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Summer of '69 | ||||||||||||
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Recording Artist: | Bryan Adams | ||||||||||||
Writers: | Jim Vallance Bryan Adams |
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Date Written: | January 1984 / West Vancouver, Canada | ||||||||||||
Albums: | Reckless (A&M Records, 1984) Live Live Live (A&M Records, 1988) So Far So Good (A&M Records, 1993) Bryan Adams Unplugged (A&M Records, 1997) The Best Of Me (A&M Records, 1999) Anthology (A&M Records, 2005) Icon (Universal, 2010) Bare Bones (2010) Reckless - 30th Anniversary Edition (November 2014) |
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Spotify Streams: | More than a billion streams -- 1,449,342,580 as of June 2025 | ||||||||||||
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Charts: | #5 - Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart / August 1985 (17 weeks on the chart) #5 - Netherlands / 1990 #12 - The Record (Canada) / October 7, 1985 (17 weeks on the chart) #40 - Billboard Top Rock Tracks Chart / 1984 (8 weeks on the chart) #42 - UK Charts / August 1985 (7 weeks on the chart) |
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Awards: | 1985 - BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) Citation of Achievement for U.S. radio airplay 1986 - Procan Award (Performing Rights Organization of Canada) for Canadian radio airplay 2000 - Socan Classics Award for more than 100,000 Canadian radio performances |
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Audio: | |||||||||||||
Bryan Adams: rhythm guitar, vocals Keith Scott: lead guitar Dave Taylor: bass Pat Steward: drums Jim Vallance: percussion |
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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, March/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 Bowling For Soup, DJ Otzi, Emily's Toybox, Janet Theory, Jive Bunny, MxPx, Catherine Porter, John H featuring Barfalk, WC Experience |
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Comments: | I can't speak for Bryan -- he has his own thoughts on this -- but my contribution to "Summer of '69" was inspired by two years (1965 and 1969) and two Canadian towns (Vanderhoof and Terrace). My first band was formed in Vanderhoof in 1965. I was 13. The other fellows were a few years older: Wayne Deorksen, Gordon Keith and Chuck Davies on guitar, Dave Snell on bass, and me on drums. We played local dances and parties until 1967 when my family moved to Terrace. |
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Within days of arriving in Terrace I found two other musicians at school and we formed a three-piece group. By this time I was 15. Guitarist Howard Froese was 13 and bassist Alex "Bushy" Inselberg was 16. By the summer of 1969 we had developed considerably as musicians. We even took a stab at writing our own songs. |
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I was at Howard's house one day that summer -- July 20, 1969 to be exact. Along with Howard's mom the three of us watched the moon landing "live" on their little B&W television. So if anyone asks about the song "Summer of '69" -- if they want to know what the song is really about -- the answer is ... (wait for it) ... it's about the summer of 1969! |
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Of all the songs I've written or co-written, "Summer of '69" is the one that most people seem to know. We wrote most of the song in January 1984 ... by which I mean, we started writing it then, but we didn't finish it right away. During the next month or two the song went through a number of musical and lyrical changes. It wasn't even called "Summer of '69" in the beginning, that was just a line of lyric in the first verse, nothing special (see below). The song was very much a 50-50 collaboration ... me and Bryan in my basement studio, bouncing ideas back and forth. We'd leave it for a week or two, then we'd go back and work on it some more, never sure if we'd got it right, or if it was strong enough to include on Bryan's "Reckless" album. As mentioned above, Bryan has his own memories regarding the song and how it came together, but here's what I remember about my inspiration for "Summer Of '69", line by line ... |
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I got my first real six string, bought it at the "Five and Dime" | |||
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When I was growing up in the 1950's and 60's there were shops called "Five and Dime" where you could (supposedly) buy anything for five or ten cents, which wasn't always true. Now they're called "Dollar Stores"! |
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Played it 'til my fingers bled | |||
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Anyone who's played a guitar knows the strings can shred your fingers when you're first learning. I played my new guitar all Christmas day 1965, and continued until late that night. I remember my dad knocking on my bedroom door about one o'clock in the morning, saying "Go to sleep ... you're keeping everyone up!". | ||||
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It was the summer of '69 | |||
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This is where the phrase "summer of '69" appears for the first time, line #4 of the first verse. Nothing special, just another line of lyric that conveniently rhymes with "five and dime", two lines earlier. My point is: in our first few drafts of the song, the lyric "summer of '69" appears only once, never to be repeated! The song wasn't even called "Summer of '69" ... it was called "Best Days Of My Life". In fact, "Best Days Of My Life" very nearly became the title of the song! |
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Me and some guys from school had a band and we tried real hard | |
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Bryan's first band was called "Shock". In the mid-1970s they played Top-40 songs in Vancouver nightclubs. Bryan was 16. The photo (right) was taken at the Vanderhoof Community Centre, my first ever "paying" gig. I couldn't believe it, we actually got paid to play music ... $2.50 each, for the evening! |
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We changed our name to The Fourmost when my neighbour Chuck Davies joined the band. Chuck was really old (twenty-one), plus he'd recently traveled to England, so he had instant credibility! |
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Jimmy quit and Jody got married | |||||
