Bryan Adams, OC,
OBC (born November 5, 1959) is a Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter.
His best-known songs include "Summer of '69", "Heaven", "Everything I Do (I
Do It for You)", "Cuts Like a Knife", and "Run to You". His two most popular
albums are Reckless and Waking Up The Neighbours.
Adams has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, and in 1990, he was made
a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for his
contribution to popular music. In 1998 he was promoted to an Officer of the
Order of Canada for his philanthropic work.
They then moved back to Canada, to the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia in the 1970s and Adams started his musical career by dropping out of school at age 15.
William Henry "Bill" Gates III,
KBE, (born October 28, 1955) is the co-founder,
chairman, and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the world's
largest computer software company. According to Forbes magazine, Gates is
the world's wealthiest person, with a net worth of approximately US$51
billion, as of September 2005[3].
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer
revolution and has become an iconic figure of late-20th century capitalism.
While widely respected for his intelligence, foresight, and ambition, he is
also sometimes accused of using ruthless, illegal or monopolistic business
practices.
Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic
endeavours, donating huge amounts of money to various charitable
organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, founded in 2000. He, along with his wife Melinda Gates and
U2's lead singer Bono, were named by Time as the 2005 Persons of the Year.
That same year he was given the honour of Knight Commander of the British
Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
At the age of seventeen, Adams sent a few demos to A&M Records and at
eighteen was signed to a recording contract for one dollar. He has released
fourteen albums since then.
Two of those first demos, both written in 1978, have surfaced over the
years: "Remember" ended up on his first album, and "Let Me Take You Dancing"
was remixed as a disco twelve-inch record to attain a certain
beat-per-minute (BPM) and hence bears no resemblance to Adams' natural voice
but it was a start which is what he was looking for.
These songs were also the start of a long songwriting partnership between
Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance which led to the first solo album, Bryan
Adams, released in 1980. His second album You Want It You Got It 1981, saw
the radio hit "Lonely Nights", but it wasn't until his third album Cuts Like
a Knife that he broke through with four hits in 1983. He quickly followed up
that album with his popular Reckless at the end of 1984. It produced six Top
40 songs and was certified platinum. Next came Into the Fire in 1987 which
was also certified platinum. This also saw the demise of the songwriting
partnership between Adams and Vallance, but many of the fragments of their
last songs ended up on the forthcoming studio album.
The 1994 album, Live!Live!Live! is the complete recording of a 3 July 1988
concert in Werchter, Belgium, which was also broadcast in Canada and on MTV
around the world. One of his most successful albums is 1991's Waking up the
Neighbours (see 1991 in music); it was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange
and Adams, and featured the single "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)". This
song was number one everywhere in the world in 1991 and 1992, and spent a
record-breaking sixteen weeks at number one on the charts in the United
Kingdom. The next album was a greatest-hits collection So Far So Good.
Albums he released during this period are: 18 til I Die in Summer 1996,
Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged in Winter 1997, On a Day Like Today in Autumn
1998, and The Best of Me worldwide in 1999 and in the U.S. in early 2002. In
May 2002 he released the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack.
In 2000, Adams came out to sing a few songs, including "Behind Blue Eyes",
for The Who at the Royal Albert Hall. This live show was recorded for audio
and video.
His latest album, Room Service was released on September 20, 2004 in Canada
and in Europe; "Open Road" was its first single. The CD was released in the
U.S. on May 10, 2005 on Mercury Nashville.
Adams speaks French,
and has lived in France. He currently lives in England. There he is a
supporter of Chelsea F.C., but he is also a supporter of Inter Milan as
well.
Adams is a vegan
"Drive All Night" in the 1989 film Pink Cadillac.
"Everything I Do (I Do It for You)" from the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
"All for Love" from The Three Musketeers in 1993 (sung alongside Rod Stewart and Sting).
"Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" in 1995 from the film Don Juan DeMarco.
"Star" from the Robin Williams film Jack.
"I Finally Found Someone" in 1996 from Barbra Streisand film The Mirror Has Two Faces (the song is a duet with her).
"When You Love Someone" in 1998 film Hope Floats
From the 2002 film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
"Here I Am"
"I Will Always Return"
"You Can't Take Me"
"Get off My Back"
"Brothers Under the Sun"
"Don't Let Go" (with Sarah McLachlan)
"This Is Where I Belong"
"Nothing I've Ever Known"
"It Ain't Over Yet" to the 2005 film Racing Stripes.
Adams has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his film compositions. He has two songs in the forthcoming film Colour Me Kubrick starring John Malkovich in early 2006 and also in the forthcoming independant film Cashback.
Soundtrack works
In 1985, Adams
contributed to the Canadian benefit record for Ethiopia called "Tears Are
Not Enough". In that same year, he took part in the U.S side of the Live Aid
concert in Philadelphia. He was a featured member of Amnesty International's
1986 A Conspiracy of Hope Tour. He was in London to play at the Nelson
Mandela birthday party concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988.
In 1990 he joined many other guests (including Michael Kamen) for Roger
Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, Germany. In 1992 Adams
protested against backward Canadian Content regulations, which got changed
as a result. He successfully campaigned for the Southern Antarctic Whale
Sanctuary in the mid-1990s with Greenpeace Chairman David McTaggert, the two
distributed over 500,000 postcards at concerts around the world encouraging
politicians to vote YES for the creation of the sanctuary. On his 1998 album
On a Day Like Today he supports the Elephant Sanctuary, Hohenwald in
Tennessee and Elefriends in England. Bryan supports breast cancer research
for cures through his photography work (see below).
