The man and the legend! Out of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, the legendary Bryan Adams has had numerous chart topping hits throughout his career. His songs define multiple generations, bring about such feelgood moments, and are the soundtrack to many lives around the world, whether it’s “Summer Of ’69” or a beautiful love song such as “Everything I Do(I Do It For You)”.
In 1976, Bryan Adams began to realize that he wanted to make music for a living. He became the frontman for a rock band called Sweeney Todd, which became known for the Canadian chart topper “Roxy Roller”. After leaving Sweeney Todd, he met with his long time guitarist Keith Scott while playing in cover bands at local clubs in Vancouver. At 18, Adams signed a record deal with A&M Records, and wrote the songs “I’m Ready” and “Remember”. Adams would chart on the Canadian disco charts with the hits “Let Me Take You Dancing” and “Don’t Turn Me Away”.
In 1980, Adams released his self-titled debut album, while the album never charted in the United States, it led to opportunities for him to break into the United States with the songs “Hidin’ From Love”, “Give Me Your Love”, and “Remember”. Adams would also write a song for Bachman-Turner Overdrive entitled “Wastin’ Time” for their 1979 album. In 1986, the album would eventually be certified gold in Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyV20Cjv3M
In 1981, Adams would release his follow-up album entitled “You Want It You Got It”. While his debut album was more poppy and attracted the disco/dance movement, this album would lay the foundation for that signature sound that Adams has trademarked. The track “Lonely Nights” would peak at No. 3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts and Adams would embark on radio tours, club tours, and provide support for The Kinks and Foreigner. “Fits Ya Good” would become a Top 40 hit in Canada and chart at No. 15 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlqnAhvfjzw
In 1983, Bryan Adams would begin to achieve international success with his third release “Cuts Like A Knife”. The album would sell over three million copies in Canada and over one million copies in the United States. “Straight From The Heart” was the opening single, which was a love ballad in which Bonnie Tyler also recorded vocals on the track. It became a Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. “Cuts Like A Knife” would peak at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would become his first Top 20 hit on the Canadian charts. Bryan Adams would play over 100 shows in support of this album with Supertramp providing direct support. “Cuts Like A Knife” would win the Juno Award for Composer Of The Year.
In 1984, Adams released his monster album “Reckless”. The album would peak at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sell over 12 million copies worldwide, including five million copies in the United States alone. Bryan Adams would become the third recording artist in American music history to have six Top 15 singles on one album, only Michael Jackson(Thriller) and Bruce Springsteen(Born In The U.S.A.) would accomplish that feat. The album also ranks as the 99th greatest album of all-time by Classic Rock Magazine. Here are the chart placements for the singles:
“Run To You”- No. 6 Billboard Hot 100
“Somebody” – No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100
“Heaven” No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, also appeared on the “A Night In Heaven” soundtrack.
“Summer Of ’69” – No. 5 on Billboard Hot 100
“One Night Love Affair” – Peaked at No. 13 on Billboard Hot 100
“It’s Only Love”- duet with Tina Turner- Top 15 Billboard 200
The monster success of “Reckless” led Bryan Adams on a two-year world tour to support the album, including 50 tour dates with Tina Turner, and partnered with Northern Lights for the African Famine Relief effort “Tears Are Not Enough”. The success of the album led to 4 Juno awards and helped write with Roger Daltrey of The Who for Daltrey’s sixth solo album.
In 1987, Adams released his follow-up “Into The Fire”. The album peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. In this album, Adams wanted to experience more with lyrics, which were kind of a step away from his pop-tinged chart-topping album “Reckless”. There was a side to Adams that was overwhelmed by the worldwide success of “Reckless”, and he felt like he was at a crossroads in his life, hence the darker feelings and emotions behind the album. Although the album sold two million copies worldwide, it was seen as a commercial failure. “Heat Of The Night” would peak at No. 2 on Billboard Hot 100 while “Hearts On Fire” would peak at No. 26 on Billboard Hot 100. Critics were not a fan of the album, stating that Adams rushed to release the album and that the lyrics were “dull and lifeless”.
“Heat Of The Night”
Adams would play shows in East Germany and West Germany, while calling for the reunification of Germany and would play worldwide.
In 1991, Adams would revitalize his career with the monster album “Waking Up The Neighbours”. The album was produced by Mutt Lange . During the recording process of the album, Adams was approached by the producers and was asked to write a song for “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”, and he penned probably one of the biggest love ballads of the 1990s with the track “Everything I Do(I Do It For You)”. The song would become Adams’ biggest hit of his career, as it peaked at No. 1 for seven consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and 16 consecutive weeks on the U.K. charts, along with being number one in numerous countries. “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started” showed off the rock vibe to Adams and it would peak at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Thought I’d Die And Gone To Heaven” and “There Will Never Be Another Tonight” were also released as singles to the album. The album would peak at No. 6 on Billboard Hot 100, and he would win a Grammy in 1992 for “Best Song For A Motion Picture Or Video” for “Everything I Do(I Do It For You)”, and would win the Entertainer Of The Year award in the Juno Awards.
