• Both Def Leppard’s “Hysteria” and Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” soared up the charts simultaneously in 1988—linked by shared producer Mutt Lange.
• [03:43] Chris Molanphy:
  "Both hits had the same sonic craftsman... When artists across the genre spectrum wanted a hit that made fans throw their hands in the air, they called in Mutt."

2. Mutt Lange’s Signature: Rock Maximalism Across Genres

• Lange is equated with "maximalism"—even his non-rock productions (e.g., Shania Twain) have a stadium-filling bombast.
• Crafted “arena rock,” pushing bands toward a grand, anthemic sound regardless of genre.

3. Comparing the Producer Elite

• Molanphy contextualizes Lange among other super-producers (Phil Spector, George Martin, Quincy Jones, Max Martin, etc.), highlighting both how he fits the archetype and defies it.
• Max Martin and Mutt Lange: Both are “hit machines” who prefer privacy. But Mutt is even more elusive.
• Quote: [17:13] Chris Molanphy:
  "For all the ostentatiousness of his signature sound, Mutt Lange has largely remained invisible throughout his career..."

4. A Rare Voice: Mutt Lange Speaks

• An excerpt from a nearly unique BBC interview reveals Lange’s collaborative, transformative approach:
  [18:06] Mutt Lange:
  "Don't fall in love with what you bring, because we're going to change it a hell of a lot, if not totally ... just that openness completely."

5. Early Roots and Career Beginnings

• Born in southern Africa (then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), raised in Durban, South Africa; early love for country and Slim Whitman.
• His youthful band projects (Sound Reason, Hocus) and collaborations with first wife Stevie Van.
• Move to London, their fleeting duo, and eventual split—as Stevie briefly outpaced Mutt in chart success.

6. First Forays Into Production

• Early studio reputation for meticulousness; first notable production was Graham Parker’s Heat Treatment.
• City Boy’s “5.7.0.5.” (his first American Top 40 hit) hinted at his signature sound: layered vocals, fist-pumping choruses.

7. Breakthrough with The Boomtown Rats

• Produced their first-ever UK #1 (“Rat Trap”).
• Narrowly missed their biggest hit “I Don’t Like Mondays” as he’d moved on by then.

8. Pivotal Partnership: AC/DC and the Rise of Arena Rock

• Atlantic executives see US potential in AC/DC—Mutt Lange agrees to produce.
• Highway to Hell (1979): First top-20 US LP for both band and producer.
• After Bon Scott’s death, Lange “nudges” the band to recruit Brian Johnson, resulting in Back in Black (1980)—one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• [37:26] Chris Molanphy:
  "[Back in Black] was so funky it would later be sampled in more than 50 hip hop tracks."

9. Foreigner: Perfecting the Arena Power Ballad

• Produced 4 (1981), yielding hits “Urgent” (feat. Junior Walker) and “Waiting for a Girl Like You”—the latter still holds the record for longest stay at #2 on the Hot 100 without hitting #1 (10 weeks).
• Brought in Thomas Dolby to play/arrange keyboards, effectively launching Dolby’s career.

10. The Def Leppard Transformation

• Took Leppard from New Wave of British Heavy Metal upstarts to global pop/rock phenomenon.
• Pyromania (1983): Three Top 40 hits, near-diamond sales, iconic singles like “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages.”
• Mutt’s quirky approach: e.g., the “Gunter glieben glauchen globen” intro (his made-up German counting) [Rock of Ages].

11. Versatility & Diversification

• Wrote and produced for Huey Lewis & The News ("Do You Believe in Love," their first Top 10 hit).
• Produced The Cars’ Heartbeat City (5 Top 40 hits), including “You Might Think,” “Magic,” and the epic ballad “Drive.”
• Shifted into dance-pop with Billy Ocean (“Loverboy,” “When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going”—both #2 pop hits).

12. Mutt Lange Mystique and Studio Perfectionism

• Known for staggering perfectionism and pop instincts; artists either thrive or burn out under his style (e.g., The Cars split after working with him).
• His desire for privacy—very little press, rare interviews, almost no public persona, unlike most superstar producers.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [05:24] Chris Molanfi:
  “Twain’s twangy hits had Mutt’s signature stadium rocking qualities too... Even as he was hiding from the media, Mutt Lange’s signature sound was taking over the radio.”

