Bryan Adams is one of Canada’s most famous singers. He has also been very successful as a songwriter for other singers. His music is a mixture between rock and pop. His songs have been at the top of the charts for more than twenty years.
Bryan Adams was born in 1959 in Kingston, Ontario. His parents came to Canada in the 1950’s from England. Bryan’s father worked as a Canadian Diplomat and the family lived in many countries including Israel, Portugal, Austria, England and Canada. Bryan considers Vancouver, British Columbia as his hometown.
Bryan quit school at the age of 16 to play in a band called Shock. He worked for a year as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. He did not enjoy it, but he saved up $1,000.00 to buy an electric guitar that he still has. Bryan joined a band called Sweeny Todd and they recorded two albums.
In 1980, Bryan recorded his first solo song but he was not very happy about it. The record company sped up his voice and changed the background to a disco beat. It sold 250,000 copies and it was played in discos all over the world. He also had his first solo album in 1980 called Bryan Adams, but it did not sell very well. He had to sing in radio commercials to pay his bills. Bryan started playing in small clubs and arenas to promote his second album You Want it, You Got It. The media finally began to notice him.
In 1981, Bryan recorded his third album called Cuts like a knife, which did very well. He began to tour the world with the very popular band Journey. Bryan’s album Reckless in 1984 had six ‘top 20’ singles. His song Heaven became the most popular song in the United States and was also in a movie. Bryan Adams was now considered a superstar.
The song The Summer of ’69 is one of Bryan’s biggest hits and is about his memories of summer when he was younger. The opening lyrics to the song refer to when Bryan was 10 years old and bought his first guitar.
I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it till my fingers bled
It was the summer of ‘69
He and some boys from school formed a band and played in his parent’s basement. Bryan learned how to play a guitar and piano without ever taking lessons.
In 1987, his album Into the Fire sold one million copies and only had one top 10 song. Bryan spent over a year and a half doing concerts around the world. All of his concerts sold out.
Throughout his career, Bryan has spent a lot of his time helping charitable causes. In 1985, Bryan performed in the Live Aid concert where he sang a duet with Tina Turner called “It’s only love”. Bryan began touring with other famous singers to raise awareness and money for Amnesty International. He also sang with other famous Canadians in the song Tears are Not Enough to raise money to help people starving in Africa. He performed in a concert during apartheid in South Africa to support the release of political prisoner Nelson Mandela. He has also performed for many other causes such as Cancer and endangered animals.
In 1988, Bryan appeared as an actor in a move with Clint Eastwood called “Pink Cadillac”. Bryan has written many songs that have been in movies. Bryan’s hit song Everything I do I do it for You from the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner was released in 1991. The song went to number 1 in its first week in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The album called Waking up the Neighbours (Sept. 1991) was so popular that it was the number one album for 16 weeks in the United Kingdom. The album sold 5.5 million copies worldwide and was the number one album in ten different countries.
Bryan spent 1992 to 1994 touring the world doing concerts. He released a greatest hits package in 1993, which sold over 13 million copies. Bryan wrote and sang All for Love with fellow musicians Sting and Rod Stewart for the movie Three Musketeers. In 1995, his song Have you ever really loved a woman from the movie Don Juan de Marco was the number one song in the United States for four weeks. In 2002, Bryan Adams wrote all of the songs for the very successful animated movie Spirit. Bryan’s songs are played throughout the movie.
To this day, Bryan continues to sell out concerts and make new music. Bryan Adams has become one of the most popular singers and songwriters in the world.
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