Daily Recco, November 5: Nothing Reckless about Bryan Adams's best
Singer, songwriter and composer Bryan Adams was born on this day 61 years ago. Reckless — arguably his most successful solo album — was also released on this day 36 years ago. The fifth of November is certainly special for Adams.
Reckless has many jewels to its crown. From being the first Canadian album to sell more than a million copies within Canada, to have reached 12 million album sales worldwide, to being a major commercial success and charting near the top worldwide, every single track of Reckless reached the top 15 of Billboard‘s pop charts in the USA (in early 1985). And it would be no exaggeration to say that the album was a turning point in Adams’s career. It was this album that made him a superstar from a rockstar. The timelessness of the album is established by the fact that each of those songs is as fresh today as it was 36 years ago.
Reckless includes the singles — Run to You, Somebody, Heaven, Summer of '69, One Night Love Affair, and It's Only Love. While each track is a gem in its own right, offering an endless stream of singles for pop and rock radio of the time, for Gen X, Xennials and millennials, the one track that still stands out is the Summer of '69. There has been a long-standing dispute on the interpretation of the title between the composers (Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance). But whatever the interpretation one chooses to settle on, this up-tempo track has been a permanent fixture in several "best of" lists of many music publications and the ones compiled by the critics. And why wouldn’t it be? Every time one listens to the track, it brings back the memories of first love, and who wouldn’t want that smile?
Funnily enough, it wasn’t always the case. When the album was released, Summer of '69 never got any traction beyond the USA and Canada. It took the track nearly nine years to catch on in Europe. It was only after the track featured in the compilation album So Far, So Good, did it become a hit. But then, that just goes to establish that the track truly defies the years.
The other track in the album — It's Only Love — was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1986 and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance the same year.
And when you hear the track One Night Love Affair, you will realise what the mainstream rock of the mid-1980s at its best sounds like. Don't miss the drums by Pat Steward, as you lose yourself in the pristine sound quality of the ethereal guitar work by Keith Scott.
Besides Scott on the guitars and as a supporting vocalist, other musicians who have lent their talent for this classic album are Bryan Adams as the lead vocalist, guitarist and pianist; Tommy Mandel on the keyboards; Dave Taylor on the bass, and Pat Steward on the drums and as a supporting vocalist.
There is no exaggeration in saying that Reckless is a once-in-a-lifetime album for Adams. So much so, that he came up with the 30th-anniversary edition of the album with the previously unreleased material, which was released in November 2014.