• [18:36] Chris Molanfi:
  “Once you’ve identified the sound of a Mutt hit, you can’t unhear it. So think of Mutt as the mystery man of pop production—a background figure who is never fully in the background.”

• [40:30] Mutt Lange (on producing Foreigner’s “Urgent”):
  “Urgent.”

• [42:00] Chris Molanfi:
  “Waiting for a Girl like you was heartbreaking in more ways than one ... To this day, it still holds the Hot 100 record as the longest running #2 hit without ever reaching #1.”

• [54:09] Chris Molanfi:
  “Heartbeat City generated five Top 40 singles ... the cars found Mutt Lange’s meticulousness impossible to follow up. The band split three years later.”

• [58:30+]: On “Photograph” by Def Leppard:
  “In the opinion of your humble Hit Parade host, it’s the greatest hair metal song of all time, thanks to Mutt Lange.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:43–05:24 — Introduction: Chart success of Def Leppard/Billy Ocean, Mutt Lange’s 1988.
• 06:35–10:00 — Producer comparisons: Phil Spector, George Martin, Quincy Jones, Max Martin, Jack Antonoff.
• 17:07–18:36 — The Mutt Lange mythos: Media shyness and rare interview.
• 21:53–27:54 — Early years: Childhood, first wife/duo, early production (Graham Parker, City Boy).
• 31:22–38:48 — AC/DC and Back in Black.
• 41:48–42:45 — Foreigner: “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” Thomas Dolby session.
• 44:14–54:09 — Def Leppard, Huey Lewis, The Cars’ Heartbeat City.
• 54:09–59:59 — Billy Ocean hits, segue into Def Leppard’s “Hysteria” (to continue in Part 2).

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Conclusion & Next Steps

Cliffhanger: The episode concludes as Mutt Lange faces his most daunting and disaster-prone project yet: Def Leppard’s Hysteria—to be dissected in Part 2, alongside his astonishing genre pivot with country superstar Shania Twain.

[Final Thoughts – 59:50] Chris Molanfi:
“When we come back, Mutt Lange and Def Leppard bounce back from a near tragedy, and later... you thought Lange producing Billy Ocean was diverse? Wait till you hear what happens when Mutt meets (and marries) a country singer from Canada...”

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Summary Takeaways

• Lange’s methods—maximalism, perfectionism, genre-bending—made him an industry gold standard.
• His privacy is legendary, fueling the “mystery man” reputation even as his sound is instantly recognizable.
• By the late '80s, any artist seeking a bombastic, world-beating hit knew to call Mutt Lange—proof that a secret weapon doesn’t have to be visible to leave an indelible mark on pop history.

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Listen to Part 2 for the next chapter in Mutt Lange's story: Def Leppard’s “Hysteria,” Shania Twain, and beyond.

Transcript

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[Chris Melanfi]

Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade, the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show 37 years ago, in March of 1988, British hard rock band Def Leppard were scoring the first top 10American pop hit of their career when Hysteria, the title track from their latest smash album, rose to number 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. Their breakthrough hit sounded sleek and polished. That same week on the pop chart. Five spots higher and rising was a more danceable, exuberant and very kitschy song by Trinidadian R B singer Billy Ocean. It was his comeback to the charts after a string of mid-80s hits, and he was a couple of weeks away from scoring another number one. The punchy, knowingly silly name of the song at number five that week. Get out of my dreams, get into my car get out of my dreams

[Song Vocals]

get into my car.

[Chris Melanfi]

On the surface, these hits wouldn't seem to have much in common. The Def Leppard song was chiming hair metal with synth pop overtones. The Billy Ocean hit clattery dance pop with husky soul vocals. But both hits had the same sonic craftsman. Their producer and co writer, a man from South Africa who over the course of the 1980s was taking the British and now the American charts by storm. Born Robert John Lang, his friends and colleagues called him Mutt Lang. And when it came to making hits, Mutt was a pop star's secret weapon. These wouldn't be Lange's last hits of 1988 or the 80s, or indeed the next three decades. When artists across the genre spectrum wanted a hit that made fans throw their hands in the air, they called in Mutt. Even Mutt Lang's power ballads were designed to get stadiums swaying and lighters waving.

