Run To You | ||||||||||||||
Recording Artist: | Bryan Adams | |||||||||||||
Writers: | Jim Vallance Bryan Adams |
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Date Written: | January 12-14, 1983 / Vancouver Canada | |||||||||||||
Albums: | Reckless (A&M Records, 1984) Live Live Live (A&M Records, 1988) So Far So Good (A&M Records, 1993) The Best Of Me (A&M Records, 1999) Anthology (A&M Records, 2005) Icon (Universal, 2010) Reckless - 30th Anniversary Edition (November 2014) |
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Spotify Streams: | 233,767,421 - as of November 2024 | |||||||||||||
Charts: | #1 - Billboard Top Rock Tracks Chart / 1984 (15 weeks on the chart) |
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Awards: | 1985 - BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) Citation of Achievement for significant U.S. radio airplay 1985 - Juno Award Nomination for Single of the Year 1985 - Procan Award (Performing Rights Organization of Canada) 1985 - Gold Single Award for 50,000 sales of the 45 RPM single in Canada 2004 - Socan Classics Award for more than 100,000 Canadian radio performances |
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Audio: | ||||||||||||||
Bryan Adams: rhythm guitar, vocal Jim Vallance: percussion Keith Scott: rhythm guitar, lead guitar Tommy Mandel: keyboards Dave Taylor: bass Mickey Curry: drums |
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Arranged by Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams. Produced by Bob Clearmountain and Bryan Adams. Associate producer, Jim Vallance. Recorded by Bob Clearmountain, April 1984, at Little Mountain Sound, Vancouver. Mixed by Bob Clearmountain, September 1984, at the Power Station, New York. |
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Cover Versions: | Also recorded by Bananarama, Jaymz Bee, EnRage, Jorn Lande, Novaspace, Nolans, Pascal | |||||||||||||
Comments: | In January 1983 producer Bruce Fairbairn asked me and Bryan Adams to write a song for his next production project, "Blue Oyster Cult". In search of inspiration we listened to the band's past catalogue, including their biggest hit "Don't Fear The Reaper". The signature sound on "Reaper" is the arpeggiated guitar riff that opens the song ... Bryan and I spent about an hour creating a riff of our own, initially in the key of A-minor. I still have a recording of Bryan and I passing the guitar cable back and forth (click, buzz, click, buzz), each of us trying a different variation as the riff developed ... Eventually we transposed the riff down to E-minor, later adding a capo to achieve an F#-minor tuning, which better suited Bryan's vocal range. |
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When the song was complete we recorded a demo and presented it to Bruce Fairbairn, who in turn played the song for "Blue Oyster Cult". Bruce called us a few days later with the verdict. "They don't like the song", Bruce said over the phone ... it didn't fit the plan for their album. It took 40 years to learn the real story (see "Postscript" below) Refusing to be discouraged we asked our publisher to send the song to a few more bands, including .38 Special, but they all declined. "Run To You" was now officially an orphan! Up to this point Bryan didn't think the song was right for him either. Here's how producer Bob Clearmountain recalls it (from a 2006 interview with Sound-On-Sound magazine): "When I first heard 'Run to You' I thought it was pretty good, but Bryan was thinking about leaving it off the album. He was writing songs for other bands at the time, and there was some other band that he was going to give that to. I remember riding around town in his car when I first arrived and he was playing me the demos, and when we got to 'Run to You' he said, 'I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one,' and I said, 'You're gonna put it on this album! It's a great song.'" Speaking of demos ... In the same Sound-On-Sound interview it says (presumably paraphrasing Bob Clearmountain?): In truth, it was a song of simple and somewhat incomplete structure, looping around a hook without ever developing in the manner that might have been achieved by way of greater application during the compositional process. Huh? Nothing could be further from the truth! Our demo for "Run To You" was a meticulously crafted, carefully recorded, concise template of the song, with all the parts in place: guitar, bass, drums and vocal. Once they got together, Bob and the band certainy made it sound better, but the arrangement was already there. The demo arrangement is the arrangement that appears on the album, note-for-note! Interestingly, Bryan says the track was completed in one take. Bob says it required "about a half-dozen takes out of which the best two or three were then chosen to edit between." I wasn't there, so I can't confirm either way. The Reckless album was released on November 5, 1984 (Bryan's 25th birthday). "Run To You" was the first single from the album. Decades later the song continues to be an Adams concert favourite, and it still enjoys significant radio airplay around the world. |
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Postscript: | In Januayr 2024, more than forty years after sending "Run To You" to Blue Oyster Cult, I received the following email from Joe Boucher, bass player, songwriter and founding member of the band: |
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Lyrics: | She says her love for me could never die But that'd change if she ever found out about you and I Oh - but her love is cold It wouldn't hurt her if she didn't know, 'cause When it gets too much I need to feel your touch I'm gonna run to you I'm gonna run to you Cause when the feelin's right I'm gonna run all night I'm gonna run to you She's got a heart of gold she'd never let me down But you're the one that always turns me on, you keep me comin' 'round I know her love is true But it's so damn easy makin' love to you I got my mind made up I need to feel your touch I'm gonna run to you I'm gonna run to you Cause when the feelin's right I'm gonna run all night I'm gonna run to you |
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