“Reckless” by Bryan Adams

One of the most formative albums from my teenage years turns 40!

Hello! 😊👋

Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!

Today’s music pick celebrates 40 years of one of the most formative rock albums of my lifetime.

Genre: Rock, Pop

Label: A&M

Release Date: November 5, 1984

Vibe: 🤘🤘🤘

My Bryan Adams fandom is due, at least in part, to government regulations.

In Canada, where I grew up, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) mandates content requirements regarding how much homegrown talent makes it onto broadcast airwaves. To comply with this legislation, pop and rock radio stations must maintain a 35% Canadian content (CanCon for short) ratio. As a teenager, that meant hearing a lot of the Tragically Hip, the Guess Who, and, most memorably, Bryan Adams.

He’s always been a reliable presence in my life, and many, many others worldwide, for more than four decades. In addition to selling over 75 million records, he’s been nominated for three Oscars, become one of the most popular musicians ever in India, and turned a beloved rom-com into a Broadway success. There’s something so appealing about Adams’ working man persona that makes him equally appealing as a virile rocker and a sensitive balladeer. Whether he’s screeching over a muscular guitar riff or crooning over a piano-driven arrangement, he always seems to land the plane smoothly.

All those aspects came together on Reckless, the rocker’s first true blockbuster. The album has sold over 12 million copies worldwide, which, amazingly, makes it his second-biggest seller. Adams would top himself with 1991’s Waking Up the Neighbors, an LP that rode the runaway success of that song he wrote for the Robin Hood movie to over 16 million units sold. But, sonically, I don’t think he ever topped his work on Reckless. The stand-and-chant rock anthems are plentiful, from the raucous “Kids Wanna Rock” to the humid, riff-driven opener “One Night Love Affair.” He also delivers arguably his best power ballad in “Heaven,” a track that netted him his first-ever Hot 100 chart-topper. Your appetite for overproduced 80s cheese notwithstanding, you have to hand it to Adams—few rock singers can take a ballad from a whisper to an in-your-feels belt with such ease.

Interestingly, the pre-release feedback on the almost-done tracks for Reckless was decidedly “meh.” Following studio sessions in Vancouver and overdubs at the Power Station in New York, Adams wasn’t happy with the material. He knew it was missing something. He also knew that, following a North American breakthrough with Cuts Like a Knife, largely on the back of its eponymous hit single, there was no margin for error. Similar to reports about Bruce Springsteen’s creative process for Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., Adams wanted a hit to sustain his momentum.

Louder Sound’s Paul Elliott explains:

“Adams summoned his manager Bruce Allen to New York for a playback of the album. Allen’s verdict was straight to the point: ‘Where’s the rock?’ According to Adams, these three words ‘changed everything.’ The next day, he was on a plane back to Vancouver. He called Jim Vallance, his co-songwriter, and told him: ‘We need to pump up the volume on this.’”

One of the songs to emerge from these new sessions was “Summer of ‘69,” which, at least when I was growing up, is as close to a homegrown national anthem as you can get in Canada. It’s funny how your perception of what a song means changes as you get older, too. When I was a kid, the notion of spending your summer just jamming with your friends, with visions of rock stardom dancing in your head, was so intoxicating I wish I had actually taken a leap of faith and done it. However, I was too shy and scared to follow through back then, so I lived vicariously through the lyrics, revisiting someone else’s version of “the best days of our lives.”

Now, far removed from my teenage angst and confusion, I hear a certain sun-soaked melancholy that I’ve covered in this newsletter before. There’s a wistfulness in Adams’ writing and vocal performance but also a not-insignificant amount of regret. There’s a summer romance that didn’t work out (”Standin' on your mama's porch/You told me that you'd wait forever”) and bandmates/friends who faded away as life’s obligations became unavoidable. To go back to a simpler time, when you had less holding you down or back, is as universal a nostalgia tale as you’ll find. When I saw Bryan Adams live, you could see the longing for those good old days on the faces of everyone who sang along with him.

Even with all those highlights, the album’s best song is far and away, “It’s Only Love,” Adams’ duet with the Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Turner. He approached Turner backstage at a stop on her Private Dancer tour and asked her to hop on the track with him. She loved the demo, agreed, and cut her vocal the next day. Propelled by a brawny Keith Scott guitar riff, the duo has incredible chemistry, culminating in that “over and over and OVER AGAAAIINNNNN” refrain before the final chorus. Phenomenal stuff. It’s also a song that’s benefitted greatly from ensuing remasters, including the 5.1 Dolby mix that was released for its 30th anniversary. The drums are thick and powerful, Scott’s solo sounds more powerful than ever, and the raspy grandeur of Adams’ and Turner’s vocals is something to behold.

Every time I listen to Reckless, it takes me back to some of my most formative music moments. I’m a teenager, lying on my bed, hands clasped together under the back of my head, eyes alternatively fixed on the ceiling or closed completely, lost in what I’m listening to. Sometimes, I’d use headphones to listen to the local classic rock station, but most nights, like this one, I’d simply turn the boombox’s volume down as low as it could go but still be audible if my head was close enough to the speakers. The evening show, which stretched past what a reasonable bedtime was supposed to be, introduced me to all sorts of sonic delights, one of which was Bryan Adams.

I can sit here now, close my eyes, and instantly transport myself back to those moments of exciting self-discovery. If that isn’t proof of great music’s staying power, I don’t know what is.

👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