[Song Vocals]

I've been waiting for a girl like you to come into my life.

[Chris Melanfi]

In addition to his hair metal, R and B and synth pop Successes, by the 90s, Mutt was scoring on the country charts too, mostly through his partnership, professional and personal, with country megastar Shania Twain. Twain's twangy hits had Mutts signature stadium rocking qualities too. Today on Hit Parade we will uncover as much as we can of the mystery man of popular production. Even as he was hiding from the media, Mutt Lang's signature sound was taking over the radio. A crunching, pumping sound he mined for hits from the 1980s deep into the 21st century.

[Song Vocals]

You and I, you, you and I.

[Chris Melanfi]

And it all started 45 years ago when Mutt took the reins behind the boards for a puerile Australian band whose leader Duck walked on stage in a schoolboy's uniform. All that band wanted was to rock a crowd. Mutt Lang gave them a new way to command an arena and shake it all night long. And that's where your hit parade marches today. The week ending November 8, 1980. When you shook me all night long by ACDC peaked on the Hot 100 at number 35, the first American top 40 hit for both the band and its producer, Robert John Mutt Lange. Mutt would score many more hits across Billboard's charts, establishing himself as the auteur of an anthemic brand of global pop. Why did his sound work on so many charts? Join us as Mutt Lang works his magic, pours some sugar and puts you Back, we guarantee you'll get rocked. Stick around. Over the years, Hit Parade has focused on several hit making producers who are so successful and larger than life, they have the profile of frontline artists. For example, Phil Spector, whom we've touched on in multiple episodes. The legendary Wall of Sound producer worked with everyone from the Ronettes to Tina Turner to the Righteous Brothers. He even had a Christmas album named after him. 1963's A Christmas Gift for you from Phil Spector, packed with songs that are now holiday classics. Of course, the name Phil Spector is now also infamous. In 2021, Spector died in prison where he'd been incarcerated for a dozen years after being convicted for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Few legendary producers have quite such checkered histories. Many are more revered figures such as the late Sir George Martin, who until recently held the record for most number ones among producers thanks largely to his work manning the boards for the Beatles.

[Song Vocals]

She's Got a Ticket to Ride, She's Got a Ticket to Ride.

[Chris Melanfi]

As well as later hit makers like 70s soft rockers America. As the unofficial fifth Beatle. Martin had a very public profile. So did Quincy Jones. We devoted a whole Hit Parade episode to the man known as Q, who was both a frontline artist and a producer. Jones scored hits under his own name, like 1978's R B Smash, stuff like that. But Quincy was far more famous for producing everyone from Leslie Gore. To, of course, Michael Jackson.

[Song Vocals]

With you all night.

[Chris Melanfi]

Quincy was ahead of his time as a producer artist. The hip hop era has generated several producers who moved from the mixing board to the mic. We covered a trio of producers turned artists in a prior hit parade, the Virginia Beach Polymaths, Pharrell Williams, Clap Alone

[Song Vocals]

if you feel like a room without a roo,

[Chris Melanfi]

Missy Elliot. And Timberland, You will recall disco band Chic, whose leaders Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards went from scoring their own hits to producing everyone from Madonna to Robert Palmer, Diana Ross to David Bowie. And Jack Antonoff, formerly of the band Fun. He's produced a plethora of millennial and Zoomer megastars like Taylor Swift, lana Del Rey, St. Vincent, Kendrick Lamar, Lor and Sabrina Carpenter. And yet Antonoff still finds time to release his own music as the band Bleachers. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Max Martin, the Swedish pop craftsman who recently beat Sir George Martin as the producer with the most number one hits. To be exact, Max now has 26 career Hot 100 toppers versus Sir George's 23 over more than a quarter century, as we noted in our Britney Spears episode of Hit Parade, Max has sprinkled his mathematically precise maximalist pop sound on modern classics from Britney and Backstreet Boys.

