Into the Fire (album)

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Into the Fire
Bryan Adams Into the Fire.jpg
Studio album by Bryan Adams
Released March 30, 1987
Recorded August 16 - October 24, 1986
Genre Rock
Length 44:53
Label A&M
Producer Bryan Adams
Bob Clearmountain
Bryan Adams chronology
Reckless
(1984)Reckless1984		 Into the Fire
(1987)		 Waking Up the Neighbours
(1991)Waking Up the Neighbours1991
Singles from Into the Fire
  1. "Heat of the Night"
    Released: 1987
  2. "Hearts on Fire"
    Released: 1987
  3. "Victim of Love"
    Released: 1987
  4. "Only the Strong Survive"
    Released: 1987
  5. "Into the Fire"
    Released: 1987
  6. "Another Day"
    Released: 1987
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 2/5 stars[1]
Robert Christgau C+[2]
Rolling Stone (unfavorable) [3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 2/5 stars [4]

Into the Fire is the fifth studio album by the Canadian rock artist Bryan Adams. Released on March 30, 1987 through A&M Records, and the follow up album to the chart topping Reckless. Into the Fire peaked at number 7 on the US Billboard 200 chart and reached equally high positions in charts worldwide.[5] The album was recorded at Adams' home in Vancouver, Canada.

Six singles were released from the album: "Heat of the Night", "Hearts on Fire", "Victim of Love", "Only the Strong Survive", "Into the Fire" and "Another Day".[6]

The cover photographs were taken by Dutch photographer/director Anton Corbijn on the Thames River in east London, England

Music

Recording and production

The recording for Into the Fire started on August 16, 1986 and finished on October 24. It was recorded at a studio set up in Adams' house.[7] Adams and his backing band, which consisted of Keith Scott, Mickey Curry, Dave Taylor and Tommy Mandel, used the dining room, bathroom and bedroom to isolate the different instruments.[7] The studio was named Cliffhanger since Adams' house was close to the sea.[7] "Heat of the Night" was recorded September 12, 1986. "Hearts on Fire" was originally written for Reckless in 1984 but was recorded on September 1, 1986.[7] "Hearts on Fire" was mixed in London, England on January 11.[7]

By the time Into the Fire was completed, there were only two songs Vallance and Adams were satisfied with: the dark "Victim of Love", and the upbeat "Hearts on Fire", which was written during the Reckless recording sessions, two years earlier.[8] A possible influence to the album was Adams' involvement of the six-city "Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope" tour in 1986. Bryan says in the "Into the Fire" songbook that the album's title track refers to a guy at a crossroads, who doesn't quite know what to do with his life, which is how he felt when he started recording the album after the massive success of the previous album Reckless

As Adams said to Rolling Stone Magazine "We wanted to make a record with more lyrical depth".

Where Adams had previously used guitar amps, they would instead employ the latest in "sampling".[8]

The song "Into the Fire" was recorded in 1986 at "Cliffhanger", Adams' home studio in West Vancouver.[8] At the recording session Adams and Bob Clearmountain had problems with the guitar sound.[8] On the demo for "Into the Fire" Adams and Vallance used a Rockman pocket amplifier.[8]

Artwork error

When looking at the artwork for the LP, it's easy to spot that the lettering at the top of the album is completely off center. This is due to an error from the A&M art dept. They used the cassette tape art work for the LP, and didn't correct the lettering.