In 1991, Adams would co-headline a European tour with ZZTop. He would sell out Wembley Stadium, would play literally every part of the world including Northern Ireland, Iceland, Colombia, Singapore, and his most memorable show, in South Africa where he put on a concert to celebrate the release of political prisoner Nelson Mandela and other black prisoners in the unbanning of black political parties in South Africa. Adams has cited this as his most memorable concert performance due to the magnitude of the event.
For the next four years, Adams would release two major hits for the Three Musketeers and Don Juan DeMarco soundtracks. Those songs would be “All For Love”, which he sang with Rod Stewart and Sting, it would peak at Number 1 worldwide, that appeared on the Three Musketeers soundtrack. The other song was “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman”, which would peak at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1997, Adams would release his “MTV Unplugged” album which would see three new singles, and in 1998, he would release “On A Day Like Today” via Interscope Records, which saw him duet a song with Melanie C of The Spice Girls, the album would be quite successful in Europe, but never saw commercial success in North America. Adams would release his greatest hits album “The Best Of Me” in 2000.
Adams would focus more on soundtracks and writing songs specifically for special events. Here is a timeline.
2000- He co-wrote and sang on Chicane’s number one song “Don’t Give Up”.
2002- Adams wrote the soundtrack for “Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimmaron”, which the song “Here I Am” would receive a Golden Globes nomination for “Best Song From A Motion Picture”.
2004- Adams released his first album in seven years with “Room Service”. It would chart in America, but be more successful in Europe.
2005- Adams released “Anthology”, which featured a new song with Melanie C and wrote the theme song for the Fox sitcom “Stacked”.
2006- Adams wrote “Never Let Go” for The Guardian, which starred Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Adams also wrote “Never Gonna Break My Faith”, for the movie “Bobby”, which was dueted by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, the song would receive a Golden Globes nomination.
2007- Adams wrote two songs for “Bridge To Terabithia”, “A Place For Us” and “Another Layer”.
2008- Adams released an album entitled “11” exclusively for Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, it peaked at No. 80 on the Billboard 200 charts. Adams also became one of four Canadian musicians who were placed on postage stamps in Canada.
2009- Adams wrote the song “You’ve Been A Friend To Me” for the Disney movie “Old Dogs”.
Unique career highlights:
Played the Canadian national anthem at Wayne Gretzky’s final hockey home game
Made a song “Bang The Drum” for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver
Performed at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Performed on U.K.’s version of “The X-Factor”
Was voiceover for “Jock Of The Bushveld”, a South African cartoon film
Participated in Amnesty International, Live Aid, and The Bryan Adams Foundation, which focused on education for children around the world.
Commemorated the fall of The Berlin Wall.
Involved in many human and animal rights organizations.
Madness To Creation’s take:
There is no denying this legend, and he crafted some incredible songs that are timeless and just as fresh as if he just released those singles yesterday. Bryan Adams is an artist that can make the ladies’ hearts melt with a love ballad, or a heartbreaking song such as “Please Forgive Me”, can get you to jump out of your seat and rock out while singing along with songs such as “Summer Of ’69” and “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started”, while causing a motion picture to come to live by writing songs for various soundtracks. The thing is, his songs are powerful and have certainly stood the test of time over the years. He has taken the good fortune of his career and made the world a better place. His songs are full of spirit, romantic while being classy, and just causes you to move. Bryan Adams is truly one of the greatest pop/rock artists of all-time. His songs will stand the test of time 100 years from now. Madness To Creation gives Bryan Adams a 10 star rating.
Bryan Adams will be touring Australia and Europe this year. Check out tour dates below.
Friday, January 12th- Mt. Duneed Estate in Waurn Ponds, Australia
Saturday, January 13th- Mitchelton Wines in Nagambie, Australia
Friday, April 27th- Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden
Saturday, April 28th- Partille Arena in Partille, Sweden
Sunday, April 29th- Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden
Tuesday, May 1st- Helsingin Jaahalli in Helsinki, Finland
Wednesday, May 2nd- Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia
Thursday, May 3rd- Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia
Friday, May 4th- Kauno Zalgirio in Kaunas, Lithuania
Saturday, May 5th- Torwar in Warsaw, Poland
Saturday, May 19th- SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany
Monday, May 21st-Tuesday, May 22nd- 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland
Thursday, May 24th- Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom
Friday, May 25th- Genting Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom
Saturday, May 26th- The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, United Kingdom
Sunday, May 27th- First Direct Arena in Leeds, United Kingdom
Tuesday, May 29th- Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Wednesday, May 30th- SSE Arena, Wembley in London, United Kingdom
Thursday, May 31st- The O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom
Tuesday, June 12th- Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado
Sunday, June 17th- Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Monday, June 18th- Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany
Tuesday, June 19th- SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany
Wednesday, June 20th- Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland
Friday, June 22nd- LANXESS Arena in Koln, Germany
Saturday, June 23rd- Palais 12 in Brussels, Belgium
Sunday, June 24th- Hollinger Park in Timmins, Canada
For tickets and further information for any of the shows listed above, click here!
Find Bryan Adams at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/bryanadamsofficial