[Song Vocals]

Tell me why, Ain't nothing but a Party, Tell me why,

[Chris Melanfi]

Kelly clarkson. And even the Weekend. So there are many ways for producers to express their artistry through their own work and the work of others. But the subject of this Hit Parade episode, Mutt Lang, both embodies these super producer tropes and defies them. He briefly tried being a frontline artist, then basically gave it up for life. You're never going to see a Mutt Lang album with his name above the title. Like Quincy Jones, Mark Ronson or Timbaland. Lange is also a musical polymath. Like Nile Rogers, Bernard Edwards or Jack Antonoff. He's worked in an array of genres, but arguably more than any of those guys, Mutt makes those genres sound like him. Whether the song is by Def Leppard. Or shania twain, Those songs bear Mutt's stamp. Even though his name is only in the fine print, these hits sound like Mutt records. The overriding theme of every Muttlang production is rock maximalism, even when the genre is not rock. For example, around the turn of the millennium, Mutt made the winsome Irish sibling pop quartet the Corps sound like they should be commanding a fist pumping army in a stadium. Soon enough, they were. Indeed, Mutt helped define what came to be known as arena rock. That term, and the subgenre arena rock, predated his heyday, but he arguably perfected arena rock from the breakthrough of ACDC right through his 21st century work with bands like Maroon 5 and Nickelback.

[Song Vocals]

Too late, could you say goodbye yesterday?

[Chris Melanfi]

And yet, for all the ostentatiousness of his signature sound, Mutt Lang has largely remained invisible throughout his career. In this, he most resembles Max Martin, who for all his chart success, is notably camera and journalist shy. But Mutt makes Max look like a chatterbox. Remarkably little photographic evidence of Mutt Lang even exists, in case you're curious. Here's what Lang sounds like. This is an excerpt from one of the very few interviews he sat for a 1989 BBC documentary about def Leppard. Best, as I can tell, this is the only video footage of Mutt still on the Internet.

[Mutt Lange]

They came in with these songs that were. That had bits that were good. And so essentially the point I was trying to make to them is don't fall in love with what you bring, because we're going to change it a hell of a lot, if not totally. And even if that idea just sparks us onto something totally different and we end up with a completely different thing. And that was the thing that, that I really tried to instill into them was just that openness completely. Don't fall in love with anything until we all agree that that's the best.

[Chris Melanfi]

Maybe Lang didn't sit for interviews because as a mercenary craftsman always looking for the most commercial hit, he could sometimes come off as crass. In Fred Bronson's Billboard book of number one hits, a quote attributed to Mutt about a 90s hit he was working on with Bryan Adams was it's pret, but I can't see them dropping their knickers for it in Kansas. Hey, at least Mutt was honest about his goal. Mostly. Mutt Lang's media reclusiveness seems motivated by an intense desire for privacy. And while some of the tabloid gossip about him is unflattering, we'll get to his highest profile divorce later. He is no Phil Spector in the toxic male department. As we'll also note later, Lang was something of a hero to Def Leppard when a near tragedy befell the band in the 80s. Bottom line, like the music he made, Muttlang was unrelentingly goal oriented, which makes him, well, a textbook producer. But his results were anything but textbook. Once you've identified the sound of a Mutt hit, you can't unhear it. So think of Mutt as the mystery man of pop production. A background figure who is never fully in the background. But for all the pomp and grandeur of his hits, Mutts start was quite humble. It took him nearly a decade to find his sound and break through as a chart force. This is Slim Whitman, an American country and western star in the 1950s. Known the world over for his yodeling vocals, Whitman was popular not only in America, but across Europe and even parts of Africa. Among his young fans was a boy born Robert John Lang in Rhodesia, the country now known as Zimbabwe, and raised in Durban, South Africa, though he was known to his friends by his middle name, John. His parents both German expatriates, a mining engineer father and a mother from a high society German family, nicknamed him Mutt. At an early age, young Mutt loved country music and the keening vocals of Slim Whitman in particular.

[Song Vocals]

Then I will know Our love will

[Chris Melanfi]

come true, which would echo in the high pitched hard rock vocals that would later crop up in Mutts production work. By the way, a Fun Footnote In 1955, Slim Whitman set a chart benchmark in England when his hit Rose Marie spent a record 11 weeks at number one on the UK singles chart. That chart record would not be beaten for 36 years until a hit by Brian Adams in 1991 spent weeks atop the Official UK Chart. And that single was produced by, you guessed it, Mutt Lang. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Mutts started forming bands in high school, but he only finally began recording after school when he moved to the Johannesburg area and took a job producing commercials. His first band to put music on wax was Sound reason. Here's their 1969 single Glide Greatly. When Mutt was 20 going on 21, he played bass. It's pretty catchy. Mutt and friends formed the band Hocus, which released a few more singles. Mutt played bass again, but he was starting to take a greater interest in how studio production worked. Here's Hocus's 1971 single, Roll Me Over.

