''Cuts Like a Knife'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Canadian singer-songwriter

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

. Released on 18 January 1983 by

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

, the album was a huge commercial success in the United States and Canada. Three singles were released worldwide from the album: " Straight from the Heart", the title track and " This Time"; the three were responsible for launching Adams into mainstream popularity.

Music

Recording and production

Co-produced by Adams and Bob Clearmountain, ''Cuts Like a Knife'' was recorded from August 13 to October 20, 1982 at

Little Mountain Sound Studios Little Mountain Sound Studios was a music recording facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From the 1970s through the 1990s, it was the most successful recording studio in Western Canada and the home for many years to producers Bruce F ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, Canada, with Clearmountain mixing the album at Le Studio in

Morin-Heights Morin-Heights () is a town in the Laurentian Mountains region of Quebec, Canada. It is west of Saint-Sauveur, Quebec, Saint-Sauveur and north of Lachute; municipally, it is within the Les Pays-d'en-Haut Regional County Municipality, Regional Co ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

and

Power Station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

in New York City between October 14 to 20, 1982.

Songs

" Straight from the Heart" is a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

and one of Adams' most recognizable and popular songs. It was written by Eric Kagna, a Vancouver singer/songwriter, and the instrumental bridge was contributed by Adams. The official songwriter credit is shared equally between Adams and Kagna. This track was the last recorded for the album, but the first single, released in December 1982, one month prior to the album's release. The song was later recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler in 1983; it appears on her album ''Faster Than the Speed of Night''. Adams version reached the top 10 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Hot 100 and 32 on the

Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...

chart. The song has appeared on all of Adams' compilation albums with the exception of '' The Best of Me''. " Cuts Like a Knife" was released in 1983 and became one of the most successful songs from ''Cuts Like a Knife'' on the American rock charts and one of Adams' most recognizable and popular songs from the 1980s. "Cuts Like a Knife" was released worldwide in March 1984. The song reached the top ten on the

at six; "Cuts Like a Knife" would also chart on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at 15. "Cuts Like a Knife" was Adams' first top 20 hit on the Canadian singles chart and remained in the top 20 for six weeks. "Cuts Like a Knife" was released the following month in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

but didn't chart. " Don't Leave Me Lonely" was co-written with

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

drummer Eric Carr, intended to be included on the Kiss album '' Creatures of the Night'', but left off the final release. " This Time" by Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance was the third single released from the album. Adams initially didn't care for the song and didn't want to record it, but eventually agreed to after the insistence of co-producer Bob Clearmountain. The song peaked at 21 on the ''

chart, and at 24 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "This Time" was Adams' first single to chart in

, where it charted after being re-released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The final track on the album, "The Best Was Yet to Come", which was later covered by Laura Branigan for her 1990 self-titled album, is currently one of three songs written about Dorothy Stratten. Two additional singles from the album were released in specific territories.

Release and reception

''Cuts Like a Knife'' peaked at number eight on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album was released in January, 1983 and featured the hit singles " Straight from the Heart", " This Time" and " Cuts Like a Knife". "Cuts Like a Knife" and "Straight from the Heart" were nominated for a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

for Single of the Year, and "Cuts Like a Knife" won the Composer of the Year award. In Canada "Cuts Like a Knife" was certified three times platinum and the album would also be certified platinum in the United States. The success of ''Cuts Like a Knife'' outside of North America was not as great, though the album would later chart on the British album chart and be certified Silver by the BPI following the success of Adams' subsequent studio album ''Reckless'' in late 1984. The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for the song "Cuts Like a Knife" was one of the most popular videos broadcast on MTV during 1983 and is credited with fostering the album's success.

Cuts Like a Knife tour

The Cuts Like a Knife tour started in eastern Canada. In March, Adams started the American leg of the tour; after five months Adams had performed over 100 dates. He later joined the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band Supertramp on tour. Though not featured on the album, drummer for the tour was the late Frankie LaRocka and the keyboard player was Johnny 'Blitz' Hannah. Adams then traveled to Vancouver where he played live in front of 30,000 fans. Later on he went to

for a six-week solo tour; one show (and subsequent band interview) was broadcast live on German TV and radio as part of the famous Rockpalast series. He played in six countries. In November 1983, Adams went to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to start his own headline tour. By this time Adams had been on the road 283 days. Adams supported The Police when they toured in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Track listing

Personnel

– lead vocals, backing vocals (1-9), guitars (1–3, 5, 6, 8), guitar solo (1, 2), acoustic piano (4), acoustic guitar (7, 9), electric guitar (7), harmony vocals (10) * Tommy Mandel – Hammond B3 organ (1–3, 6–8), synthesizers (1, 6–8, 10),

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

keyboards (3, 4), organ (4, 5, 9), acoustic piano (9, 10) * Keith Scott – guitars (1, 2, 4–6), guitar solo (1, 5-8), backing vocals (1-5, 7), slide guitar (3), electric guitar (7, 9), acoustic guitar (10) * Dave Taylor – bass, backing vocals (5) * Mickey Curry – drums *

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

– percussion (2–4, 9) * Lou Gramm – backing vocals (1–3, 6-9) * Alfa Anderson – backing vocals (2) * Mark Doyle – backing vocals (4) * Bruce Allen redited as "B.A."– backing vocals (5) * Bob Clearmountain redited as "B.C."– backing vocals (5) * K. Davies – backing vocals (5) * L. Frenette – backing vocals (5) * M. Simpson – backing vocals (5) * Jimmy Wesley – backing vocals (5)

Production

* Bryan Adams – producer * Bob Clearmountain – producer, recording, mixing * Mike Fraser – assistant engineer * Jeff Hendrickson – assistant engineer * Paul Northfield – assistant engineer * Robbie Whelan – assistant engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering * Masterdisk (New York City, New York) – mastering location * Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff – art direction * Mike Fink – design * Lynn Robb – design * Jim O'Mara – front and back photography * Roxy Rifkin – inner sleeve photography * Bruce Allen – management

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1983 albums Bryan Adams albums A&M Records albums Juno Award for Album of the Year albums Albums produced by Bob Clearmountain Albums recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios