Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams negotiated the shifting tides of the '80s so well that it never seemed as if he were changing to fit the times. A veteran of the '70s studio arena rock game, Adams struck out on his own in the early '80s, turning into a star in his native Canada and making headway with his 1983 album, Cuts Like a Knife. All of this was a prelude to Reckless, the 1984 album that turned him into an international superstar, selling by the truckloads in North America, Europe, and Asia thanks to the hits "Run to You," "Heaven," and "Summer of '69." From that point on, Adams was the most unassuming of rock stars, riding high on the charts and selling out arenas, even breaking Billboard records with his power ballad "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)," but never quite dominating the public imagination (or earning the critical respect) as such peers as Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp. Nevertheless, Adams remained a formidable presence on the American charts into the mid-'90s, and while the popularity of his new records started to slip after that, he retained his audience in Canada and the U.K. and his '80s hits remained radio staples as he began a career as a photographer.

The son of an English diplomat, Bryan Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 1959 and spent much of his childhood traveling Europe. His family set down roots in North Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1973, around which time he began seriously pursuing music, quickly getting into the thick of Vancouver's scene. Adams quit school and wound up replacing Nick Gilder's replacement in the glam rock band Sweeney Todd, singing lead on the band's second album, If Wishes Were Horses..., when he was just 15. Not long after its 1977 release, Adams left the group and began his long, fruitful collaboration with Jim Vallance, then currently the drummer of Prism but looking to move into songwriting. The pair clicked and they soon assembled a demo tape for Adams, a tape that earned the singer a contract with A&M Records in 1978. Two years later, Bryan Adams' eponymous debut appeared in Canada, where it did respectably. A year later, his second album, the Bob Clearmountain-produced You Want It, You Got It, started to get Adams some play on album rock radio stations, a development that led to Adams and Vallance co-writing two songs with Gene Simmons for Kiss' 1982 LP, Creatures of the Night. Things started to break wide open for Adams in 1983 thanks to Cuts Like a Knife, an album that had a big, powerful album rock sound and the pop hooks that would later turn him into a star. The former could be heard on the singles "Cuts Like a Knife" and "This Time," while the latter was in bloom on the ballad "Straight from the Heart," the song that became Adams' first American Top Ten hit. It all paved the way for Reckless, the 1984 album that turned Adams into a superstar. Reckless had the right songs -- particularly the brooding minor-key "Run to You," the skyscraping power ballad "Heaven," and the nostalgic heartland rocker "Summer of 69," but also the Tina Turner duet "It's Only Love," "Somebody," and "One Night Love Affair," all released as singles, meaning that over half the album was released as singles in true Thriller fashion -- at the right time, all given videos that earned heavy rotation on MTV. As Adams supported the album with an international tour that lasted nearly two years, he surfaced in other ways -- opening the American concert in Live Aid; co-writing Canada's Ethiopian famine relief charity single "Tears Are Not Enough"; and working steadily with Vallance on tunes for a number of other artists, including Loverboy, Roger Daltrey, Neil Diamond, Bonnie Raitt, and Glass Tiger, whose Adams/Vallance-written song "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" featured Adams on backing vocals. Adams succeeded Reckless in 1987 with Into the Fire, a bigger streamlined record that ironically didn't produce a huge hit; "Heat of the Night" and "Hearts on Fire" reached the Top Ten