Bryan Adams, OC, OBC (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter.Some of his best-known songs include Summer of '69, Heaven, Everything I Do (I Do It for You), Cuts Like a Knife, and Run to You. His most popular albums are Reckless and Waking up the Neighbours and 18 Til I Die.Adams is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for his contribution to popular music. In 1998 he was promoted to an Officer of the Order of Canada for his philanthropic work. He was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1990, and is to be given the Hall of Fame Award at Canada's Juno awards this April 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards.Contents [hide]1 Early life 2 Musical career 3 Social activist 4 As a photographer 5 Personal life 6 Soundtrack works 7 Discography 7.1 Albums 7.2 Singles 7.3 Songs written for other artists 7.4 B-sides and odd singles 8 Odd recordings 9 Filmography 10 See also 11 External links Early lifeAdams was born in Kingston, Ontario and traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East as a child with his diplomat parents, until they settled back in Canada in 1973. Adams started his musical career by dropping out of school at age 15.Musical careerAt the age of seventeen, Adams sent a few demos to A&M Records and at eighteen was signed to a recording contract for one dollar. He has released fourteen albums since then.Many of the first demos written in 1978 written when Adams was 18, surfaced over the years; most notably is I'm Ready (recorded for both the Cuts Like a Knife LP and later on the MTV Unplugged album), and Remember which went on his first album. Both songs were covered by a other artists before his first album even got released.This time was also the start of a long songwriting partnership between Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance which led to the first solo album, Bryan Adams, released in 1980. His second album You Want It You Got It 1981, saw the radio hit Lonely Nights, but it wasn't until his third album Cuts Like a Knife that he broke through with four hits in 1983. He quickly followed up that album with his popular Reckless at the end of 1984. It produced six Top 40 songs and was certified platinum. Next came Into the Fire in 1987 which was also certified platinum. This was the last album completely written by Adams and Vallance, but many of the fragments of their other songs ended up on the forthcoming block buster, Waking up the Neighbours .Live!Live!Live! is the complete recording of a 3 July 1988 concert in Werchter, Belgium, which was broadcast by the CBC in Canada and on MTV around the world. One of his most successful albums is 1991's Waking up the Neighbours (see 1991 in music); it was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Adams, and featured the single "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)". This album and the song went to number one everywhere in the world in 1991 and 1992, with the song spending a record-breaking sixteen weeks at number one on the charts in the United Kingdom. The next album was the hits collection So Far So Good.The next four years saw Adams releasing an album every year for four years, 18 til I Die in Summer 1996, Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged in Winter 1997, On a Day Like Today in Autumn 1998, and The Best of Me worldwide in 1999 and in the U.S. in early 2002. In May 2002 he released the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack.Room Service was released on September 20, 2004 in Canada and in Europe; "Open Road" was its first single. The CD was released in the U.S. on May 10, 2005 on Mercury Nashville. Anthology is a 2 CD set, released in 2005 as a retrospective collection of hits and obscure tracks from the 25 years of recording.Social activistIn 1985, Adams co-wrote the Canadian benefit record for Ethiopia called Tears Are Not Enough.