Bryan Guy Adams

Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million records and singles worldwide. Adams was the most played artist on Canadian radio in the 2010s and has had 25 top-15 singles in Canada and a dozen or more in each of the US, UK, and Australia.

Adams joined his first band at age 15, and at age 20 his eponymous debut album was released. He rose to fame in North America with the 1983 top ten album ''Cuts Like a Knife'', featuring its title track and the ballad " Straight From the Heart", his first US top ten hit. His 1984 Canadian and US number one album, '' Reckless'' (which became the first album by a Canadian to be certified diamond in Canada), made him a global star with tracks like " Run to You" and "Summer of '69", both top ten hits in the US and Canada, and the power ballad "Heaven", a US number one hit. His 1987 album '' Into the Fire'', with its US and Canadian top ten song, "Heat of the Night", rose to number two in Canada and the top ten in the US and several other countries.

In 1991, Adams released "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which went to number one in at least 19 countries, including for 16 and 18 straight weeks in the UK, and Europe overall, both records. It is one of the best-selling singles of all time, having sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. The song was included on Adams' ''Waking Up the Neighbours'' (1991), a worldwide number one album that sold 16 million copies, including being certified diamond in Canada. Another major hit off the album was the Canadian number one and US number two hit "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", which also went top ten in several other countries. Beginning in 1993, Adams' hits were mostly ballads, including the worldwide number one or two hits "Please Forgive Me" (1993); " All for Love" (1993); and "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" (1995), the latter two topping the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Adam's 1993 greatest hits compilation album, '' So Far So Good'', topped the charts in numerous countries selling 13 million copies worldwide, including being certified 6× platinum in the US and 11× platinum in Australia.

In 1996, Adams' ''18 til I Die'' was a top five album in many countries, but only reached number 31 in the US. He did duets with Barbra Streisand ("I Finally Found Someone" (1996), his last US top ten hit) and Melanie C (" When You're Gone" (1998), an international top five hit). In the 1990s, Adams had six European Radio Airplay number one songs for 32 weeks, the fourth and third most, respectively; and three number one songs on the European Sales Chart for 29 weeks total, the most weeks of any artist. Since 1999, Adams released eight albums, three reaching number one in Canada, and the last three reaching the top three in the UK, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

In 2008, Adams was ranked 38th on the list of all-time top artists on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists (40–21)
''Billboard''. Retrieved 1 August 2015 Adams has won 20 Juno Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television amongst 16 Grammy nominations, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and three Academy Awards for his songwriting for films. Adams has been inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Canada's Walk of Fame, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. On 1 May 2010, Adams received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.

Life and career

Early life

Bryan Adams was born on 5 November 1959, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, to Elizabeth Jane (née Watson) and Captain Conrad J. Adams, who emigrated to Canada from Plymouth, England in the 1950s. Adams' father, a Sandhurst officer in the British Army, joined the Canadian Army and later worked as a United Nations peacekeeping observer and as a Canadian foreign service diplomat. Adams travelled with his parents to diplomatic postings in Lisbon, Portugal (where he attended the American International School of Lisbon) and Vienna, Austria (where he attended the American International School of Vienna), during the 1960s, and to Tel Aviv, Israel during the early 1970s.

Raised in Ottawa, Adams attended Colonel By Secondary School in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of East Ottawa. In 1974, Adams, his mother, and younger brother Bruce moved to North Vancouver, while his father was posted abroad. While there, he attended Argyle Secondary School and Sutherland Secondary School.

Early career

Adams bought his first electric guitar at the age of 12 in Reading, an Italian brand from Gherson, based on a Fender stratocaster. In an interview with music magazine ''Guitar World'', Adams said:

"I bought an imitation Les Paul at a Five and Dime store in Ottawa, Canada, in 1971," Adams recalled. "Before that, I had an imitation Strat which I bought in Reading, England in 1970."

It felt real at the time to have a Les Paul, even though I'm a massive Ritchie Blackmore fan - still am. I was heavily into Humble Pie's ''Rockin' the Fillmore'' album at the time, and both Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott were on Les Pauls. It's rock guitar heaven, that album."

He left school to play in a group called "Shock" and used the funds his parents had saved for his college education to buy an Estey grand piano to tinker with. At one point he sold pet food and worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant, which paid the rent. He got into different bands such as CCR and Deep Purple, and attended concerts by Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Elton John, and Tina Turner. He started working in the Vancouver music scene with bands and as a studio session singer. At the age of 15, he became the vocalist for a pub band, Sweeney Todd.
Adams recorded "Roxy Roller" which came in at No. 99 on the US charts. This new incarnation of the band also released an album ''If Wishes Were Horses'' (1977) with Adams billed as "Bryan Guy Adams" on vocals. Adams left the band at age 16. In 1978, at age 18, Adams met Jim Vallance through a mutual friend in a Vancouver Long and McQuade musical instrument store. Vallance was the former drummer and principal songwriter for Vancouver-based rock band Prism, and had recently quit that band to focus on a career as a studio musician and songwriter. They agreed to meet at Vallance's home studio a few days later. This proved to be the beginning of a partnership which was prolific and continuous through the 1980s, together they co-wrote for Adams and a long list of recordings for other artists, including Kiss, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Johnny Hallyday, Bonnie Raitt, Rod Stewart, Bonnie Tyler, Loverboy, Carly Simon and Neil Diamond to name a few, and while discontinuous, , is still in existence.

