"Tonight We Have the Stars" is a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

song written by

Bryan 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 mor ...

Gretchen Peters Gretchen Peters (born November 14, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She was born in New York, where she wrote her first song with her sister at the age of 5. In 1970, her parents broke up, and Peters moved with her mother to Boulder, ...

and

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

for Adams' tenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

'' 11'' (2008). The song's musical-style and production were heavily inspired by

and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

from the 1980s, and its

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...

chronicles a relationship. The single was released worldwide on May 30, 2008 and later as a digital single on June 6, 2008. The B-side is a live solo acoustic performance of "Somethin' to Believe In" in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

from his digital UK EP "Live From Barcelona".

Recording and production

"Tonight We Have the Stars" was written by Adams,

and

. When writing the song, the three e-mailed each other's audio files back and forth, with each of them commenting on the song when received. This process continued until the song was completed. As Vallance later wrote on his webpage;

"This is my 'first draft' of 'Tonight We Have The Stars' (the original "audio email" that I sent to Bryan). It was a quick recording done in my home studio in Vancouver, but Bryan was able to turn this humble snippet into a song."

The song was mixed by

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a very ...

at his studio in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. As stated by Vallance: "I was in Canada, Bryan was in Brazil, and Ben Dobie was in England. Give or take a few milliseconds, we were all hearing the mix "live", streaming on a dedicated, encrypted iTunes channel." After each pass of mixing Vallance and Adams would send comments to him on iChat. After giving Clearmountain a comment he would "roll tape" again, and we'd hear the suggested changes unfold in close-to-real time. As stated by Vallance:

"This might not seem unique to everyone, but for me, considering the technology that existed when I started in the music business nearly 40 years ago, this is like science fiction. I can only imagine where things will be, 40 years from now!"

Reception

Following statement is from a review by Kirk LaPointe, managing editor of ''

The Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published si ...

'';

"Arguably the strongest song on 11, Tonight We Have The Stars has a serendipitous quality that speaks volumes about how Bryan works and networks: a lyric from last decade with Gretchen Peters, a new piece of music sent by Vallance and a new melody from Adams. He pulled the pieces off his Mac on an airplane and began mumbling the result to the surprise of his seatmates. Presto, the song that built the foundation for the album".

Darryl Sterdan, in his review for

Jam! Jam! was a Canadian website which covers entertainment news. It was part of the Canoe.com online portal, formerly owned and operated by Quebecor through its Sun Media division, and now owned by Postmedia Network. Jam! was the only media outlet ...

have stated that the song is "a classic Adams opening gambit -- he starts out with moody verses, then kicks into gear with an arena-ready chorus". However

MusicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

was not too impressed by the song calling it has "requisite croaky vocals and anthemic radio-friendly chorus, but there's nothing to move or touch you."

Music video

The Music video for the song is identical to the previous single's video. Bryan and his band play the song live in a studio. It was available on his website for a time, and is to be included with the upcoming

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonight We Have The Stars Bryan Adams songs 2008 singles Songs written by Jim Vallance Songs written by Gretchen Peters Songs written by Bryan Adams Universal Music Group singles Polydor Records singles 2008 songs