Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
From the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s, Canadian singer/songwriter and
guitarist Bryan Adams was one of the most successful recording artists
in popular music worldwide. Usually dressed in blue jeans, sneakers,
and white T-shirts, the energetic performer stalked stages around the
globe, electric guitar in hand, singing his own up-tempo pop/rock songs
and ballads before audiences numbering in the tens of thousands. He
released a series of multi-platinum albums containing chart-topping
singles featured in popular motion pictures. His raspy voice, simple
compositions, and straightforward musical approach earned him early
critical approbation as a likable if unoriginal rock & roll
journeyman, but as he began to become massively popular, reviewers
increasingly pointed out the clichés in his lyrics and the
derivative nature of his music, especially as he softened his style in
the early '90s for his hit movie theme songs. By the end of the '90s,
his record sales had fallen precipitously and he had become largely
identified with his movie work, though he continued to tour
extensively, playing his many hits.
In January 1978, Adams met Jim Vallance. Seven years Adams'
senior, Vallance had been the drummer in the successful Canadian band
Prism and had written most of the songs for their self-titled debut
album under the pseudonym Rodney Higgs. But, finding that he disliked
touring, he had left the band and was trying to develop a career as a
songwriter and producer. He and Adams agreed to form a partnership in
which they would co-write songs and he would produce demo tapes of
them, on which Adams would sing. (It has been extensively reported,
repeated in one rock encyclopedia after another, that they sold songs
to a variety of established artists prior to the launch of Adams' own
recording career. This is not true. In fact, the songwriters did place
songs with many artists, but most of the recordings took place well
after Adams started making records himself.) Utilizing Vallance's
connections, they began sending those demos to Canadian music
publishing companies, and in August 1978 they were signed to a
songwriting and production deal with Irving-Almo Music, the publishing
arm of A&M Records. Adams, meanwhile, was negotiating with RCA
Victor Records for a separate recording contract, but when A&M got
wind of that, they quickly signed him as an artist as well. In February
1979, A&M released his first single, the Adams/Vallance composition
"Let Me Take You Dancing," a disco song he later disavowed,
particularly the 12" single remix version. It spent 23 weeks in the
Billboard dance chart, peaking at number 22, with a reported worldwide
sale of 240,000 copies. March 1979 saw the release of Rock n' Roll
Nights by BTO (formerly Bachman-Turner Overdrive), which Vallance had
produced and on which he had placed several songs. Next, Adams and
Vallance placed songs on the third Prism album, Armageddon, with
"Rodney Higgs" and Adams credited on "Take It or Leave It," Adams
collaborating with Prism guitarist Lindsay Mitchell on "Jealousy"
(later recorded for Adams' second album), and Adams writing "You Walked
Away Again" alone. Adams and Vallance also placed "I'm Ready" on the
1979 album Goose Bumps by former Stories singer Ian Lloyd. (Adams would
record his own version of the song on his third album.)
Meanwhile, Adams was working on his debut LP, and Bryan Adams was
released on February 12, 1980. The album was not released initially in
the U.S., although "Hiding from Love" (written by Adams and folksinger
Eric Kagna) was issued as a single and reached number 43 in the dance
chart. Ian Lloyd's next release, 1980s 3WC (Third Wave Civilization),
featured two Adams/Vallance songs that Adams later would reclaim for
his own albums, "Lonely Nights" and "Straight from the Heart." In May
1980, Adams assembled a backup band and embarked on his first tour as a
solo act, spending four months playing clubs and colleges in Canada.
Then, he went to work on his second album, You Want It, You Got It,
which A&M released in mid-1981. The album was Adams' first to come
out in the U.S. He toured North America for six months starting in
October, earning opening spots with the Kinks and Foreigner. The album
broke into the Billboard chart in January 1982, peaking at number 118
in 13 weeks, while Adams' version of "Lonely Nights" hit number three
in the mainstream rock chart and became his first solo Hot 100 entry at
number 84.
