Bryan Adams

Born in 1959, Vancouver native Bryan Adams quit school at age 16 to go on tour with his first band, Shock. In 1977 he joined the semi-successful glam-rock band Sweeny Todd and performed on two of their albums before leaving the group for a solo career under the close guidance of manager Bruce Allen (Loverboy, BTO) and professional songwriter Jim Vallance. His 1980 eponymous solo debut on A&M Canada didn't make much of an impact even in his homeland, but his 1981, "You Want It, You Got It" made him a bona fide star in the Great White North, spawning four Canadian hit singles.
1983's "Cuts Like A Knife "was Adams' first real inroad into the giant U.S. market, going platinum in less than a year. With the single "Straight from the Heart" at No. 10 on the Billboard singles chart and several videos on MTV, Adams toured the U.S. opening for the band Journey before heading to Europe, Japan and Australia.
The next Bryan Adams album, 1987's Into the Fire, sold "only" one million copies and spawned one Top 10 hit. Over the next year and a half Adams and his band toured North America, Europe and Japan, selling out stadiums everywhere they performed,.
Adams spent nearly all of 1992, 1993 and 1994 on a series of worldwide tours, including a tour of Mexico to support a special Spanish-lyric version of "I Do It For You." A&M released a Greatest Hits package in 1993, which sold more than 13 million copies thanks to the No. 1 single "Please Forgive Me." Adams' other hit that year was the single "All For Love," recorded with fellow towheads Rod Stewart and Sting for the box-office flop Three Musketeers.
Adams released another movie-related single, the song "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" from the movie Don Juan de Marco. That same year he released a duet with Bonnie Raitt. 1996 finally saw the release of Adams next album, 18 Till I Die. An attempt to target a younger demographic, the new album featured a more rockin' sound and a hip new look for Adams. Adams' 10th studio album, On a Day Like Today, was released in the fall of '98. In June 1999, Bryan reached the country charts with his cover of "You're Still Beautiful to Me," an Adams/Lange song that first appeared on 18 'Til I Die, and it made the country Top 40. Adams next issued a second hits compilation, The Best of Me, in November 1999.
Adams was absent from the American charts for more than a year, then surprisingly returned via the dance charts for the first time in two decades. His vocals were heard on Chicane's "Don't Give Up," which was a number three dance hit in the spring of 2000. Adams himself, meanwhile, was collaborating with Hans Zimmer on his first full-length song score for a film, the animated DreamWorks feature Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, which appeared in the spring of 2002, its soundtrack making the Top 40, as the emphasis track "Here I Am," featuring Adams, peaked at number five in the adult contemporary chart. Adams released his ninth studio album, Room Service, and the 2 CD/1 DVD set Anthology in 2005. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide