Bryan Adams

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This article is about the singer. For other people with a similar name, see Brian Adams.


{{Infobox_band | band_name = Bryan Adams | image = Image:Bryan Adams - Main Photo.jpg | caption = | origin = Kingston, Ontario | years_active = 1980–present | music_genre = Rock | record_label = A&M records (1980–present) }} Bryan Adams, OC, OBC (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Some of his best-known songs include Summer of '69, Heaven, Everything I Do (I Do It for You), Cuts Like a Knife, and Run to You. His most popular albums are Reckless, Waking up the Neighbours and 18 Til I Die.

Adams is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for his contribution to popular music. In 1998 he was promoted to an Officer of the Order of Canada for his philanthropic work. He was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards April 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards.

Contents

Early life

Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario and traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East as a child with his diplomat parents, until they settled back in Canada in 1973. Adams started his musical career by dropping out of school at age 15.

Musical career

At the age of seventeen, Adams sent a few demo recordings to A&M Records and was signed to them by age 18 for one dollar. He has released fourteen albums since then.

Some of the first demos written in 1978 have surfaced over the years; most notably is I'm Ready (recorded for both the Cuts Like a Knife LP and later on the MTV Unplugged album), and Remember which went on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists before his first album even got released.

This time was also the start of a long songwriting partnership between Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance which led to the first solo album, Bryan Adams, released in 1980. His second album You Want It You Got It 1981, contained the FM radio hit Lonely Nights, but it wasn't until his third album Cuts Like a Knife that he broke through with four hits in 1983, most notably with the title track. He quickly followed up that album with Reckless at the end of 1984, which produced six Top 40 songs and has since been certified 5 times platinum. Next came Into the Fire in 1987 which was also certified platinum. This was the last album completely written by Adams and Vallance, but many of the fragments of their other songs ended up on the forthcoming block buster, Waking up the Neighbours .

Live!Live!Live! is the complete recording of the 3 July, 1988 concert in Werchter, Belgium, which was broadcast by the CBC in Canada and on MTV around the world. One of his most successful albums is 1991's Waking up the Neighbours (see 1991 in music); was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Adams, and featured the single "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)". This album and the song went to number one everywhere in the world in 1991 and 1992, with the song spending a record-breaking sixteen weeks at number one on the charts in the United Kingdom. The next album was the hits collection So Far So Good.

The next four years saw Adams releasing an album every year for four years, 18 til I Die in Summer 1996, Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged in Winter 1997, On a Day Like Today in Autumn 1998, and The Best of Me worldwide in 1999 and in the U.S. in early 2002. In May 2002 he released the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron DreamWorks soundtrack which went gold in the US.

Room Service was released on September 20 2004 in Canada and in Europe; "Open Road" was its first single. The CD was released in the U.S. on May 10 2005 on Mercury Nashville. Anthology is a 2 CD set, released in 2005 as a retrospective collection of hits and some obscure tracks from the 25 years of recording.

Social activist

In 1985, Adams co-wrote the Canadian benefit record for Ethiopia called Tears Are Not Enough. In that same year, he took part in the U.S side of the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia. He was a featured member of Amnesty International's 1986 A Conspiracy of Hope Tour and was in London to play at the Nelson Mandela birthday party concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

In 1990 he joined many other guests (including Michael Kamen) for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, Germany. In 1992 Adams protested against backward Canadian Content regulations, which got changed as a result. He successfully campaigned for the Southern Antarctic Whale Sanctuary in the mid-1990s with Greenpeace Chairman David McTaggert, the two distributed over 500,000 postcards at concerts around the world encouraging politicians to vote YES for the creation of the sanctuary. On his 1998 album On a Day Like Today he supports the Elephant Sanctuary, Hohenwald in Tennessee and Elefriends in England. Adams also supports breast cancer research through donations from his photography (see below).

On 29 January 2005, Adams joined the CBC benefit concert from Toronto for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

On 2 July, 2005, Adams performed at Live 8's Canadian performance in Barrie, Ontario.

On 25 May 2005, Adams and cousin Johnny Armitage raise £1.3M from a concert and auction entitled Rock by the River for the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

On 15 November, 2005 Adams played in Qatar and raised an astonishing £1.5M ($2,617,000) through a performance and auctioning off a guitar he had purposely signed by many of the worlds most prominent guitarists. The money went to Qatar's "Reach Out to Asia" campaign to help the underprivileged across the continent, and to his own projects of rebuilding a school in Thailand and building a new sports center in Sri Lanka, both of which had been devastated by the Tsunami.