[Song Vocals]

Roll me over, Roll me over.

[Chris Melanfi]

The female harmony vocalist in Hocus was Stevie Van Kirken, or Stevie Van, who Mutt had known since middle school. They would marry. Not long after Hocus broke up. Looking to focus on his production work, Mutt and his new wife moved to London where they found greater opportunity. They briefly tried recording as a duo, Buckingham Nicks style, but it didn't go anywhere. Here's a single credited to Mutt and Stevie Lang. My heart is yours.

[Song Vocals]

Take me and say you be.

[Chris Melanfi]

It was the end of the road for Mutt and Stevie as a couple. They split and Stevie Lang moved to LA to sing lead for the band Night, who briefly made the American top 40. Knight's single Hot Summer Nights with Stevie Lang on vocals made it to number 18 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1990. 1979. It was the last time Stevie Lang would have greater chart success than Mutt Lang. But by then Mutt Lang wasn't doing badly at all. He still hadn't quite found his signature sound, but his production work was beginning to make waves.

[Song Vocals]

Hold back the night Turn on the light don't wanna dream about you Dream about your baby hold back the night.

[Chris Melanfi]

The first album of any renown that Lange produced was heat treatment, the 1976 LP by British Soul rocker Graham Parker and his band the Rumor. As we discussed in our Hit Parade episode about the so called angry young men of seventies British New Wave, Graham Parker and Mutt Lang were an odd fit. Mutt was already earning a reputation for meticulousness in the studio and Parker didn't like Mutt's stiff instrument by instrument recording approach. Still, Heat Treatment won critical acclaim and got both Parker and Lang onto the charts. The LP cracked the Billboard album chart at number 169 and the single Hold Back the Night peaked at number 58 in 1977. Around the same time Lang became attached to the Birmingham band City Boy. This group would get Mutt into the American top 40 for the first time and more important began to coalesce elements of the mutt lang sound.

[Song Vocals]

5705 but there's no reply. 5, 7, oh 5.

[Chris Melanfi]

City Boy hit the charts in 1978 with 5705, titled after the last four digits of a phone number for a would be hookup. You can think of this song as a pretty prototype for Tommy 2 Tone's 1982 hit 8675309 Jenny. City Boy's single reached number 27 on the Hot 100 and it foreshadowed the sound Mutt would take to the bank in the 80s. An intricate high pitched vocal arrangement paired with an explosive fist pumping chorus. Lang would go on to produce City Boy's first five LPs which built his reputation as a fastidious producer with a rich production sound. His work on City Boy's 77 debut album also got him hired by an Irish band with a different punkier sound. They were led by an irascible Irishman named Bob Geldof who would later become famous as the instigator of the 80s Charity Megaprojects Band Aid and Live Aid. But in the late 70s Geldof was known as the frontman of the Boomtown Rats. Paired with Mutt Lang, the Boomtown Rats began scoring UK hits right away. The Irish band's singles with Mutt had the crunch of punk, but with a punchy new wave sensibility. Their 1977 debut single Lookin after number one just missed the British top 10 at number 11. And soon they cracked the winner's circle with Like Clockwork, a number five UK hit. And Rat Trap, a horn inflected Springsteen esque classic rocker which became the first UK number one hit for both the Boomtown Rats and Mutt Lang in the fall of 78.

[McDonald's Announcer]

Kick down that Don't, It's a rat

[Song Vocals]

Trap and you've been Caught.

[Chris Melanfi]

Mutt produced most of The Boomtown Rats first three LPs. However he didn't produce the song that became their biggest and most well remembered hit and even briefly got them on the American charts. 1979's controversial, melodramatic single I Don't Like

[Song Vocals]

Mondays I don't like Mondays I don't like Mondays I wanna shoot.

