Mutt Lange was unquestionably the top rock producer of the ‘80s, but Ron Nevison was certainly not far behind, as he oversaw the recording of countless hit albums during the course of the decade. Nevison's career began in the early ‘70s just as many ‘producers to be' start out -- as an engineer. After paying his dues and working his way up, Nevison landed jobs engineering some of the day's top albums, including The Who's 1973 sprawling concept work, Quadrophenia, and Bad Company's 1974 debut, Bad Company. On the strength of those two albums, Nevison got the nod to work with the mighty Led Zeppelin on one of their finest albums, 1975's Physical Graffiti (even though one song, "The Rover," included the unflattering credit ‘Guitar lost courtesy of Nevison'). With a stellar track record engineering artists, the jump to full-on production was made, but among Nevison's first producer credits wasn't one of his best, Thin Lizzy's spotty Nightlife (in Mark Putterford's book ‘Phil Lynott: The Rocker,' Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham remembered "I thought the record was so ridiculously tame it was unbelievable. I listened to the finished mixes and said, ‘Hey, are we a rock band or a cocktail band?'").
But Nevison's production skills soon improved, as he guided several hit releases by power popsters The Babys (1977's Broken Heart, 1978's Head First, 1980's One the Edge), as well as heavy metallists UFO (1977's Lights Out and 1978's Obsession). With the 70's over, the 80's would prove to be Nevison's ‘hit machine' decade. Nevison hooked up with Jefferson Starship just before the dawn of the decade, and his work with the group (1979's Freedom at Point Zero, 1981's Modern Times, and 1984's Nuclear Furniture) was a precursor for a formula that he would follow often -- take a veteran rock group and soften their sound/approach to crossover to a pop audience. Nevison aided Survivor during an uncertain period in their career (a change of frontmen), which resulted in 1985's Vital Signs, which spawned an impressive three top ten hit singles, "I Can't Hold Back," "High on You", and "The Search is Over." However, it would be the next group Nevison worked with that would make him one of the most sought after producers in rock -- Heart.
With their career having hit the skids due to line up fluctuation and changing musical tastes, Nevison helped the Wilson sisters smooth all the rough edges of their sound, which resulted in one of 1985's top rock releases, the #1 Heart, and four top ten singles, "What About Love?," "Never," "These Dreams," and "Nothin' At All." From there, the offers to produce other veteran acts looking for crossover success flooded in -- some of which worked (Ozzy Osbourne's The Ultimate Sin, Chicago's Chicago 19, Damn Yankees' Damn Yankees) and some of which did not (Kiss' Crazy Nights, Joe Cocker's Cocker). With arena rock and glossy-sounding rock albums all but dead by the early ‘90s, Ron Nevison continued to work with renowned artists throughout the decade, but without the exceptional results of his ‘80s work -- Candlebox, Meat Loaf, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Night Ranger, Bad English, Firehouse, John Wetton, etc. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
