''On a Day Like Today'' is the eighth

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 October 27, 1998.

Singles

" On a Day Like Today" was the first single released. It reached number thirteen in the UK and number one on the

Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian music charts are a collection of record charts reflecting the music consumption of people in Canada. '' RPM'' and '' Billboard'' are the biggest publications to have published Canada's official charts for decades. However, the first ...

. Follow-up single " When You're Gone", featuring

Melanie C Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born 12 January 1974), commonly known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Sporty Spice. W ...

, reached number three in the UK, and was in the top-ten for ten weeks, while peaking at number eleven in Canada. " Cloud Number Nine" reached number six in the UK and number seven in Canada.

Critical reception

''On a Day Like Today'' received mixed reviews from critics. Writing for ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'', Tom Lanham gave the album a B+ rating, stating that "Adams started searching for that perfect balance of mature grace and useful guitar grind". However, William Ruhlmann of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album two-out-of-five stars, claiming that "Adams simply had no contemporary audience left, and this was not the record to rebuild his career. It was defiantly bereft of ballads, nothing to break on the AC chart, and even if his rock audience had been listening, there was nothing here to rank with his earlier signature hits".

Commercial performance

''On a Day Like Today'' was a success around the world, peaking at number three in Canada, and number eleven in the UK. However at the time in the U.S. market, it became the first of Adams' albums since 1983's '' Cuts Like a Knife'' not to obtain a

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

sales certification. According to

, the record company didn't do a lot of advertising for album, as Adams and this album got caught when his record company sold his recording contract to rap label

Interscope Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

, who in turn did very little in the USA to promote it.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Personnel

* Bryan Adams – vocals,

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from 1954 to 1983. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptually similar to ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

, guitars, bass, arrangements, string arrangements * Robbie Buchanan – keyboards * Mike Gillies – programming * Vincent Jones –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

* Dave Pickell – acoustic piano, Hammond organ *

Phil Western Phillip Charles Western (August 12, 1971 – February 4, 2019) was a Canadian musician, based in Vancouver and a founding member of the bands Download, PlatEAU, Frozen Rabbit, and Off and Gone. Biography Having started his career as a drumm ...

– keyboards, programming *

Olle Romo Olle Romö is a Swedish music producer, songwriter, and drummer. Romo rehearsed with Swedish progressive rock group Kaipa in early 1982; however, he left the group after a few weeks to join Eurythmics, and he was a drummer for them from the mid ...

– programming * Keith Scott – guitars,

six-string bass An extended-range bass is an electric bass guitar with a wider frequency range than a standard-tuned four-string bass guitar. Terminology One way that a bass can be considered ''extended-range'' is to use a mechanical detuner, a special tun ...

Phil Thornalley Phillip Carden Thornalley (born 5 January 1960) is an English songwriter, musician, and producer who has worked in the music industry since 1978. He produced the album ''Pornography'' by The Cure and was later their bass player. He began releas ...

– guitars, bass, string arrangements (4) * Dave Taylor – bass *

Mickey Curry Michael Timothy Curry (born June 10, 1956) is an American drummer. He has collaborated with singer-songwriter Bryan Adams since the early 1980s, but has also worked with Hall & Oates, Cher, Tina Turner, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, ...

– drums * Danny Cummings – percussion * Bob Buckley – string arrangements * David Munday – string arrangements (4) * Vancouver Orchestra – strings *

– vocals (8)

Production

* Bryan Adams – producer, package design, photography * Bob Rock – producer (1, 2, 3, 5-9, 11, 12, 14) * Phil Thornalley – producer (4), additional recording * Phil Western – producer (10), additional recording *

Randy Staub Randy Staub is a Canadian recording engineer. He has been nominated for the Juno Awards' " Recording Engineer of the Year" award 12 times. He won in 2002 for the songs "How You Remind Me" and " Too Bad" by Nickelback.Peebles, Frank (April 4, 2008) ...

– recording *

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born Chiaramonte, January 15, 1953) is an American mixing engineer and record producer, best known for his work with major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Pretenders, and Bryan A ...

– mixing * Dean Maher – additional recording, mix assistant * Ron Obvious – technical 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 * Gateway Mastering (Portland, Maine) – mastering location * Sandy Brummels – art coordinator * Glen Ross – package design

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:On A Day Like Today 1998 albums A&M Records albums Albums produced by Bob Rock Albums recorded at The Warehouse Studio Bryan Adams albums