Later in 1978, Adams signed to A&M records for one dollar. A&M remixed one of Adams' demos as a disco song "Let Me Take You Dancing", featuring Adams' vocals sped up to meet the 122 BPM dance tempo. The song made the Canadian ''RPM'' chart in March 1979 along with its B-side "Don't Turn Me Away". In 1979, he made an agreement with Canadian manager Bruce Allen, who at that time also worked for Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Loverboy; to this day Allen is still his manager.

1980s

Adams's self-titled debut album, mostly co-written with Jim Vallance, was released in February 1980. With the exception of "Remember" and "Wastin' Time", most of the album was recorded in October and November 1979 at Manta Studios and co-produced by Adams and Vallance. The album was certified gold in Canada in 1986. Singles released from it included "Give Me Your Love", "Remember" and "Hidin' from Love", with the latter having the most success, reaching number 64 on the Canadian RPM Current Hit Radio chart; none reached the US Billboard Hot 100.

Adams's second album, ''You Want It You Got It'', was released in 1981 and contained the FM album-oriented rock radio hit, "Lonely Nights", which reached number three on the US Album Rock Tracks chart. The same song was reinterpreted by Uriah Heep for the album ''Head First'', released in 1983. The most successful song off the album in Canada was "Fits Ya Good" which reached the top 30 on the RPM Top 40 Chart; it also reached number 15 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart. From January to May 1982, Adams spent months traveling on his "You Want It You Got It Tour"; within a few months the album had been picked up across the United States and Adams was soon on tour doing clubs and noon hour concerts for radio stations, as well as support to such acts as The Kinks and Foreigner.

''Cuts Like a Knife'', which was released in January 1983, was Adams's breakout album. " Straight from the Heart" was the first single released from the album; it reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 20 on the Canadian RPM Top 40 chart, and number one on the Canadian Adult Contemporary Chart. In September 1983, Bonnie Tyler released her version for the studio album ''Faster Than the Speed of Night''. The second single, "Cuts Like a Knife", rose to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, number six on the US Album Rock Tracks Chart, and number 12 on the Canadian RPM Top 40 Chart. The third single, " This Time", was also a top 30 hit in the US and Canada. Overseas, the latter two singles were both Top 20 hits in New Zealand, but there was little success in any other countries, aside from "Straight From the Heart" and "This Time" reaching the top 50 in the UK. Three other tracks, "Take Me Back", "I'm Ready" and "The Only One", also received substantial airplay on North American rock radio stations, each making the US Album Rock Tracks chart. The album peaked at number eight on both the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart and in Canada, achieving three times platinum status in Canada, platinum status in the United States and gold status in Australia. In August, Adams began recording his third album at Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios.

In October, Adams joined Jim Vallance at the Yamaha Music Festival in Japan. In December 1982, Captain Annan, Bryan Adams, and Loverboy played at Los Angeles Forum in California. Music Express the national popular opinion poll voted him Canada's best male singer for 1982. In March 1983, Adams travelled to America, opening for Journey and performing on over 100 dates in five months. Adams featured on "American Bandstand". In April 1983, a breather in the program is used to shoot a video for the third single "This Time" at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The video is directed by Steve Barron with photography by László Kovács. In May 1983, he briefly interrupted the tour with Journey to direct the club The Bottom Line in New York City. In the audience were Mick Jagger, Nils Lofgren, Rick Nielson (Cheap Trick), Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and John McEnroe. Paul Dean of Loverboy, John Waite and Rick Derringer joined him on stage. On 30 July 1983, he performed at Day on the Green, sharing the stage with Journey, Triumph, Eddie Money and Night Ranger.

In August 1983, Adams's tour with Journey concluded, and in September 1983 Adams performed with Supertramp in front of a crowd of over 30,000 Vancouver fans at BC Place. In the following months he performed in eleven countries on a six-week solo tour of Europe. While in Germany, he records the popular rock TV show "Rockpalast". In November 1983, Adams is on tour in Japan and by the end of the year he had performed 283 concerts. A&M released the film soundtrack of the album "A Night in Heaven", with the power ballad "Heaven", on it. "Heaven" reached number nine on the US AOR Rock Tracks chart and became the title of a "SOR" tour of Western Canada. In December 1983, his numerous music industry awards for the year include Best Selling New Artist (The National Association of Record Merchandisers), number two Male AOR Artist (The Album Network) and number three most played album AOR (Radio & Records), as well as the Juno Awards for the best male singer. In January 1984, Adams and Vallance began writing for the next album, while in February 1984 Adams toured Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii with The Police.