[Chris Melanfi]

The whole day down Missing out on the Boomtown Rat's biggest hit could have been a career blow for Mutt Lang. He ceased working with the band after their third LP. Fortunately for Mutt, by the summer of 79 he had switched his focus to a band that would blow him up globally, much bigger than the Boomtown Rats ever had. More in a moment. Through the mid-70s, AC DC, the five man hard rock band from Australia led by Scotland born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, had released several albums of no frills, no bullshit rock and roll. They were beloved by their fans, especially on the live circuit. You may recall guitarist Angus Young appearing on stage in a schoolboy uniform, but they were not selling well in America. Through 1978, none of ACDC's LPs got higher on the Billboard album chart than number 113. As we discussed in our ACDC Rule episode of Hit Parade, executives at Atlantic Records, their label, were convinced the band could go from a live draw to a major US Chart topper if they worked with a more radio friendly producer. So Malcolm and Angus sent a tape of their material to Mutt Lang, who agreed to take them on. It worked out well for everybody. Released in the summer of 1979, highway to Hell changed everyone's fortunes when it peaked on the album chart at number 17 in November 79. Highway to Hell became the first top 20 LP and first US platinum album for both Mutt Lang and ACDC. Lange figured out how to condense ACDC sound in the studio down to its essence and to showcase the piercing vocals of AC DC lead singer Bon Scott. The sound was crisp, sleek but still muscular, the quintessence of the Mutt sound. As it turned out, Mutt Lang was also good at shepherding bands through catastrophe. Just six months after the release of the highway to hell album in February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead of alcohol poisoning at age 33. Understandably, ACDC considered disbanding. Bon Scott was a celebrated frontman, considered as critical to the band's image as Malcolm Young's riffs or Angus's strutting schoolboy routine. But after friends and family encouraged ACDC to soldier on, it was Mutt who nudged them to replace Bon Scott, who with another shrieking singer, Brian Johnson, a British vocalist formerly of the band Geordie, who possessed an even higher pitched wail than Bon Scott, made his debut on 1980s back in black Produced by Mutt Lang and sporting a none More Black album cover, the LP would serve as both a funeral eulogy to Scott and the welcome party for new vocalist Johnson. Back in Black would also wind up not only ACDC's biggest LP ever, but one of the top selling albums period of all time. Mutt Lang was pivotal to that success. He honed ACDC sound to a diamond hardcore. To this day, producers consider Back in Black a reference standard for hard rock acoustics. You can hear it on Back In Black's two most iconic songs. First the down and dirty raunchy dance anthem you Shook Me All Night Long, which Mutt gave a compressed but crisp cr.

[Song Vocals]

Yeah, you Shut Me up.

[Chris Melanfi]

And the LP's strutting Riftastic title track, which Mutt arranged with spaced out syncopated grooves like a funk record, Back in Black. The song was so funky it would later be sampled in more than 50 hip hop track. Both songs not only got heavy album rock radio play in America, they even cracked the pop top 40. You Shook Me All Night Long reached number 35 and Back in Black hit number 37 on American top 40. Casey Kasem counted them down.

[McDonald's Announcer]

It's by a five man Australian band who find that they sometimes have to explain their name. AC dc the initials for alternating current and direct current. They say they chose it because it tells people they're electric. Debuting now at number 40 with their second top 40 hit, Back in Black, here's AC DC.

[Chris Melanfi]

Back in Black peaked on the Billboard album chart at number four. To this day, it just keeps selling. As of this recording, it's been on the Billboard 200 for nearly 650 weeks and it's certified double diamond in America alone with sales and streams of 27 million. Globally, its sales are estimated at 50 million copies. It would not be the last LP produced by Mutt Lang to go double diamond. The massive success of Back in Black gave Mutt unparalleled music business clout. Now bands that were already top sellers were calling on him to refine their sound. The first was Foreigner, led by guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones and virtuosic vocalist Lou Graham. In the late 70s, Foreigner had already racked up three Platinum Top 5 LPs packed with strutting arena rock jams. But going into the 80s, foreigner had never had a number one LP. Mutt Lang would change that by making their sound both bigger and more polished. He produced their fourth album, simply titled 4

[Mutt Lange]

Urgent.