Release and reception

One of Adams' most successful albums, Into the Fire co-produced by Adams and Bob Clearmountain, peaked at number seven on the Billboard 200. The album was released in March 1987 and featured the singles "Heat of the Night", and "Hearts on Fire". The hit single "Heat of the Night" was nominated for a Juno Award for Single of the Year in 1987, and became Adams' only single from Into the Fire to chart in mainland Europe.[9][10][11][12] The album was successful, selling over two million copies worldwide at its time of release. However, Adams' previous album, Reckless, had sold over 12 million, and in that context Into the Fire was viewed as a commercial failure.[8] As Adams said:

"I have to laugh when the press say that LP didn't do well because it did as well as Cuts Like a Knife, but I suppose the perception was it wasn't Reckless II! Who cares? There were some songs that were slightly different than what we had written before ... some were, let's say, slightly more exploratory than we'd written in the past. Vallance was up for the songwriting challenge of not repeating Reckless."[8]

"Heat of the Night" was the debut single from Into the Fire and was released in the summer of 1987.[7] It was released worldwide in March 1987.[7] The song reached the top ten on the mainstream Rock Tracks at number 2 and it charted on the Billboard Hot 100 where it peaked at number 6.[5] "Heat of the Night" reached the top ten on the Canadian album chart and remained in the top ten for five weeks. It attained the highest Canadian chart position Adams had reached and was Adams' first top ten single in Canada.[13] "Heat of the Night" was released the following month in the UK and peaked in the top 50 on the UK Singles Chart at 50.[14]

"Hearts on Fire" was the second single from Into the Fire. The song become a minor hit at its time of release. The song peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard mainstream rock tracks.[5]

"Victim of Love" and "Only the Strong Survive" would be the two follow-up singles to "Hearts on Fire". These singles became minor hits with "Only the Strong Survive" charting in Canada at number 47.[5][13] The last single from the album "Another Day" peaked at number 33 on the Billboard mainstream rock tracks and was the last single to be released from the album.[5]

Into the Fire Tour

On May, 1987 Adams started the Into the Fire tour where his first performance was in Shreveport, Louisiana with his backing band.[6] Adams first stop of the UK leg of the tour at the Prince's Trust charity concert at Wembley Stadium, London.[6] Adams would later head back to the United States to continue the American leg of the tour, Adams appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.[6] Adams would later sell out two nights in a row at Madison Square Garden in New York City and was visited backstage by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, he would later get a sold out show in Toronto, Ontario.[6] The tour continued through the Western United States.[6] Adams heads back to the UK on October 13 in Newcastle, England.[6] Adams sold out four nights in a row at Wembley Arena in London.[6] Adams starts his tour in mainland Europe and Adams previous album Reckless achieves gold status in Sweden and Into The Fire achieves gold status in Switzerland and later he travels to Dublin, Ireland.[6] Adams started the Asian leg of the tour and ended up selling out ten concerts, five of which were in Tokyo's Budokan. Into the Fire ends up being certified platinum with sales over 100,000 copies sold in Japan.[6] Adams headed back to Europe and played in East Berlin and later West Berlin. The last concert part of the Into the Fire tour was played in Locarno, Switzerland.[6]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. 

No. Title Length
1. "Heat of the Night"   5:07
2. "Into the Fire"   4:41
3. "Victim of Love"   4:07
4. "Another Day"   3:41
5. "Native Son"   6:04
6. "Only the Strong Survive"   3:45
7. "Rebel"   4:02
8. "Remembrance Day"   5:59
9. "Hearts on Fire"   3:30
10. "Home Again"   4:18

Personnel

Additional personnel:

  • Robbie King – organ on "Heat of the Night", "Another Day", "Only the Strong Survive" and "Rebel"
  • Tommy Mandel – organ, keyboards
  • Dave "Pick" Pickell – piano on "Victim of Love", "Only the Strong Survive" and "Rebel"
  • Ian Stanley – keyboards on "Victim of Love" and "Remembrance Day"
  • Jim Vallance – piano, percussion, sequencer

Chart positions

Country Peak Position Certification (If Any) Sales/shipments ref.
Canada 2 3× Platinum +300,000 [13][15]
Germany 7 [11]
UK 10 Gold +100,000 [14][16]
Norway 4 [9]
Sweden 3 [10]
Switzerland 4 Platinum +15,000 [17][18]
United States 7 Platinum +1,000,000 [5][19]
Austria 13

[12]

References

  1. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20110805104658/http://www.allmusic.com/album/into-the-fire-r130
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 "Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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