The album '' Reckless'' was released in late 1984, and peaked at number one on both the ''Billboard'' 200 and the Canadian Album Chart, while reaching number two in Australia and number seven in the UK. The album featured six singles: " Run to You", "Somebody", "Heaven", "Summer of '69", "One Night Love Affair", and "It's Only Love", a duet with the female star and " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" Tina Turner. All six singles peaked in the Top 15 of the US Billboard Hot 100, only the third album to achieve this with the rockers "Run to You" (number six) and "Summer of '69" (number five) peaking in the top ten, and the ballad "Heaven" reaching number one. "Run To You" was the most successful single at album-oriented rock stations in the US, as it spent four weeks at the top of the mainstream rock tracks chart; "Somebody" reached number one for a single week on that chart; while "It's Only Love" and "One Light Love Affair" each rose to number 7. "Summer of '69" had gotten a minor amount of airplay upon the initial release of the album, making it ineligible to re-chart on the mainstream rock track chart when it was released as single in summer 1985.

"Run To You" was the biggest hit off ''Reckless'' in Canada reaching number four, with "Summer of '69" and "Heaven" both peaking at number 11, "Somebody" peaking at number 13, "It's Only Love" hitting number 14, and "One Night Love Affair" reaching number 19. "Summer of 69" also reached the top ten in New Zealand and Norway, and the Top 20 in Sweden, Australia and Austria, but only peaked at number 42 in the UK and number 62 in West Germany. Adams has stated that "Summer of '69" was not a success when initially released in the UK because British radio stations did not add it to their play lists like they had "Run To You". However, it gained popularity over time and was certified Platinum (600,000) in sales in the UK in 2019, and its Spotify streams were at 280 million as of 2019, twice that of "(Everything I Do) I Do For You." In the Low Countries it achieved its maximum popularity in 1990 when it peaked at number 4 in 17 weeks on the Netherlands' singles chart, and reached number 8 on the Belgium chart.

"It's Only Love" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1986. In 1986, the song won an MTV award for Best Stage Performance. ''Reckless'' also earned Adams a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Performance. In December 1984, Adams embarked on a two-year world tour to launch the album starting in Canada and United States, then into Japan, Australia, back to the UK, where for dates he supported Tina Turner for her Private Dancer Tour, and again to Canada. After winning four Juno Awards, he headed south towards the American West Coast, culminating with two dates at the Paladium in Los Angeles. ''Reckless'' eventually went Diamond in sales in Canada, the first album by a Canadian artist to do so, while reaching 5× and 3× Platinum in the US and UK. ''Reckless'' has sold over 12 million copies worldwide, and won the Juno Award for Album of the Year.

1985 was an intense and demanding year. On 10 February, he recorded the Northern Lights single "Tears Are Not Enough", an improvised supergroup with Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and other Canadian artists. Adams was the author of the lyrics and the album, the mission was to raise funds to help the 1983-85 famine in Ethiopia. The song was issued as a single by Columbia Records in March of that year, and quickly reached number one on the Canadian Top 40 chart. It also finished number one on the year-end Canadian charts for 1985. The song's video also received extensive airplay on MuchMusic. Participation was incredible: the single went triple platinum immediately, although independently recorded by the USA for Africa project, it was included in the full-length ''We Are the World'' album. On 13 July, Adams attended the Live Aid concert, from Philadelphia. He took the stage at JFK Stadium in front of over 100,000 people and the band played "Kids Wanna Rock", "Summer Of '69" and "Cuts Like A Knife", before concluding with "Tears Are Not Enough". Bryan Adams sang a small passage of this song on Live 8 in Barrie during All For Love.

In September 1985, Adams worked on Roger Daltrey's sixth solo album '' Under a Raging Moon''. The album was a tribute to The Who's drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978. Adams co-wrote two tracks for the album: " Let Me Down Easy" and "Rebel". The track "Let Me Down Easy" was a Top 15 Hit on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks. Nearly 30 years later, Adams would release his own version of "Let Me Down Easy" on a 30-year anniversary version of ''Reckless''.

In January 1986, Adams provided the ending background vocals to the song "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" by Canadian rock band Glass Tiger for their debut album '' The Thin Red Line''. It reached number one in Canada and number two in the United States.