[Chris Melanfi]

On Urgent, the album's first single, Mutt worked with Mick Jones to perfect the interplay of the twangy guitars and ghostly synth riffs for the Bridge, Lange brought in legendary Motown saxophonist Junior Walker to play a smoking solo. Mutt pieced it together from multiple takes. It sounded raw, but was in fact painstakingly assembled. Urgent reached number four four on the Hot 100 in the late summer of 1981, sending Foreigners 4 album to number one, where it stayed for ten weeks. During its long run on top of the album chart, an even more meticulous follow up single set a new benchmark for Mutt. His first major power ballad, I've been

[Song Vocals]

Waiting for A Girl like you to come into my life.

[Chris Melanfi]

Waiting for a Girl like you was heartbreaking in more ways than 1. Lou Graham's aching vocal played off of the dreamy keyboards, which were played and arranged by a new session player. Mutt brought into the studio, Thomas Dolby, who would later score hits of his own like the 1983 top five hit she Blinded Me With Science. By bringing him in for the Foreigner sessions, Mutt effectively launched Dolby's career.

[Song Vocals]

She blinded me with science she blinded me with science.

[Chris Melanfi]

But. But Waiting for a Girl like you was also heartbreaking. As a chart phenomenon, it spent 10 weeks stuck at number two on the Hot 100, parked behind the number one hits physical by Olivia Newton John. And I can't go for that by daryl hall and john oates. To this day, Waiting for A Girl like you still holds the Hot 100 record as the longest running number two hit without ever reaching number one one. It's tied with Missy Elliott's 2002 hit Work it, which also stalled at number two for 10 weeks. Still, the Foreigner ballad kept their album 4 parked at the number one spot for most of the rest of 81 into early 80.

[Song Vocals]

It in for you.

[Chris Melanfi]

How hot was Mutt Lang by the end of 1981? So hot that he interrupted himself at number one on the album chart, the third consecutive LP he produced for ACDC. For those about to Rock, We Salute you dropped just before Christmas of 81. And it blew up immediately in under a month. For those about to Rock became ACDC's first American number one album, knocking out Foreigners 4 from the top spot. After three weeks on top, the Mutt produced ACDC album gave back the number one spot to the Mutt produced Foreigner. After for those about to Rock and four, Mutt Lang moved on from AC DC and Foreigner. He never produced an LP for either group again. But there was one more album by a British hard rock band that Mutt produced in 1981 at the time it made far less of a splash in 1981. It didn't even go gold, much less platinum, or generate any pop hits. But this band from Sheffield would have a much deeper impact on Lang's career. Arguably, they became the archetype for Mutts brand of sleek, synthetic, anthemic, uber pop. The album was called High and Dry, and it was by a band who called themselves with some creative misspelling. Deaf Leopard. As we discussed in our hair metal episode of Hit Parade, Def Leppard were originally part of a late 70s early 80s movement called the new wave of British heavy metal, encompassing such edgy bands as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. But starting with Leopard's second album in 1981, Mutt Lang helped transform them into an efficient conduit for cybernetic, gleaming glam metal hooks. Bringin on The Heartbreak, a 1981 single from High and Dry that wouldn't become a chart hit for several years, helped break the band in 81 anyway, thanks to the then brand new video channel MTV. Unlike both ACDC and Foreigner, Def Leppard produced polished glossy music videos led by their telegenic frontman Joe Elliott. MTV exposure got high and dry into the top 40 by late 81 and it rode the album chart for much of 1982. Then in 83, Lang and Leopard teamed again for the band's third album and Mutt pulled out all the stops to make the band actual pop star. He used innovative sampling techniques to make the drums sound bigger. He co wrote all of the songs and even provided backing vocals as part of the massed chorus of singers behind Joe Elliot. You could hear all of that detail on the LP's first single photograph which in the opinion of your humble hit parade host is the greatest hair metal song of all time, thanks to Mutt Lang. Photograph has a soaring pre chorus that's better than most songs Chorus. Photograph was a huge MTV hit, a massive rock radio hit. It spent six weeks atop Billboard's album rock chart and even a sizable pop hit reaching number 12 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 83. By then the album was scaling the LP chart. Def Leppard and Mutt Lang named the album after a lyric in Rock of Ages, the LP's second single. They called it Pyromania. Pyromania rose all the way to number two on the LP's chart. It would have gone to number one if not for Michael Jackson's blockbuster thriller. And it spun off three top 40 pop hits, an unprecedented feat for a metal album at the time. Rock of Ages got to number 16 even with its very strange opening lyrics. That, by the way, is Mutt Lang saying Gunter Gleben glauten globen his pigeon German way of counting the band in instead of 1, 2, 3, 4. Anyway, after rock of Ages, whose title, by the way, would be borrowed two decades later for a Broadway musical about 80s rock, the follow up single Foolet reached number 28. Pyromania wound up one of the 10 best selling albums of 1983, going sextuple platinum in America in its first year. Two decades later, it went diamond for sales of 10 million copies. Mutt Lang was now so busy he turned down Def Leppard's request to work on their follow up lp. At first, hold that thought, because Lang and Leppard would reunite eventually. Though he was mainly associated with hard rock bands at this point, Mutt was prolific and versatile enough that he became a gun for hire for much poppier acts like, for instance, the San Francisco Bar Band turned new waivers, Huey Lewis and the News. In 1982, between Def Leppard LPs, Mutt gave the News their first ever top 10 hit, a song Lang wrote by himself that he adapted from a song he'd previously penned for Supercharged March do you Believe in love, a number seven hit in the spring of 82. Then in late 1983, after Pyromania's success, Lange took on the most accomplished band he'd worked with to date, the cars. Through their first four Platinum LPs. From 1978 through 82, the Rick Ocasek led quintet from Boston had worked with British producer Roy Thomas Baker, famed for producing Queen. For their fifth lp, Ocasek hired Mutt, who brought his famed studio discipline to the Cars, including sampled and synthesized drums and layered vocals. The result was 1984's Heartbeat City, which became the most hit packed album to date for both the Cars and Mutt.

