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Adams' first single, 'Let Me Take You Dancing,'
was a disco hit in 1979, and was followed by the
albums (for A & M) Bryan Adams (SP-4800) in 1980
and You Want It - You Got It (SP-4864) in 1981.
Of his other early singles, 'Fits Ya Good' was
popular in 1982. With the release of Cuts Like
a Knife (SP-4919) in 1983, Adams' popularity soared
dramatically. The singles 'Cuts Like a Knife,'
'Straight from the Heart,' and 'This Time' were
all international hits in 1983, followed 1984-6
by 'Run to You,' 'Somebody,' 'Heaven,' 'Summer
of 69,' 'One Night Love Affair,' and 'It's Only
Love' (a duet with Tina Turner), all from Reckless
(SP-5013). A fifth album, Into the Fire (SP-3907),
issued in 1987, included the lesser hits 'Heat
of the Night,' 'Heart's on Fire,' and 'Victim
of Love.'
Adams' performing career followed in successive
steps, taking him from clubs across Canada in
1980 to opening spots on Canadian and US tours
with Loverboy, Foreigner, Journey, and others
by 1983. By 1985, he had headline status at North
American arenas and stadiums (eg, at Vancouver's
Pacific Coliseum, New York's Madison Square Garden,
and the CNE's Exhibition Stadium). He made his
first European tour (opening for Tina Turner)
in 1985 and toured there and in Japan extensively
following the release of Restless and Into the
Fire. Live in Belgium, a concert documentary filmed
in July 1988 before an audience of 50,000 in Werchter,
was telecast 15 Jan 1989 by the CBC.
Adams' blue-collar image - typically, a T-shirt
and jeans - mirrored the hard-worked values of
his music, a straightforward style of rock and
roll. His writing with Jim Vallance reflected
superior craftmanship; the sentimental themes
of Adams' songs to the mid-1980s - love, love
lost, loneliness - were unsentimentally sung in
a voice characterized by a raspy urgency. The
darker, introspective songs of Into the Fire broached
such topics as war ('Remembrance Day') and Aboriginal
rights ('Native Son'), and were hailed as a sign
of a new maturity.
During the 1980s, the song-writing team of Adams
and Vallance had songs recorded by BTO, Joe Cocker
('Edge of a Dream'), Roger Daltry, Paul Dean,
Neil Diamond, Paul Hyde and the Payolas, Kiss,
Juice Newton, Peter Pringle, Bonnie Raitt, Carly
Simon, Rod Stewart, 38 Special ('Teacher, Teacher'),
Tina Turner, Bonnie Tyler, Uriah Heep, and Bob
Welch. Adams has also collaborated with Lisa Dal
Bello, Eric Kagna, and others.
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The long-delayed album, Waking up the Neighbours
(A & M 75021-5367), issued in 1991, included '(Everything
I Do) I Do It for You.' The song, which was featured
in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, was
Adams' biggest hit to date, selling some seven
million copies internationally as a single. It
stayed at No. 1 for seven weeks in the USA and
four months in the UK and was, at that point,
the biggest-selling single in the history of A&M
Records. It pushed the Neighbours album past the
triple-platinum mark. With that album, Adams'
producer, Robert John 'Mutt' Lange, became his
new songwriting partner, co-credited on each song.
The album also established Adams' modus operandi
for the rest of the 1990s: the release of one
romantically themed hit single every two to three
years, tied to a feature film soundtrack. He had
massive success, for example, with the 1993 single
'All For Love' (a platinum-selling track sung
with Sting and Rod Stewart, from The Three Musketeers
soundtrack) and the 1995 No. 1 hit 'Have You Ever
Really Loved a Woman?' These were followed in
2002 by an album of songs from the animated film
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.
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