Bryan Adams

Background

Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario, to English parents who emigrated from Plymouth. He traveled with his diplomat father to Lisbon, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and the UK, and was raised in Ottawa. He bought his first electric guitar at age 10. He dropped out of school at 15 and later said his worst period of drug and alcohol abuse occurred before his 16th birthday.

After being arrested and jailed, a sergeant told him to look at his mother and see how unhappy he was making her; Adams then decided to stop the behavior. He attributes the pockmarks on his face to his drug use. He did not see his father for 12 years after his parents' divorce, later reconciling.

Did You Know?

• Adams was ranked 48th on the all-time top artists on the Billboard Hot 100.
• He received the Governor General's Awards in Performing Arts – Lifetime Artistic Achievement on May 1, 2010.
• Adams met Jim Vallance in 1978 at a Vancouver Long and McQuade musical instrument store.
• He signed to A&M records in 1978 for one dollar.

The Serendipitous Collaboration

What began as a straightforward writing session between Bryan Adams and songwriter Eliot Kennedy during the production of his eighth studio album, On a Day Like Today, took an unexpected turn when Adams reached out to American artist Sheryl Crow to perform the duet. She never responded. Instead, the song found its co-star through pure chance: in August 1998, Adams bumped into Melanie C inside a hotel elevator in Los Angeles. Their earlier connection dated back to 1996, when he first saw her on the British chart show Top of the Pops during the Spice Girls' performance of "Wannabe." He asked her on the spot to appear on the track.

The recording took place at the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver between June and August 1998, with Adams and Bob Rock at the production helm. Kennedy handled Melanie C's vocal sessions separately and shipped the recordings to the Canadian studio for integration. Released by A&M Records on November 30, 1998, the song marked Melanie C's very first single outside the Spice Girls and served as the second single from Adams' album.

Chart Domination Across Markets

The single's commercial trajectory was strongest in the UK, where it debuted directly at number three on the Singles Chart on December 12, 1998, and held a position for 15 weeks. The British Phonographic Industry awarded it a double platinum certification. In Ireland, the track reached the same number-three peak and stayed on the chart for 16 weeks.

Down under, the song entered the Australian ARIA chart at number 29 on December 6, 1998, before climbing to its peak of number four by January 24, 1999, and remaining for 21 weeks. ARIA certified it platinum for 70,000 equivalent units. In New Zealand it reached number 15 for 13 weeks, and back in Adams' home country of Canada, it peaked at number 12 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in February 1999.