Waking Up The Neighbours

Released 10 years after Adams's debut record, WAKING UP THE NEIGHBORS continues in the hard-rocking tradition of its predecessors, but there are some notable changes. Here, Robert "Mutt" Lange, producer of AC/DC and guiding hand behind a number of other successful hard rock acts, is now Adam's fulltime songwriting partner instead of Jim Vallance, who had co-written all of Adams's early hits. Many of the latter had a touch of heartland melancholy, but these songs are more concerned with the human heart. The love song "Everything I Do (I Do it for You)", featured in the movie ROBIN HOOD, was an enormous hit.
Lange's heavy-metal influence is evident here, with Adams serving up a fine approximation of an AC/DC song on "Hey Honey--I'm Packing You In", while "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" carries with it the unmistakable flavour of Def Leppard. But in general the emphasis, as always, is on hook-heavy rockers with catchy choruses like "Can't Stop This Thing We Started". Whereas on earlier records Adams had spiced up his songs with traces of social consciousness, this set is back squarely in love-and-lust territory.|

Bryan Adams 1991 album, Waking Up the Neighbours, signaled his commercial apex. Bridging the time gap between 80s arena rock and 90s angst-ridden grunge, the album also ushered in an era in which Adams became as well-known for his sweeping power ballads as he was for straight-ahead rock tunes. This album, filled with nearly 75 minutes of showstopping arena rockers and mid-tempo ballads, featured no less than five hit singles, the most notable being the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves theme "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You." That ballad spent seven weeks atop the U.S. pop charts, becoming the longest-reigning American chart-topper since Princes "When Doves Cry" seven years earlier. The song also became a phenomenon in Europe, becoming Adams biggest hit ever. Other singles which followed included the joyous rocker "Cant Stop This Thing We Started," which became a number two hit, the mid-tempo ballads "Do I Have to Say the Words" and "Thought Id Died and Gone to Heaven," and the fun, straight-ahead rocker "There Will Never Be Another Tonight." ~ Jose F. Promis