On 29 January 2006 he was the first western artist to perform in Karachi, Pakistan in conjunction with a benefit concert to raise money for underprivileged children to go to school, some of the proceeds of that concert also went to victims of the 2005 earthquake.

As a photographer

Adams has had his photographs published in Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Jane and Interview Magazine among others. His other photographic efforts are publishing Zoo Magazine, the fashion/art magazine based in Berlin, Germany. On June 1 2005 he published his first book of photos in the United States of America with Calvin Klein called American Women; proceeds from this book go to breast cancer research for programs at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He released a similar book of photos called Made in Canada in December 1999. Both were a tribute to his friend Donna, who died of breast cancer.

In 2004, Adams was invited, along with other photographers from the Commonwealth, to photograph Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee; one of his photographs was used as a Canadian postage stamp in 2004, and again in 2005. (See Queen Elizabeth II definitive stamp (Canada))

On the 15 March, 2006, Adams was presented with the gold award for his photo editorial on actor Mickey Rourke at the German Lead Awards in Hamburg, Germany.

Photographic Exhibitions include:

Personal life

Adams speaks French, and has lived in France. He currently lives in England and supports Chelsea F.C. Adams is a vegan / vegetarian

Soundtrack works

His works for movie soundtracks include:

  • From the 2002 DreamWorks animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
    • "Here I Am"
    • "I Will Always Return"
    • "You Can't Take Me"
    • "Get off My Back"
    • "Brothers Under the Sun"
    • "Don't Let Go" (with Sarah McLachlan)
    • "This Is Where I Belong"
    • "Nothing I've Ever Known"

Adams has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his film compositions and has a song in the forthcoming independent Oscar nominated film Cashback called Mysterious Ways.

Discography

Albums

Singles

From Bryan Adams (1980):

  • Give Me Your Love (1980)
  • Remember (1980)
  • Hidin' from Love (1980)

From You Want It You Got It (1981):

  • Coming Home (1981)
  • Fits Ya Good (1981)
  • Lonely Nights (1982) #84 US

From Cuts Like a Knife (1983):

  • Straight from the Heart (1983) #10 US, #51 UK (1986 release)
  • Cuts Like a Knife (1983) #15 US
  • This Time" (1983) #24 US, #41 UK (1986 release)

From Reckless (1984):

  • Run to You" (1984) #6 US, #11 UK
  • Somebody" (1985) #11 US, #35 UK
  • Heaven" (1985) #1 US - 2 weeks, #38 UK
  • Summer of '69 (1985) #5 US, #42 UK
  • One Night Love Affair (1985) #13 US
  • It's Only Love" (with Tina Turner) (1985) #15 US, #29 UK

From Into the Fire (1987):

  • Heat of the Night (1987) #6 US, #50 UK
  • Hearts on Fire" (1987) #26 US, #57 UK
  • Victim of Love" (1987) #32 US, #68 UK

From Waking up the Neighbours (1991):

  • "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" (1991) #1 US - 7 weeks, #1 UK - 16 weeks
  • "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" (1991) #2 US, #12 UK
  • "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" (1991) #31 US, #32 UK
  • "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" (1992) #13 US, #8 UK
  • "All I Want Is You" (1992) #22 UK
  • "Do I Have to Say the Words?" (1992) #11 US, #30 UK

From So Far So Good (1993):

  • "Please Forgive Me" (1993) #7 US, #2 UK, #1 Australia

From The Three Musketeers (soundtrack) (1993):

From Don Juan DeMarco (soundtrack) (1995):

From Road Tested (Bonnie Raitt) (1995):

From 18 til I Die (1996):

From The Mirror Has Two Faces (soundtrack) (1996):

  • "I Finally Found Someone" (with Barbra Streisand) (1996) #8 US, #10 UK, #2 Australia

From Unplugged (1997):

  • "Back to You" (1997) #18 UK
  • "I'm Ready" (1998) #20 UK

From On a Day Like Today (1998):

From The Best of Me (1999 & 2002):

  • "The Best of Me" (1999) #47 UK

From Behind the Sun (Chicane album) (2000):

  • "Don't Give Up" (Chicane with Bryan Adams) (2000) #1 UK, #8 Australia

From Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (soundtrack) (2002):

  • "Here I Am" (2002) #5 UK

From Room Service:

  • "Open Road" (2004) #21 UK
  • "Flying (2004) #39 UK
  • "This Side of Paradise" (US only) (2004)
  • "Room Service (Germany only) (2005)
  • "Why Do You Have To Be So Hard To Love" (US only) (2005)

From Anthology (2005):

  • "When You're Gone" (with Pamela Anderson) (US only) (2005)
  • "So Far So Good" (Canada only) (2006)