On 29 January 2005, the singer joined many of Canada's prominent stars in a
benefit concert from Vancouver for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake, and also performed at Live 8's Canadian performance in Barrie,
Ontario on 2 July 2005. Adams appeared in Doha, Qatar, on 1 February 2006 in
a charity concert for Qatar's "Reach Out to Asia" campaign to help the
underprivileged across the continent. On 29 January 2006 he will be the
first western artist to perform in Karachi, Pakistan in conjunction with a
benefit to raise money for underprivileged children to go to school.
Bryan Adams (1980)
You Want It You Got It (1981) #118 US #78 UK
Cuts Like a Knife (1983) #8 US, #6 UK #21 UK
Reckless (1984) #1 US, #7 UK
Into the Fire (1987) #7 US, #10 UK
Hits on Fire (Japanese double-CD) (1988)
Live! Live! Live! (1988, released in U.S. 1994) #17 UK
Waking up the Neighbours (1991) #6 US, #1 UK
So Far So Good (1993) #6 US, #1 UK
18 til I Die (1996) #31 US, #1 UK
Unplugged (1997) #88 US #19 UK
On a Day Like Today (1998) #103 US, #11 UK
The Best of Me released worldwide (1999) released in the U.S. in (2002) #12
UK
Do to You What You Do to Me (2001) (live album recorded and released in
India only)
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (film soundtrack) (2002) #8 UK
Room Service (2004) #1 Europe #4 UK
Anthology (2005) #30 UK
"Remember" (1980)
From You Want It You Got It (1981):
"Lonely Nights" (1982) #84 US
From Cuts Like a Knife (1983):
"Straight from the Heart" (1983) #10 US, #51 UK (1986 release)
"Cuts Like a Knife" (1983) #15 US
"This Time" (1983) #24 US, #41 UK (1986 release)
From Reckless (1984):
"Run to You" (1984) #6 US, #11 UK
"Somebody" (1985) #11 US, #35 UK
"Heaven" (1985) #1 US - 2 weeks, #38 UK
"Summer of '69" (1985) #5 US, #42 UK
"One Night Love Affair" (1985) #13 US
"It's Only Love" (with Tina Turner) (1985) #15 US, #29 UK
From Into the Fire (1987):
"Heat of the Night" (1987) #6 US, #50 UK
"Hearts on Fire" (1987) #26 US, #57 UK
"Victim of Love" (1987) #32 US, #68 UK
From Live! Live! Live! (1988 & 1994):
"I Fought the Law (1988)
From Waking up the Neighbours (1991):
"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" (1991) #1 US - 7 weeks, #1 UK - 16
weeks, #1 Australia, #1 New Zealand
"Can't Stop This Thing We Started" (1991) #2 US, #12 UK
"There Will Never Be Another Tonight" (1991) #31 US, #32 UK
"Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" (1992) #13 US, #8 UK
"All I Want Is You" (1992) #22 UK
"Do I Have to Say the Words?" (1992) #11 US, #30 UK
From So Far So Good (1993):
"Please Forgive Me" (1993) #7 US, #2 UK, #1 Australia, #4 Latvia
From The Three Musketeers (soundtrack) (1993):
"All for Love" (with Rod Stewart and Sting) (1994) #1 US - 3 weeks, #2 UK,
#1 Latvia - 1 week
From Don Juan DeMarco (soundtrack) (1995):
"Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" (1995) #1 US - 5 weeks, #4 UK, #2
Latvia
From Road Tested (Bonnie Raitt) (1995):
"Rock Steady" live with Bonnie Raitt (1995) #73 US, #50 UK
From 18 til I Die (1996):
"The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" (1996) #52 US, #6 UK, #2
Latvia
"Let's Make a Night to Remember" (1996) #24 US, #10 UK, #7 Latvia
"Star" (1996) #13 UK
"18 til I Die" (1997) #22 UK, #12 Latvia
From The Mirror Has Two Faces (soundtrack) (1996):
"I Finally Found Someone" (with Barbra Streisand) (1996) #8 US, #10 UK, #2
Australia
From Unplugged (1997):
"Back to You" (1997) #18 UK, #11 Latvia
"I'm Ready" (1998) #20 UK, #10 Latvia
From On a Day Like Today (1998):
"On a Day Like Today" (1998) #13 UK, #17 Latvia
"When You're Gone" (with Melanie C) (1998) #3 UK, #2 Australia, #3 Latvia
"Cloud Number Nine" (1999) #6 UK, #4 Latvia
From The Best of Me (1999 & 2002):
"The Best of Me" (1999) #47 UK, #2 Latvia
From Behind the Sun (Chicane album) (2000):
"Don't Give Up" (Chicane with Bryan Adams) (2000) #1 UK, #8 Australia, #2
Latvia
From Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (soundtrack) (2002):
"Here I Am" (2002) #5 UK, #2 Latvia
From Room Service:
"Open Road" (2004) #21 UK, #15 Latvia
"Flying (2004) #39 UK
"This Side of Paradise" (2004)
"Room Service (2005)
"Why Do You Have To Be So Hard To Love" (2005)
From Anthology (2005):
"When You're Gone" (with Pamela Anderson) (2005)
"So Far So Good" (2006)
Adams was invited, along with other photographers from the Commonwealth, to photograph Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom during her Golden Jubilee; one of those photographs was used as a Canadian postage stamp in 2004, and again in 2005.
Adams has had his work published in "Vanity Fair", Harper's Bazaar, and Interview Magazine among others. He currently publishes an art and fashion magazine in Berlin, called Zoo Magazine.