Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 27, 1992 TAG: 9202270183
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: KIRA BILLIK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium
BRYAN ADAMS CAN'T STOP THIS THING HE STARTED
"I'm not the kind of guy to try and count my chickens before they're hatched," said Canadian rocker Bryan Adams on the day he was nominated for six Grammy awards.His ballad, "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)" from the film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," culled four nominations: record of the year, song of the year, best pop vocal performance male and best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television. On Wednesday night, Adams won only the latter award.
Adams scored two nominations for the rocker, "Can't Stop This Thing We Started": best rock vocal performance, solo; and best rock song. Both tracks came from his double-platinum album, "Waking Up the Neighbours."
"Everything I Do" has sold 6 million copies worldwide and has gone triple platinum in the United States, making it only the second single in history to have sold 3 million copies.
He said he thought the song had an "international melody" when a friend sent him a tape of composer Michael Kamen's original melody from the film score.
"When we first heard [the song], it was lutes and a mandolin track, with a little bit of humming over top of it," Adams said. "To turn that into a song was a task, but the original piece of music that he had from the film score was gorgeous."
Along with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Adams composed the rest of the song and put lyrics to it. The original title was to be "I'd Die for You."
"There's no way I was gonna call a song that," Adams said. "It's too over the top. A guy would never say that to a girl. But I guy might say, `You know, honey, everything I do, I do for you.' It was just trying to put the common guy into the song."
Adams has no qualms about his biggest successes coming from ballads. He hit No. 1 with "Heaven," from 1984's "Reckless," as well.
"I enjoy singing them because there's a side to me that enjoys singing a slower song," he said. "You can appeal to a lot more people that way."
Although not known as a "political" artist, Adams, 32, has contributed to various causes throughout his career: Live Aid in 1985, Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986, the Prince's Trust Charity concert in 1986 and 1987 and Freedomfest, honoring Nelson Mandela, in 1988. He also performed "Young Lust" as part of Roger Waters' presentation of "The Wall" in Berlin in 1990.
"I think artists have a moral responsibility to open up and not only teach themselves, but to maybe bring their public along with them to experience things that maybe they wouldn't ordinarily think about," he said.