As songwriters, Adams and Vallance continued to place their extra
material with other artists. "Jump," written by Adams and bandmember
Paul Dean, was featured on Loverboy's quadruple-platinum album Get
Lucky, released in October 1981. And in January 1982, Prism's fourth
album, Small Change, featured the Adams/Vallance compositions "Don't
Let Him Know" and "Stay," the former becoming a number one hit on the
mainstream rock chart and a Top 40 hit on the Hot 100. Adams toured
Canada opening for Loverboy in the spring of 1982, then began work on
his third album. His next notable credit, however, came when his,
Vallance's, and bandmember Gene Simmons' "War Machine" was featured on
Kiss' Creatures of the Night in October 1982. His own album, Cuts Like
a Knife, was ready by the end of the year, and A&M prefaced it with
his version of "Straight from the Heart," released as a single in
December. It broke his career open, peaking in the Top Ten of the Hot
100 and setting up the LP, which followed in January 1983 and
eventually reached the Top Ten and went platinum, spawning further Top
40 hits in the title song and "This Time." The album's success was
stimulated by Adams' extensive touring in support of it, which began in
Canada in January and February and continued from March to August in
the U.S., where he opened for Journey, with a six-week tour of Europe
in the fall and dates in Japan in November, followed by another round
of shows in Canada. In total, he spent 283 days on the road in 1983.
Meanwhile, Adams and Vallance had accepted an offer to write their
first song for the movies, and November 1983 saw the opening of A Night
in Heaven and the release of its soundtrack album, featuring their song
"Heaven," which Adams performed. The track made the Top Ten of the
mainstream rock chart in early 1984, but Adams declined to release it
as a single just then. Instead, he held it back for his next album,
which he and Vallance began writing after he completed a tour of the
Far East in March 1984. As usual, the products of their writing
sessions began to turn up on other albums before Adams himself
re-emerged. "Can't Wait All Night" was the title song of Juice Newton's
June 1984 album and became a singles chart entry. "Boys Nite Out"
(co-credited to bandmembers Marc Storace and Fernando Von Arb) was
featured on The Blitz, an album by Krokus, released in August 1984. The
following month saw the opening of the film Teachers, the soundtrack to
which included two Adams/Vallance songs, "Teacher, Teacher," which
became a Top 40 hit for .38 Special, and "Edge of a Dream," a singles
chart entry for Joe Cocker. Adams' fourth album, Reckless, was released
on his 25th birthday, November 5, 1984, preceded by the single "Run to
You," which reached the Top Ten. It was followed by no less than five
Top 20 singles drawn from the album: "Somebody," "Heaven" (which hit
number one), "Summer of '69" (Top Ten), "One Night Love Affair," and a
duet with Tina Turner, "It's Only Love." The LP, which hit number one
in the U.S. on August 10, 1985, sold five million copies in America and
a reported three million more in the rest of the world. (Adams also
earned his first two Grammy nominations, best male rock performance for
the album as a whole, and best rock performance by a duo or group for
"It's Only Love.") As usual, Adams toured extensively to support it,
his World Wide in '85 tour launching in late December and continuing
through November 1, 1985. He found time early on to co-write (with
Vallance and David Foster) "Tears Are Not Enough," Canada's answer to
"Do They Know It's Christmas" and "We Are the World," as a charity song
for Ethiopian starvation relief, which was recorded by the all-star
group of Canadian artists Northern Lights and became a number one hit
in Canada, later included on the We Are the World LP. He also opened
the American side of the Live Aid concert on July 13, 1985.
Adams' success made him and Vallance, if anything, even more
appealing to other artists as songwriters. In August 1985, Loverboy
featured another of their compositions, "Dangerous," on the Lovin'
Every Minute of It album. The song was later released as a single and
reached the Hot 100. In September, Roger Daltrey included two
Adams/Vallance songs, "Rebel" and "Let Me Down Easy," on his album
Under a Raging Moon, and "Let Me Down Easy" also became a chart single.
(The songwriters reworked "Rebel" for the next Adams album.) Adams was
also in demand as a guest performer on records. Vallance was producing
the Canadian group Glass Tiger, and Adams came in to sing a duet vocal
on their song "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)." It hit number one in
Canada in February 1986 and number two in the U.S. eight months later.
In April, Adams and Vallance's song "No Way to Treat a Lady" appeared
on Bonnie Tyler's album Secret Dreams & Forbidden Fire. (Tyler had
covered "Straight from the Heart" on her platinum 1983 album Faster
Than the Speed of Night. Four months later, Bonnie Raitt also sang "No
Way to Treat a Lady" on her Nine Lives album.) In May 1986, Adams and
Vallance's song "It Should Have Been Me" was included on Neil Diamond's
album Headed for the Future. (The following year, it was covered by
Carly Simon on her album Coming Around Again, with Adams producing.) In
June, Adams participated in six stadium concerts as benefits for
Amnesty International. In September, the songwriters contributed "Back
Where You Started" to the Tina Turner album Break Every Rule.