[Song Vocals]

You might think I'm crazy, All I want is you.

[Chris Melanfi]

Heartbeat city generated five top 40 singles in 1984 and 85. You'll probably remember the three biggest ones, which are classic hits, radio staples to this day. The number seven MTV smash you might think, the number 12 summer anthem Magic, And the biggest of them all, the Car's first major power ballad, a song written by Rick Ocasek for his bandmate Ben Orr to sing. Set off by Epic Muttlang Productions, the number three hit, drive. Heartbeat City, was Triple Platinum by 1985. If there was any downside to the album, it's that the cars found Mutt Lang's meticulousness impossible to follow up. The band split three years later. Meanwhile, Mutt kept diversifying his portfolio. In 1984, his friend and fellow South African record executive Clive Calder introduced Mutt to a rising Trinidadian singer signed to Calder's Jive Records label named Billy Ocean. The jive team was looking for a single that could follow up Ocean's number one pop and R B smash, Caribbean Queen, which was helmed by R B producer Keith Diamond. Teaming with diamond and Ocean, Mutt took Billy in an entirely different direction. With a sleek space age sound, Lover Boy fused the dance pop Billy Ocean had been doing with the synth rock Mutt Lang had developed for Def Leppard and the Cars. Appropriately, its video looked like an extension of George Lucas's Star wars universe. Loverboy reached number two on the Hot 100 in early 85. Ocean and Lang so enjoyed working together when Ocean was invited to contribute to the Soundtrack of the 1985 Kathleen Turner Michael Douglas film Jewel of the Nile, Mutt teamed with him again on the bouncy bop when the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going, another number two hit for Billy Oce. These Billy Ocean singles were all one off projects for Mutt Lang, but strangely, Mutt went almost four years between 1984 and 87 without producing a full released album. What slowed Mutt down wasn't any change in his chart fortunes. It was his total focus in the mid-80s on a new LP by one of his previous clients. It turned out to be the most painstaking and misfortune plagued project of his career, and yet, not incidentally, one of the biggest albums in glam metal history. When we come back, Mutt Lang and Def Leppard bounce back from a near tragedy and later. You thought Lang producing Billy Ocean was diverse? Wait till you hear what happens when Mutt meets, meets and marries a country singer from Canada. Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis, our supervising producer is Joel Meyer, and the executive producer of Slate Podcasts is Mia lobel. Check out Slate's roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Spot Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the hit parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on Marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanchy.

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