The Simplicity of Success in Music, Explained by Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams is one of the most successful artists in music history. There are more than 100 million records and singles. In fact, it is one of the best-selling compacts in history: “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”a song released in 1991 and which played extensively on radio stations across the planet at the beginning of that decade.

For him, interestingly, success is a slightly simpler issue than many people try to present when discussing the topic in the musical sphere. The subject was discussed in an interview with the magazine Classic Rock(via Guitar), when, initially, the journalist pointed out the Adams the phenomenal number of one billion streams achieved by another of his biggest hits, “Summer of ’69”at the Spotify. He reacted:

“Cool. I don’t think about it. I never considered myself a good singer or a good guitarist.”

The biggest criterion considered by Bryan when creating a new song was: how memorable is your melody? That’s how he got a truckload of hits, many of them conceived together with Jim Vallance, his songwriting partner. No adopting artistically complex paths.

“I did the best I could with the three chords I knew. When it came to the songs, I thought if I could remember it and sing it, it was good enough. However, doing the simple thing is difficult. I really must give credit to Jim [Vallance]. A great teacher. He would always be there to help me filter the shit.”

The great purpose of music

Such a mentality on the part of Bryan Adams expresses the great purpose of a song, in his opinion: to make everyone able to sing. Therein lies the biggest secret to the success of “Summer of ’69”.

“What we’re talking about is making music that everyone can sing. Isn’t that the joy of it? And everyone can sing ‘Summer of ’69’. That’s the magic of it.”

Bryan Adams and “Summer of ’69”

Released as the album’s fourth single “Reckless” (1984), “Summer of ’69” was the song responsible for making Bryan Adams explode worldwide. Furthermore, the success in its homeland, Canada, was gigantic: considering only national artists, this is the song most played via streaming and most purchased as a download among all those released before the so-called “digital era” (approximately 2005). It is also the most played track by a Canadian artist on radio stations in the country among all those made available before 1990.

In an interview with the website IgorMiranda.com.br, Adams revealed that he has vivid memories of the hit songwriting process.

“I composed it with Jim Vallance sometime in late 1983 or early 1984 in a basement in Vancouver. Originally the title would be ‘The Best Days of My Life’ (‘The Best Days of My Life’), but at the last moment, I threw in the idea of ​​69. I liked the almost sexual connotation of 69 and the alliteration of ‘summer’ It is ‘sixty-nine’. In the end, the song was rich with regrets and feelings of lost innocence, the broken promise of youth, a bittersweet look at early love and the nostalgia of a summer of first love, but it’s not about the year 1969.”