Into the Fire, the fifth Bryan Adams album, was released in March
1987, prefaced by the single "Heat of the Night," which became Adams'
fifth Top Ten hit in the U.S. The album also spawned the Top 40 hits
"Hearts on Fire" and "Victim of Love," but its success fell far short
of that enjoyed by Reckless. Nevertheless, Into the Fire reached the
Top Ten in the U.S. and sold a million copies, with another million
sold overseas. Adams' worldwide tour in support of the album went on
for more than a year, starting in May 1987 and continuing until July
1988. (One of the final shows, in Werchter, Belgium, was filmed for a
television special, Bryan Adams: Live in Belgium, broadcast on
television in Canada January 15, 1989.) Meanwhile, as usual, there were
songs for other artists. Adams and Vallance's "Back to Paradise,"
co-written by Pat Benatar and performed by .38 Special, was used in the
film Revenge of the Nerds II in the summer of 1987 and became a singles
chart entry, and in August Adams' co-composition "Hometown Hero"
appeared on Loverboy's Wildside LP.
After finishing his tour in support of Into the Fire, Adams became
involved in the Clint Eastwood movie Pink Cadillac, taking a bit part
in the film and, with Vallance, co-writing "Drive All Night," which
Dion sang on the soundtrack, released in May 1989. Adams, Vallance, and
Diane Warren also wrote "When the Night Comes," which was featured on
Joe Cocker's album One Night of Sin in August 1989 and, when released
as a single, reached the Top 20. Unfortunately, this was one of Adams
and Vallance's final collaborations. They broke up their songwriting
partnership in August 1989. Adams teamed up with writer/producer Robert
John "Mutt" Lange, previously known for his work with AC/DC, Foreigner,
and Def Leppard, to write songs for his next album. In December 1989,
Live! Live! Live!, a concert album drawn from the 1988 Belgium show,
was released only in Japan (it later gained release elsewhere), and
Adams did a couple of New Year's shows in Japan to promote it. He also
played occasional other special shows or festivals in 1990 (including
Roger Waters' all-star performance of The Wall in Berlin in July 1990),
but spent much of his time in England with Lange working on his sixth
album.
In 1991, Adams was approached by the producers of the upcoming
Kevin Costner film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and asked to work on
a theme song. He was provided a melody written by the composer of the
movie's score, Michael Kamen. With this, he and Lange fashioned
"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," which he also recorded and which
played under the closing credits of the film when it opened on June 14,
1991. Meanwhile, although he was still putting the finishing touches on
his album, he had committed to begin a concert tour in support of it,
and on June 8, 1991, he had gone back on the road in Europe
co-headlining with ZZ Top. Released as a single, "(Everything I Do) I
Do It for You" became a massive hit. It topped the U.S. charts for
seven weeks, the longest any song had remained at number one for eight
years, and it went triple platinum. Its international success was even
greater;it spent 16 weeks at number one in the U.K., making it the
longest-running chart-topper of the rock era there. Total worldwide
sales came to eight million copies, more than any single since "We Are
the World."
Adams finally finished his sixth album, Waking Up the Neighbours,
and released it on September 24, 1991, supporting it with his Waking Up
the World tour, which ran through July 1993. Also featuring the Top Ten
hit "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" and three other Top 40 hits,
"There Will Never Be Another Tonight," "Do I Have to Say the Words?"
(both co-written by Adams, Lange, and Vallance), and "Thought I'd Died
and Gone to Heaven" (plus, of course, "[Everything I Do] I Do It for
You"), the album sold four million copies in the U.S. and another six
million in the rest of the world. It also earned Adams six Grammy
nominations: record of the year, song of the year, best pop vocal
performance (male), and best song written specifically for a motion
picture or TV, all for "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," and best
rock vocal performance solo and best rock song for "Can't Stop This
Thing We Started." "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" was also
nominated for an Academy Award. (Adams' only victory was the Grammy for
movie song. In the peculiar ways of the Grammys, there was also another
nomination the following year for best rock male vocalist for "There
Will Never Be Another Tonight.")