BRYAN ADAMS FACTS:
Genre: Rock, Soft Rock
Hometown: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Awards: 18 Juno Awards; 1 Grammy Award; 1 American Music Award, 1 MTV VMA
Albums: Bryan Adams (1980); You Want It You Got It (1981); Cuts Like a Knife (1983); Reckless (1984); Into the Fire (1987); Waking Up the Neighbours (1991); 18 til I Die (1996); On a Day Like Today (1998); Room Service (2004); 11 (2008)
Hits: "Run to You," "Somebody," "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," "All for Love," "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?"
Other: A photographer who has been published in British Vogue, L'uomo Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, and Interview magazine among others.
Canadian-born singer-songwriter Bryan Adams was one of the most well-known and popular musical acts of the 1980s. He parlayed his considerable talent into writing catchy tunes that made him a mainstay on popular radio, and many of his iconic tracks still resonate today, more than 30 years after his first album.
Adams got his start at the young age of 15, when he dropped out of high school to pursue a music career. Just three years later, in 1978, he signed his first record deal with A&M Records and soon after began recording. His self-titled debut album was released in early 1980, and while it generated very little buzz inside the United States, it was a moderate success in Canada. He took the album on tour across his home country thanks to popular songs like "Hidin' From Love" and "Give Me Your Love," but it was not until the next year that he achieved mainstream success.
In 1981, Adams released You Want It You Got It, which gave him his first big radio hit "Lonely Nights." The success of the album allowed Adams to tour with famous bands such as The Kinks and Foreigner, and set up what would eventually become a very successful string of albums.
Adams' third studio album, Cuts Like a Knife, was even more well-received than the previous release. The album contained a trio of popular hits including the title track, "This Time," and "Straight From The Heart," which was the only one of the three that cracked into the top 10. Due to the breakthrough success of the album, Adams embarked on a worldwide tour soon after.
Adam's' rise in the music industry continued into this fourth album, Reckless, which became his best selling production. The album was released in 1984 and featured the hits "Run to You" and "Summer of '69," both of which remain popular today. In addition to those, Adams also released four other singles off the record, and all six of them would end up in the top 15.
The 1990s would be kind to Adams as well, and the decade was highlighted by his 1991 power ballad "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" from the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which would earn him a Grammy. For the last 20 years, Adams has remained an influential force in the music industry, and has become the best selling Canadian artist of all time.