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| You Want It You Got It | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Recording Artist: | Bryan Adams |
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| Release Date: | 1981 (A&M Records) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Songs By Jim Vallance: | Comin' Home Don't Look Now Fits Ya Good Last Chance Lonely Nights One Good Reason Tonight You Want It You Got It |
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| Charts: | #118 - Billboard Album Chart / 1982 (13 weeks on chart) #78 - UK Chart / September 1985 #50 - Canadian Chart |
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| Certification: | Gold (50,000 Canadian sales) 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comments: | While our song-writing skills had improved considerably since Bryan's first album two years earlier, it's the addition of producer Bob Clearmountain that really
made the difference on "You Want It You Got It".
Bob also set a higher standard by hiring a number of seasoned New York session musicians, several of whom would continue working with Bryan for decades. |
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| The combination of Bob's production skills and the musicians' expertise gave "You Want It, You Got It" significantly more punch than Bryan's previous album. More importantly, Adams had "found" his voice. Gone were the effeminate affectations of his "Sweeney Todd" days. He was now delivering the throaty vocal style that would become his trademark. |
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Having co-produced Bryan's first album I naturally assumed I'd be "at the helm" for the second album as well. I happened to be in Toronto when Bryan performed for a few hundred enthusiastic fans at the El Mocambo club on October 27, 1981 (the Rolling Stones had played a rare gig there a few years earlier). Bryan put on a great show, and I met him backstage afterwards. Then Bryan's manager, Bruce Allen, took me aside. He said he had some bad news for me ... I wouldn't be producing Bryan's next album. I was shocked! Stunned! Producing meant everything to me. It was a big part of "who I was" (or at least who I thought I was). It was a devastating moment. Looking back, nearly 40 years later, I know Bruce was right (although Bruce was probably just the messenger ... it was more likely Adams and A&R man David Kerschenbaum who made the decision). The truth is, as a producer I wasn't capable of taking Bryan to the next level. Had I produced "You Want It You Got It" I'm certain Bryan's career would have been further delayed, perhaps irreparably side-tracked. Bringing in Bob Clearmountain ensured that the "team" -- including me as a songwriter -- would be stronger. Bryan knew that. It just took me a little longer to figure it out for myself. Five years earlier I'd quit "Prism" over creative differences. I'm glad I had the maturity to "hang in" after the El Mocambo disappointment. |
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David Kerschenbaum's involvement on the first album had been minimal, but Bryan shrewdly invited David's full participation on the second album ... a strategy that virtually guaranteed Bryan's career would move up a notch.
Bob Clearmountain's career was also on a rocket-like trajectory, having recently engineered brilliant recordings for The Rolling Stones ("Start Me Up") and Roxy Music ("More Than This"). Projects with Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie would soon folllow. |
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"You Want It You Got It" was recorded at the Power Station in New York, Bob Clearmountain's "home base", with additional recording at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec. Bob was acquainted with the very best musicians-for-hire, including Mickey Curry. Mickey was Hall & Oates' full-time drummer, but he was available for session work when H&O were on hiatus. Mickey is a superb musician and a great guy. He's recorded and toured with Bryan for more than twenty years and is a significant part of the "Adams sound". In addition to Bryan himself, guitarists on "You Want It You Got It" included Jamie Glaser and G.E. Smith. Smith is best known for his ten-year stint in the Saturday Night Live "house band". He's also recorded and toured with Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Hall and Oates, and many others. For me, the stand-out tracks on the album are Lonely Nights, Comin' Home, Fits Ya Good and Tonight. Some of the other songs are less than stellar -- (Adams and I were still honing our writing skills) -- however Bob Clearmountain managed to make even the "average" songs sound good! If "You Want It You Got It" didn't put Adams on the map, it certainly opened doors and got him noticed as a "real contender". |
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| Reviews: | Despite a slight new wave flavor on its title track, the debut record by Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams is a solid, well-played slab of straight-ahead, four-on-the-floor rock & roll. On tracks like catchy opener, "Lonely Nights," Adams shows how he can take a pretty basic riff and get the most out of it through his heartfelt, emotional delivery.
Thematically, Adams alternates between the spurned lover, the wooing lover, and the fed-up lover who's not gonna take it any more; but the emphasis here is on the simple pleasures of rock played and sung with workmanlike dedication. Following a pattern he would continue throughout his rise to the top of the charts, Adams alternates between punchy rock in the spirit of same-era Bruce Springsteen ("Jealousy") and what were soon dubbed "power ballads," such as "Coming Home" and the touching closer, "No One Makes it Right."Co-produced by Bob Clearmountain, who would be one of the hottest producers in the business by the middle of the decade, YOU WANT IT has the pleasing oomph of American power rock and a radio-ready sheen - MTV website review |
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| Proceed to the next album, "Cuts Like A Knife" |  |
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