Bryan Adams

selected  Bryan Adams TShirTS, PosTerS & Prints

Bryan Adams OC, OBC, (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian rock singer, guitarist, songwriter and photographer. Some of his best-known albums are Reckless, 18 til I Die, and Waking Up the Neighbours.

Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for his contribution to popular music and his philanthropic work. He was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and more recently inducted into the Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards in April 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for songwriting, and was recently nominated for his fifth Golden Globe (2007) for his songwriting in the film Bobby.

In 1978, at the age of 18, Adams sent a few demo recordings to A&M Records in Toronto, and was signed to them not long afterwards for the sum of one dollar. He has released 14 albums since then. Some of the first demos written in 1978 have surfaced over the years, most notably "I'm Ready" (recorded for both the album Cuts Like a Knife and later his release for MTV Unplugged) and "Remember", which went on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists before his first album was even released.

The self-titled debut album was released in February of 1980, and marked the beginning of what was to become a long songwriting partnership between Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance. With the exception of "Remember" and "Wastin' Time" most of the album was recorded from October 29 - November 29 1979 at Manta Studios in Toronto and co-produced by Adams and Vallance. The album was certified gold in Canada much later in 1986.

During the early 1980s Adams and Vallance also co-wrote a number of songs for Vallance's band Prism. Among these was "Don't Let Him Know", which turned out to be Prism's only Billboard Top 40 hit (#39 in 1982), but the first of many for Adams as a songwriter.

Adams' second album, You Want It You Got It was recorded in New York City in two weeks and it marked Adams' first album co-produced by Bob Clearmountain. It was released in 1981 and contained the FM radio hit "Lonely Nights", but it was not until his third album, Cuts Like A Knife February 1983, that he broke through with four hits in 1983, most notably with the title track. The album achieved much commercial success, rising to #8 on the Billboard Album Chart. Several of the songs on the album, including the title track, remain concert favourites with Adams to this day.

Reckless was released on Adams' 25th birthday, 5 November 1984. It reached #1 on the Billboard Album Chart and gave rise to no fewer than six hit singles, including Run to You, Summer of '69 and Adams' first #1 single, Heaven. Reckless has since been certified five times platinum in the US.

In 1984, Tina Turner recorded a duet with Adams entitled "It's Only Love". In addition to being a radio and MTV staple, the song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

Adams' 1987 album, Into the Fire 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 blockbuster Waking up the Neighbours.

Live! Live! Live! is the complete recording of a concert in Werchter, Belgium on 3 July 1988, which was broadcast by the CBC in Canada and on MTV around the world.

One of Adams' most successful albums is Waking up the Neighbours co-produced by Adams and Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album was released in September 1991 and featured the single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which was also used in the film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", starring Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman. This album and the single went to number one in many countries in the world in 1991 and 1992, with the song spending a record-breaking 16 weeks at number one on UK Singles Chart and 17 weeks on top of US Hot 100 Singles Sales, including record-breaking sales of 3 million in the US. Canadian content regulations were revised in 1991 to allow radio stations to credit airplay of this album towards their legal requirements to play Canadian music.

The next album was the hits collection So Far So Good lead by a new song "Please Forgive Me", a slow rock ballad, both released from 1993. So Far So Good has since been certified five times platinum in the US.

Later the same year Adams recorded the single "All for Love" together with Sting and Rod Stewart, for the film The Three Musketeers, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen.

In 1995 Bryan Adams, a book written by Bryan Adams, was published by Firefly Books.

In the period 1996-1999 Adams released an album each year. 18 til I Die in summer 1996, which featured the flamenco flavoured hit "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" with Spanish guitarist Paco De Lucia from the film Don Juan DeMarco starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando. This song earned Adams his second Oscar nomination. The album sold more than 1 million copies in the US. Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged was released in the winter of 1997, On a Day Like Today autumn 1998, and The Best of Me worldwide in 1999 and in the U.S. in early 2002. In this period Adams made 3 duets; "Rock Steady" (with Bonnie Raitt), "I Finally Found Someone" (with Barbra Streisand) earning him his third Oscar nomination and "When You're Gone" (with Melanie C). "When You're Gone" was a #3 hit in the UK in 1999.

In 2000, Adams provided vocals for Don't Give Up by Chicane, alias for English producer Nick Bracegirdle. This song went to #1 in the UK singles chart.

In 2001, Adams released the live videos Live at the Budokan recorded at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo, and Live at Slane Castle, the recording of the Slane Concert which he headlined in 2000

In May 2002, he released the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron DreamWorks soundtrack, which went gold in the US.

In 2004, Adams released his first studio album in six years, Room Service. The album went to #4 in the UK and #1 in all of Europe, selling 440,000 copies in its first week there.

In 2005, Adams issued Anthology, a two disc set, released as a retrospective collection of hits and some more obscure tracks from 25 years of recording. 

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.