Bryan Adams, star solo artist, star photographer, was made a joke of in the movie South Park Bigger Longer Uncut and he even performed at the AFL Grand Final and again in the post-match (game) concert where some person in the crowd was constantly calling for star Hawthorn player Cyril Rioli.

So many good songs, so few selection spaces so I’m going to make some mixed selections.

Can’t Stop This Thing We Started

This song came after the mega hit ‘Everything I Do (I Do It For You) and it is one of my favourite tracks from the studio album ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’, there was no shortage of good songs on that album.

The song peaked at No. 2 in America and No. 9 in Australia, the music video looks like one of great fun, no doubt there are people who wish they had that giant guitar, the mechanical riding guitar.

Cuts Like A Knife

1983’s ‘Cuts Like A Knife’ was when Bryan’s career really started to take off, five out of six singles made it on to the ‘Mainstream Rock’ chart, three of them on the Billboard Hot 100.

A lot of people probably like the ‘Na-na, na, na-na, na, na-na, na-na’ part of the song and a look at the wikipedia page on the song reveals that ‘it actually the use of ‘na-na’ has been well used by songs throughout time especially by bands just as Journey.

The music video was shot in the Hollywood Athletic Club in a time that the building was abandoned in sections before a rebirth in the mid 1980s.

It’s Only Love

This song from the 1984 studio album ‘Reckless’ peaked at No. 15 in America and No. 57 in Australia and has Bryan Adams paired up with Tina Turner, what a combination that was and it is a shame a better-quality version of the video isn’t available to fully appreciate the song.

The song peaked at No. 15 in America and No. 57 in Australia, surprisingly weak numbers but it just proves that it doesn’t take a mega hit to have a well-remembered song.

Barbara Streisand was on a roll with duets with examples being Barry Gibb and Celine Dion, another artist on that list is Bryan Adams and the song ‘I Finally Found Someone’.

This song is from the movie ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces‘ which stars Barbara Streisand and Jeff Bridges as well as the likes of Pierce Brosnan and Lauren Bacall.

It peaked at No. 8 in America, but it had done great in Australia with a peak of No. 2.

Summer of ’69

Some people with a sense of humour suggest this song for graduation purposes, the meaning of the song seems to bounce between being about the sexual position and the year 1969, it could really be both as one line does say ‘Me and my baby in a ’69’.

Fans absolutely love those opening notes of the song, it really gets your attention, this song makes me think of the times just out of high school and trying to make it in life, it hasn’t quite happened yet, but you come out of school with ambition to burn.

Run To You

The first Bryan Adams song to crack the Top 30 in Australia, this Top 10 song in Canada and America as well as No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart is quite memorable for its great sound.

If the woman in the music video looks familiar to you, it is because you saw her in ‘Run to You’ and you’re about to see her again in ‘Heaven’ (the song not the place though both may be true), her name is Lysette Anthony.

Heaven

‘Heaven’ was Bryan Adams first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in America, it peaked at No. 8 in Sweden and No. 12 in Australia.

I wonder if they filmed Summer of ’69, Run To You and Heaven in rapid succession to cut down costs as Lysette Anthony was in all three music videos, there’s actually a second music video for Heaven where the crowd and the band are TVs, and it turns out to be a dream of Bryan’s.

In late 2001, DJ Sammy and Yanou with the vocals of Do had released a cover version of the song, it was a success, and some people remember that this was a DJ Sammy hit, it was Do who was the one who sang the words, Do released another version that also met with success.