Bryan Adams signed his first record deal for one dollar
In 1978 an 18-year-old Vancouver singer who had left school at 15 signed with A&M Records for a single dollar. The label sped up his vocals to turn a demo into a disco track he later disowned. Thirteen years on, one of his ballads spent 16 straight weeks at number one in Britain.
Bryan Guy Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario, on November 5, 1959, to English parents from Plymouth. His father, a former British Army officer, joined the Canadian Army and later served as a UN peacekeeping observer and diplomat, so the boy lived in Lisbon, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Britain before settling in Ottawa. He bought an imitation Stratocaster in Reading, England, at about 10, then a knock-off Les Paul in Ottawa. When he was sent to a psychiatrist as a child for clashing with his parents, he later said, the doctor concluded that the parents were the ones needing help.
His mother moved with him and his brother to North Vancouver in 1974. His teens were rough: he recalled his worst stretch of drinking and drugs coming before he turned 16, and after one night in a cell a police sergeant told him to look at how unhappy he was making his mother, which he says worked. He spent his college fund on a grand piano, washed dishes and sold pet food to pay rent, and at 15 became singer of the glam band Sweeney Todd. In a Vancouver music shop he met drummer and songwriter Jim Vallance, beginning a long partnership, and in 1979 he signed with manager Bruce Allen.
Cuts Like a Knife made him a North American name in 1983, and Reckless, from 1984, became the first album by a Canadian to go diamond at home, with Summer of '69 and Run to You among its singles. Then came (Everything I Do) I Do It for You in 1991, number one in at least 19 countries and one of the best-selling singles ever at over 15 million copies.
Estimates of his sales run from 75 million to above 100 million records. No one got more airplay on Canadian stations during the 2010s. He has won 20 Juno Awards and a Grammy, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards for film songs.
Source: Bryan Adams
