it is a record... made in: US Tracklist Christmas TimeReggae ChristmasBiography From the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s, Canadian singer/songwriter and guitarist Bryan Adams was one of the most successful recording artists in popular music worldwide. Usually dressed in blue jeans, sneakers, and white T-shirts, the energetic performer stalked stages around the globe, electric guitar in hand, singing his own up-tempo pop/rock songs and ballads before audiences numbering in the tens of thousands. He released a series of multi-platinum albums containing chart-topping singles featured in popular motion pictures. His raspy voice, simple compositions, and straightforward musical approach earned him early critical approbation as a likable if unoriginal rock & roll journeyman, but as he began to become massively popular, reviewers increasingly pointed out the clichés in his lyrics and the derivative nature of his music, especially as he softened his style in the early '90s for his hit movie theme songs. By the end of the '90s, his record sales had fallen precipitously and he had become largely identified with his movie work, though he continued to tour extensively, playing his many hits. Adams was born on November 5, 1959, in Kingston, Ontario. Adams' parents were British émigrés; his father, Conrad J. Adams, was a military diplomat, his mother, Elizabeth Jane Adams, had been a schoolteacher and librarian. His father's occupation caused the family to move extensively during Adams' childhood. They relocated to Ottawa when he was six, then his father began to get overseas postings, first in Vienna and next Portugal, where the family lived from 1967 to 1971. By his early adolescence, Adams had begun to show an interest in music, playing drums before taking up the guitar. From Portugal, the family briefly moved back to Ottawa, and then went to Tel Aviv. Adams had been expected to enroll at Sandhurst, a military academy in England both his father and grandfather had attended, but he refused. In the mid-'70s, his parents separated, and he returned to Ottawa with his mother and younger brother before settling permanently in Vancouver. While attending high school, he increasingly spent his time auditioning for rock bands, gaining greater success when he tried out as a singer rather than as a guitarist. By the age of 16, he was fronting a local band called Shock. In the summer of 1976, he successfully auditioned to become the new lead singer of Sweeney Todd, a glam rock band that had just scored a Canadian hit with "Roxy Roller," but had lost its vocalist, Nick Gilder. With that, Adams dropped out of school. His first assignment with the band was to record a new vocal over the instrumental tracks of "Roxy Roller" for a reissue of the single on London Records. On September 18, 1976, this single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 99, Adams' first chart placing in the U.S. He toured with Sweeney Todd and appeared on the band's second album, If Wishes Were Horses, released in August 1977 and featuring three of his co-compositions, "Until I Find You," "Pushin' and Shovin'" (both written with bassist Budd Marr), and "Song for a Star" (written with keyboardist Dan Gaudin). Adams quit Sweeney Todd in December 1977.In January 1978, Adams met Jim Vallance. Seven years Adams' senior, Vallance had been the drummer in the successful Canadian band Prism and had written most of the songs for their self-titled debut album under the pseudonym Rodney Higgs. But, finding that he disliked touring, he had left the band and was trying to develop a career as a songwriter and producer. He and Adams agreed to form a partnership in which they would co-write songs and he would produce demo tapes of them, on which Adams would sing. (It has been extensively reported, repeated in one rock encyclopedia after another, that they sold songs to a variety of established artists prior to the launch of Adams' own recording career. This is not true. In fact, the songwriters did place songs with many artists, but most of the recordings took place well after Adams started making records himself.) Utilizing Vallance's connections, they began sending those demos to Canadian music publishing companies, and in August 1978 they were signed to a songwriting and production deal with Irving-Almo Music, the publishing arm of A&M Records. Adams, meanwhile, was negotiating with RCA Victor Records for a separate recording contract, but when A&M got wind of that, they quickly signed him as an artist as well. In February 1979, A&M released his first single, the Adams/Vallance composition "Let Me Take You Dancing," a disco song he later disavowed, particularly the 12" single remix version. It spent 23 weeks in the Billboard dance chart, peaking at number 22, with a reported worldwide sale of 240,000 copies. March 1979 saw the release of Rock n' Roll Nights by BTO (formerly Bachman-Turner Overdrive), which Vallance had produced and on which he had