One of the things that first got me into Def Lep was their insanely huge backing vocal harmonies and I later found out that this was Mutt Lange's trademark. I read somewhere that he did the same for Shania Twain (whom he married and later supposedly cheated on, go read a tabloid if you're interested in that!) so I've been listening to Shania's stuff to hear it myself.
I got me Shania's Greatest Hits released in 2004 (well I wanted to hear Come On Over [1997] cos that's her supposed country-pop crossover and first Mutt produced record, but I heard her earlier stuff that I thought was cool so I just got the Hits, hey it's a legit way to get into a band/singer!) and I've been listening to it for 4 days straight now! And it's got 21 tracks! Sure enough the Mutt songs has got his signature backing vocals all over it, and some of them can actually be Def Leppard tunes!
My current favs from the album: Forever and For Always, I'm Gonna Getcha Good, That Don't Impress Me Much, You're Still The One and Any Man of Mine.
Knowing me I'll start liking the other tracks in time. The only time I ever really listened to Shania Twain was when I was 13 and we just got MTV and Come On Over was big. I've never been big on country except the odd tunes by Gin Blossoms (90s pop rock band from Arizona, they're awesome!) but they do great vocal harmonies, and I think I'm into the sound of country fiddle!
I started listening to The Cars' Heartbeat City (1984) as well, also produced by Mutt Lange but haven't got so much into that yet, although 'Magic' is probably one of the best songs I've ever heard. More on that later.
Til then check out this video with a short version of 'Any Man Of Mine'. It's the only stripped down acoustic performance that I can find of Shania on Youtube that hasn't got a pre-recorded backing track featuring Mutt's backing vocals .
