Waking Up the Neighbours
Waking Up the Neighbours is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, released on September 24, 1991. The album was recorded at Battery Studios in London and The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, mixed at Mayfair Studios in London, and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk in New York City.
Waking Up the Neighbours
September 24, 1991
March 1990 – June 1991
- Battery, London
- The Warehouse, Vancouver
74:52
Bryan Adams, Robert John "Mutt" Lange
The album received critical acclaim and reached the number one position on the album charts in at least eight countries, becoming Adams' second best-selling album worldwide.[7] Its first single, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", stayed at number one on the UK Singles Chart for a record sixteen consecutive weeks.[8] The album was also notable in Canada for creating controversy concerning the system of Canadian content.[9]
Music[edit]
Background and recording[edit]
The performance of Adams' 1987 album Into the Fire was felt as somewhat of a disappointment.[10] Although it reached No. 7[11] on the Billboard album chart and No. 2 in his native Canada,[12] it fell short of the massive commercial success enjoyed by his fourth album Reckless released in 1984.[10] Into the Fire was also Adams' last album recorded together with his longtime collaborator Jim Vallance; their songwriting partnership ended in August 1989.
An attempt to record a new album was made in 1988 with Steve Lillywhite producing, but nothing from these sessions was released. Over a year after that, Adams joined forces with Robert John "Mutt" Lange, previously known for his work with AC/DC, The Cars, Foreigner, and Def Leppard to start work on Adams' next album, recording at Battery Studios in England and the Warehouse Studios in Canada. Recording began in March 1990, and along with mixing, finished in June 1991.[13] According to Adams, Lange changed his way of thinking about the songwriting process making him work meticulously on each song. As a result, the recording process went on for more than a year, and the release of album, originally scheduled for the fall of 1990, had to be postponed several times. Lange is credited on all 15 tracks of the album including four songs whose demos were originally recorded with Vallance.[10]
The album caused controversy in Canada concerning the system of Canadian Content. Although Adams was one of Canada's biggest recording stars at the time, the specific nature of his collaboration with non-Canadians, coupled with his decision to primarily record the album outside Canada, meant that the album and all its songs were not considered Canadian content for purposes of Canadian radio airplay.[9] Under the system then in place, a piece of recorded music had to meet any two of the following four criteria in order to qualify as Canadian content:
As Adams co-wrote both the music and the lyrics with Mutt Lange, who is from Zambia, and he did not primarily record the album in Canada, he only fulfilled one of the criteria. It was noted that if Adams had written all the lyrics, and Lange all the music (or vice versa), the collaboration would have counted as Canadian content. As a result, under CRTC regulations none of the album's songs was considered Canadian content.[30]
In protest, Adams briefly threatened to boycott Canada's annual Juno Awards, where his album had been almost completely ignored by the awards committee. He did end up winning the Entertainer of the Year Award (voted on by the public) and Producer of the Year Award.[30]
Adams publicly criticised the CRTC policy, calling it "a disgrace, a shame...stupidity". He continued his attack with:
As a result of the controversy, in September of that year, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced that Canadian content rules would be changed. The new regulation allows non-Canadians to contribute up to 50% of the finished content to each of both the music and the lyrics of a recorded piece, and still qualify for Canadian content status—provided the recording artist is Canadian, or the song is recorded in Canada.[9] Accordingly, the Adams/Lange songs, and the Adams/Lange/Vallance songs on the album now count as Canadian content, as Jim Vallance is also Canadian. However, the Adams/Lange/Kamen co-written "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" still does not count as Canadian content, as two of the three writers are non-Canadians, and the track was not recorded in Canada.