placed several songs. Also included was "Wastin' Time," a song that had been credited to Sweeney Todd guitarist Skip Prest and the band's manager/producer Martin Shaer when it appeared on If Wishes Were Horses, but which here was credited to Bryan Adams as songwriter. Next, Adams and Vallance placed songs on the third Prism album, Armageddon, with "Rodney Higgs" and Adams credited on "Take It or Leave It," Adams collaborating with Prism guitarist Lindsay Mitchell on "Jealousy" (later recorded for Adams' second album), and Adams writing "You Walked Away Again" alone. Adams and Vallance also placed "I'm Ready" on the 1979 album Goose Bumps by former Stories singer Ian Lloyd. (Adams would record his own version of the song on his third album.) Meanwhile, Adams was working on his debut LP, and Bryan Adams was released on February 12, 1980. The album was not released initially in the U.S., although "Hiding from Love" (written by Adams and folksinger Eric Kagna) was issued as a single and reached number 43 in the dance chart. Ian Lloyd's next release, 1980's 3WC (Third Wave Civilization), featured two Adams/Vallance songs that Adams later would reclaim for his own albums, "Lonely Nights" and "Straight from the Heart." In May 1980, Adams assembled a backup band and embarked on his first tour as a solo act, spending four months playing clubs and colleges in Canada. Then, he went to work on his second album, You Want It, You Got It, which A&M released in mid-1981. The album was Adams' first to come out in the U.S. He toured North America for six months starting in October, earning opening spots with the Kinks and Foreigner. The album broke into the Billboard chart in January 1982, peaking at number 118 in 13 weeks, while Adams' version of "Lonely Nights" hit number three in the mainstream rock chart and became his first solo Hot 100 entry at number 84. As songwriters, Adams and Vallance continued to place their extra material with other artists. "Jump," written by Adams and bandmember Paul Dean, was featured on Loverboy's quadruple-platinum album Get Lucky, released in October 1981. And in January 1982, Prism's fourth album, Small Change, featured the Adams/Vallance compositions "Don't Let Him Know" and "Stay," the former becoming a number one hit on the mainstream rock chart and a Top 40 hit on the Hot 100. Adams toured Canada opening for Loverboy in the spring of 1982, then began work on his third album. His next notable credit, however, came when his, Vallance's, and bandmember Gene Simmons' "War Machine" was featured on Kiss' Creatures of the Night in October 1982. His own album, Cuts Like a Knife, was ready by the end of the year, and A&M prefaced it with his version of "Straight from the Heart," released as a single in December. It broke his career open, peaking in the Top Ten of the Hot 100 and setting up the LP, which followed in January 1983 and eventually reached the Top Ten and went platinum, spawning further Top 40 hits in the title song and "This Time." The album's success was stimulated by Adams' extensive touring in support of it, which began in Canada in January and February and continued from March to August in the U.S., where he opened for Journey, with a six-week tour of Europe in the fall and dates in Japan in November, followed by another round of shows in Canada. In total, he spent 283 days on the road in 1983. Meanwhile, Adams and Vallance had accepted an offer to write their first song for the movies, and November 1983 saw the opening of A Night in Heaven and the release of its soundtrack album, featuring their song "Heaven," which Adams performed. The track made the Top Ten of the mainstream rock chart in early 1984, but Adams declined to release it as a single just then. Instead, he held it back for his next album, which he and Vallance began writing after he completed a tour of the Far East in March 1984. As usual, the products of their writing sessions began to turn up on other albums before Adams himself re-emerged. "Can't Wait All Night" was the title song of Juice Newton's June 1984 album and became a singles chart entry. "Boys Nite Out" (co-credited to bandmembers Marc Storace and Fernando Von Arb) was featured on The Blitz, an album by Krokus, released in August 1984. The following month saw the opening of the film Teachers, the soundtrack to which included two Adams/Vallance songs, "Teacher, Teacher," which became a Top 40 hit for .38 Special, and "Edge of a Dream," a singles chart entry for Joe Cocker. Adams' fourth album, Reckless, was released on his 25th birthday, November 5, 1984, preceded by the single "Run to You," which reached the Top Ten. It was followed by no less than five Top 20 singles drawn from the album: "Somebody," "Heaven" (which hit number one), "Summer of '69" (Top Ten), "One Night Love Affair," and a duet with Tina Turner, "It's Only Love." The LP, which hit number one in the U.S. on August 10, 1985, sold five million copies in America and a reported three million mor