Songs written for other artists

B-sides and odd singles

  • "Let Me Take You Dancing" (Adams/Vallance) in 1978.
  • "Don't Turn Me Away" (Adams/Vallance) in 1978.
  • "Reggae Christmas" (Adams/Vallance) in 1984.
  • "Diana" (Adams/Jim Vallance) in 1985.
  • "Christmas Time" (Adams/Vallance) in 1985.
  • "'Lowlife" (Adams/Peters) in 1996.
  • "Hey Elvis" (Adams/Peters) in 1996.
  • "I Want It All" (Adams/Lange) in 1996.
  • "Hey Little Girl" (Adams/Lange) in 1996.
  • "I Love Ya Too Much" (Adams) in 1998.
  • "What Does It Do Your Heart" (Adams/Kennedy) in 1998.
  • "Hey Baby" (Adams/Peters) in 1998.
  • "Bin There Done That" in 1998.
  • "On Christmas Day" (Adams/Kennedy) song for Christmas From The Vatican (2004)
  • "Blessing In Disguise" (Adams/Peters) in 2004.
  • "Friday Night In London" (Adams/Kennedy/Thornalley) in 2004.

Odd recordings

  • "The Wanderer" recorded with Dave Edmunds at the Prince's Trust Concert (1986).
  • "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" recorded vocals with Glass Tiger, Thin Red Line, EMI (1986)
  • "I Shall Be Released" recorded with Bono and Sting at the Amnesty International Concert, San Francisco (1986).
  • "Run Rudolph Run" recorded at the Marquee Club, London for "A Very Special Christmas (1987).
  • "I Saw Her Standing There" recorded with McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Eric Clapton at the Prince's Trust Concert, London (1987)
  • "Smoke On The Water" recorded with Deep Purple, Paul Rogers, David Gilmore, Bruce Dickinson, Roger Taylor and Chris Squire for Rock Aid Armenia, for victims of the earthquake 1989.
  • "Young Lust" and "Empty Spaces" recorded with Roger Waters Live At the Berlin Wall (1989).
  • "Kickstart My Heart" and "Sticky Sweet" recorded background vocals with Steven Tyler on Motley Crue's album "Dr. Feelgood" (1989)
  • "River Of Love" recorded background vocals on "River Of Love" David Foster (1990)
  • "Nature of the Beast" performed by The Law {did harmonies to Paul Rogers vocal} "Laying Down the Law" (1991).
  • "Prove it" recorded with Stevie Vann (1995).
  • "Angel From Montgomery" recorded with Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby and Kim Wilson on Bonnie Raitt's "Road Tested" (1995).
  • "My Opening Farewell" recorded with Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt "Road Tested" (1995).
  • "O Sole Mio" recorded with Luciano Pavarotti (1995).
  • "Good Times" and "Bring It On Home To Me" recorded with Smokey Robinson "Live At The Apollo Theater" (1995).
  • "What Would It Take" recorded with Anne Murray {guitar and harmony} (1996).
  • "In A Perfect World" Sang background vocals with Gretchen Peters, "Souvenirs" Curb Records (1998)
  • "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" recorded harmonies on Barry Mann's "Soul And Inspiration" (2000)
  • "Behind Blue Eyes" recorded with The Who "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" (2000).
  • "Raised On Robbery" recorded with Wynonna Judd "Tribute To Joni Mitchell" (2000).
  • "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" recorded with Elton John, "One Night Only (Live at Madison Square Garden)" (2000)
  • "Don't Give Up" recorded with Chicane, "Behind The Sun", Xtravaganza (2000).
  • "Like Lovers Do" recorded background vocals on Heather Nova's "South" (2001)
  • "Blessing In Disguise" recorded with Gretchen Peters, "Halcyon" Curb Records (2004)

Filmography

See also

External links

Official websites

  • [1] — Bryan Adams official web site.
  • [2] — The official website of Zoo Magazine (published by Adams).

Fansites

  • [3] — '18 til i die' fan site, contains comprehensive discography of all Bryan Adams tracks.
  • [4] — Forum for Adams fans.
  • [5] — Fan Site, contains lyrics of Adams' songs and related material.
  • [6] — Turkish Fan Page.
  • [7] — Fanpage in English, German, Portuguese and Turkish.

Other websites

  • [8] — Canada Post announces the stamp bearing Adams' photo of the Queen.
  • [9] — Adams's career on A&M Records with gallery and excellent discography.
  • [10] — Lyric site.
  • [11] — Bryan Adams guitar tabs.
  • [12] — Adams film songs.ar:برايان آدمز

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