When it comes to Canadian music, few artists have made as big an impact as Bryan Adams. Adams, from Vancouver, came out swinging early with rock hits likes Cuts Like a Knife and Summer of '69.
Adams is known for his gravelly but passionate vocals and songs about youth and growing up and heartbreak. He began as a vocalist with Sweeney Todd but soon after went out on his own usually writing his own music alongside Jim Vallance.
Adams hit it big in Canada with his third album Cuts Like a Knife, which featured Straight from the Heart, This Time and the title track. His fourth album, Reckless, propelled Adams into an international star in 1985 with hits such as Run to You, Summer of '69, It's Only Love with Tina Turner and Somebody. Six songs from Reckless reached the top 15 on the U.S. charts.
After Reckless, Adams released Into the Fire, which was, as you would expect, less successful. Still, Heat of the Night reached the top 10 in the U.S. and Hearts of Fire and Victim of Love made the top 50.
In the 1990s Adams began to embrace the slower, ballad-type side of the business. Was it a natural progression? Or a calculated decision to increase struggling sales? At any rate, Adams was back on the top of the charts with the blockbuster number 1 hit (Everything I Do) I Do It for You from the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack.
Everything I Do and Can't Stop this Thing We Started helped Adam's fifth album, Waking up the Neighbours, reach quadruple platinum in the U.S., which is over two million units sold. Adams had another pair of number 1 hits with All for Love with Rod Stewart and Sting from the Three Musketeers soundtrack and Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? from Don Juan DeMarco.
Adams continued to put out albums in the 2000s, but with less success. He released Shine a Light, his 14th studio album, in 2019. He has also put out a number of live albums and greatest hits packages over the years.
Like many aging rockers, Adams continues to tour throughout the world. With his impressive backlog of hits there's no doubt he'll be able to tour for a very long time.
Other neat Wikipedia nuggets include: Adams performed a duet with Nelly Furtado of an original song for the opening ceremony at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; He performed at Wayne Gretzky's final game in 1999 in New York -- how much more Canadian get you get than that? Except the New York part; He co-wrote and performed on Tears are not Enough, the Canadian charity single to raise funds for famine relief; He opened the U.S. part of the epic Live Aid event from Philadelphia in 1985; and he's also an internationally renowned photographer, who has had exhibits in famous galleries throughout the world.
As the career of Bryan Adams clearly shows, Canadian music is all right.
- Craig Lindsay is the reporter for the Mountain View Gazette