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I'm not sure where Bryan got the name "Jimmy" -- we didn't discuss it at the time -- but in a recent interview he said it was a reference to one of his early drummers. "Jody" refers to Bryan's sound-man and tour manager, Jody Perpik. Jody got married around the time we were working on the lyrics for the song. Jody and his wife appear in Bryan's video for "Summer Of '69", driving away with a "Just Married" sign on the back of their car. |
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I shoulda known we'd never get far | |
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At this point in crafting our "story" I was sitting across from Bryan ... we both had pens and note-pads, and I suggested the lyric "I got a job at the railway yard", because that's what my band-mate Chuck had done. He had a temporary job one summer, loading lumber onto box-cars at the Vanderhoof railway yard. Brutal, hard work. He earned $110 for the week -- a huge amount back then. He spent the entire $110 on a wrist-watch, because he wanted something to show for all his hard work. Anyway, the "railway" lyric survived the first two-or-three drafts of the song, but in the end Bryan thought it sounded too much like something Bruce Springsteen would sing and the idea was scrapped. Songwriting is a collaborative thing, lots of give-and-take. Sometimes you have to let the other guy win. But I wish I'd fought harder and kept that lyric! While we're still on the "railway yard" topic ... "I was using a T-stand made from 2x12 wood, to lever raw planed lumber (up to 40' long) off highboys or pup-trailers (from Ft. St. James) into boxcars destined mostly for the US, through the side doors. There was another guy in the boxcar to arrange them neatly as I levered them in. The lumber was all sizes ... 2x4, 2x6,2x8, 2x10 ... depending on what the mill up at Tezzeron was producing that day. The 2x12s were of course the most challenging, quite heavy". |
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Oh, when I look back now that summer seemed to last forever | |
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And if I had the choice I'd always want to be there | |
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In 1969 there were brand new vinyl releases from Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Chicago, Cream, Creedence Clearwater, The Band, Santana, The Who, Joe Cocker, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Procol Harem, and Led Zeppelin -- and two new Beatle albums: Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road. How amazing is that? |
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Those were the best days of my life | |
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As I mentioned, "Best Days Of My Life" was our original title. In our first draft of the song, the phrase "best days of my life" appears seven times, while the phrase "summer of '69" appears only once. By the time we recorded the final demo of the song, "best days of my life" had been demoted, appearing only three times, while the phrase "summer of '69" appears five times ... a much better title! More about this below. |
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Ain't no use in complainin' when you got a job to do | |
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When we wrote this line, I was thinking about Chuck and his job at the railway yard. Bryan was probably thinking about his stint as a dishwasher at the Tomahawk Restaurant in North Vancouver. |
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Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in, and that's when I met you | |
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There aren't many drive-ins left, and I wonder if kids these days even know what they are? When I was growing up in the 1950s and '60s there were two kinds of drive-ins: (1). big outdoor movie screens, and ... (2). drive-in restaurants that served burgers and soda while you sat in your car, like in the film "American Graffiti". Drive-in's are pretty much gone now, but I have fond memories of going to both of them when I was young. |
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"Dog n Suds" Drive-In Restaurant Terrace, British Columbia, Canada Winter 1968-69 |
Chilliwack Drive-In Theatre Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada Autumn 1954 (Norman Williams photo) |
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Standin' on your mama's porch, you told me that you'd wait forever | |
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Oh and when you held my hand, I knew that it was now or never | |
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I was thinking about Betty D. when we wrote these lines. She was a year older -- 16 to my 15 -- but I had a huge "crush" on her. I still do. She was my first real love. Sadly she passed away a few years ago. |
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Those were the best days of my life / Back in the summer of '69 | |
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Once we'd decided "Summer Of '69" was a better title than "Best Days Of My Life", we had to find a way to reinforce our new title. The most obvious way was to repeat it a few more times ... so, we shoe-horned the phrase "Summer Of '69" into a number of gaps in the song. |
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Man we were killin' time, we were young and restless, we needed to unwind | |
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I guess nothin' can last forever | |
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At this point the song goes into an electric twelve-string guitar break, a nod to The Beatles ("Ticket To Ride"), The Byrds ("Tambourine Man"), The Searchers ("Needles And Pins") and We Five ("You Were On My Mind") -- some of my favourite records from the 1960's. | ||
On our very first basement demo of "Summer of '69" we started the song with the 12-string riff, exactly like the "break down" section in the middle of the song ... however, on subsequent demo recordings we replaced the 12-string intro with a chunky 6-string, and that's how it stayed. In fact, we toiled over the musical arrangement for several weeks, maybe months. We recorded the song three or four different ways in my basement studio, and we still weren't convinced we'd got it right! Bryan even considered dropping the song from the Reckless album, and I agreed. We didn't think it was ready! More work needed. Now, more than 40 years later, when I hear "Summer of '69" on the car radio I can't remember what we didn't like about it!?! |
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I got my first real six-string |
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