His follow-up album to ''Reckless'' was '' Into the Fire'' (1987). This album contained the hit songs "Heat of the Night", which went to the top ten in both Canada and the US, and " Hearts on Fire". In December 1987, Adams contributed the song "Run Rudolph Run" to the album ''A Very Special Christmas'', which benefited the Special Olympics. The album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies in the United States, is the 19th best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era are 2,520,000 copies sold. In May 1988, Tommy Mandel joined the Adams band as new keyboardist. A last-minute hometown gig was scheduled for 86 Street Music Hall on 24 and tickets sell out within 7 minutes of going on sale. Jon Bon Jovi and David Bryan joined in on stage, together playing "Born to Be Wild". Adams donated the entire proceeds to leukemia research at a presentation at British Columbia Children's Hospital. In June 1989, teams up with famed producer/composer Robert John "Mutt" Lange at London's Olympic Studios to write more material for the upcoming LP. Bryan attended a press conference on 8 June to launch the North American release of Rainbow Warriors, and also joined artists to re-record the classic Deep Purple hit "Smoke On The Water" in aid of Armenian earthquake victims. In July 1989, Adams returned to Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios to record more songs for the lp with Bob Clearmountain. Adams and Keith Scott attended the David Foster celebrity softball tournament banquet in Victoria, B.C. – an annual fundraiser for kidney research. In August 1989, he recorded the backup vocals for the Belinda Carlisle song "Whatever It Takes" from the ''Runaway Horses'' album. Also during that time, Adams contributed to Mötley Crüe's work on the album '' Dr. Feelgood'', doing the backing vocals of "Sticky Sweet" and Charlie Sexton doing the backing vocals of "Don't Look Back" from the ''Charlie Sexton'' album. In October 1989, Adams performed two club benefit concerts at 86 Street Music Hall in Vancouver on 18 & 19. "A Night for the Environment" raised $40,000.00 for four local environmental groups. Bryan is nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance (Music) for CBS's "Live In Belgium" television special. In November 1989, Adams flew to London, England on the 18th for press interviews for the upcoming shows of New Year's Eve in Japan. He resumes writing material for the album with Mutt Lange and attends Tina Turner's 50th birthday party at London's prestigious Reform Club.

In December 1989, the long-awaited first live LP was released. Entitled '' Live! Live! Live!'', it was recorded live at the Rock Werchter festival on 3 July 1988, in Werchter, Belgium. Adams returned to Little Mountain Sound Studios mid-month to record even more material for the next album. The release date was tentatively scheduled for April 1990.

1990s

Adams, along with Don Henley, Huey Lewis, Michael Monroe and Loudness kicked off the 90s with two New Year's Eve shows on 31 December and 1 January at the 70,000-seat Japanese Tokyo Dome. He promptly headed back to the London studios for continuous album production and optimistically anticipated a very busy new decade. In February 1990, Adams and his guitarist and Keith Scott flew to Los Angeles on 21 February to take part in Grammy Week Live – a collection of 15 radio stations broadcast live from the Roosevelt Hotel. On the 23rd, Bryan performed a special show on stage at A&M Charlie Chapman for radio Pollack Media Convention executives.

In the spring of 1990, Adams presented "Album of the Year" to Alannah Myles at the Canadian Juno Awards in Toronto on the 18th. He returned to London and joined Eric Carmen in the studio to record the backing vocals for "Feels Like Forever", a song written by Adams for Eric's then-upcoming LP. Production of the Adams project continued with Mutt Lange in England for the next two months. In June 1990, he received the prestigious "Order Of British Columbia Award" at a ceremony in Victoria on the 21st. He starred in two European festivals in Midfyns and Rosskilde, Denmark, on 28 June. Other top performers included fellow Canadian Jeff Healey, Little Feat and Bob Dylan. Adams added vocal tracks on the melody of David Foster's "River Of Love" in his home studio in Vancouver. On 21 July 1990, Adams took part in Roger Waters's concert production of ''The Wall - Live In Berlin'', to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months earlier. Adams performed the Pink Floyd track "Young Lust." A live album and video of the concert was released in August 1990.

On 17 August 1990, Adams headlined "Live At The Park", an outdoor festival in Calgary, Alberta. Also on the bill were The Pursuit of Happiness and Paul Laine from Vancouver. Over 27,000 fans attended the festival. Tour photographer Andrew Catlin was in town for photo sessions with Bryan and the band for the next album and Much Music interviews him for a special Artist of the Decade. On the international front, the 1985 LP "Reckless" and the single "Summer of '69" climbed the charts in the Netherlands to number 10 and number 4 respectively.

In September 1990, Adams sang the national anthem to officially kick off the first race Molson Indy Vancouver of Vancouver held on 2 September. He received Humanitarian Award of the Year from Local Maple Ridge Hospital Foundation, but was unable to attend the 29th awards gala as Adams and the band were on their way to South America for a three-day freedom celebration. They performed on 28 September in Chile in the huge 55,000-seat Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Santiago, then headed to Buenos Aires, in Argentina, the next day to perform alongside David Bowie and Mick Taylor at Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti

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