Bryan Adams is a rock guitarist/singer/songwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He started his career as lead vocalist for a band called Sweeny Todd in the late 1970s. Convinced to start a new career as a solo artist, he was eventually signed to A & M Records in 1980.
His debut album, Bryan Adams, was released in 1980, and featured songs with a slight-disco twist, including "Hidin' From Love", but it was heavily criticized. The second album, titled You Want It, You Got It, was released in 1981. At first, Adams wanted to title it "Bryan Adams Hasn't Heard Of You Either", due to the negative response he got from his first album. The album featured more rock-oriented songs, including "Fits Ya Good", and the album charted better.
In 1982, Adams and his songwriting partner, Jim Vallance, co-wrote two songs on Kiss' album "Creatures Of The Night", including the song "War Machine". As a tradeoff, Kiss drummer Eric Carr contributed a song called "Don't Leave Me Lonely" to Adams' third album, Cuts Like A Knife, which was released in 1983. This album finally brought Adams success in the U.S., as songs like the title track and "This Time" received heavy radio airplay, and the video for the title track was the first music video played on MTV by Adams.
Adams' fourth album, Reckless, was his climatic peak. Songs like "Summer Of '69", "Run To You" and "It's Only Love" made Adams an international superstar, and he became one of MTV's posterboys, with heavy video airplay. Adams found it difficult to top the success of the "Reckless" album. 1987's Into The Fire was a weaker album, with the only major hit being the song "Heat Of The Night". Adams retreated from the music scene for four years, focusing more on writing songs for other upcoming artists.
In 1991, he released Waking Up The Neighbours, which featured the powerful ballad, "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)", which was featured in the soundtrack to the Kevin Costner movie, "Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves". While the song brought Adams another #1 smash around the world, some of his old rock fans were not pleased with the change in his music. A greatest hits album, titled So Far So Good, was released in 1993, and featured another new ballad, "Please Forgive Me".
By 1996, the American music scene was dominated by the 'alternative craze', so Adams faced the challenge of trying to get his new music played on the radio and MTV. 18 'Til I Die, released in 1996, featured various types of new music styles for Adams, including the Spanish flavored "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?". In 1997, Adams released an MTV Unplugged album, which featured acoustic versions of his classic hits, as well as new material.
Adams released his ninth album, On A Day Like Today, in 1998, but it lacked the vibe and spirit of his classic 80's albums, so it quickly vanished from the charts. Adams retreated into obscurity again, focusing on songwriting projects. Another greatest hits album, The Best Of Me, surfaced in 2001, but wasn't released in the U.S. until 2002. He released a song titled "Here I Am" for the 2002 movie, "Spirit", but no new album appeared in sight.
In 2003, A & M Records released a live concert that Adams recorded in Japan in 2000. Titled Live At The Budokan, it was Adams' strongest release in nearly ten years. Adams relied on his rocking 80's hits to give the show a hard rock kick that was so desperately needed to salvage his career. The CD also came with a bonus DVD of the concert, one of the first of many rock CDs to feature such bonuses. This album would be his last album on A & M.
In 2004, six years since the release of his last studio album, Bryan Adams returned with the album Room Service, released on Polydor Records. The album showed a mature Adams alternating between rockers and ballads to please all of his fans. Songs like "East Side Story" and "This Side Of Paradise" showed the world that Bryan Adams still had musical life left in him. While it didn't live up to the success of his earlier releases, it still charted and showed music fans that good rock 'n' roll music was still alive in the world.
In 2005, A & M released Anthology, featuring 36 of Adams' best songs, including two rare tracks, a live version of "Rock Steady" with Bonnie Raitt and the studio track "So Far So Good". In 2006, Adams is teaming up with artists like Def Leppard and hitting the road to promote "Room Service". Expect this Canadian rocker to be around for quite some time to come.