Retro Video of the Week: "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams

Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of Canadian rocker Bryan Adams's breakout album, Reckless -- and yesterday was also Adams's 60th birthday.  Scorpioooo!

Building off of the success of his third studio album, 1983's Cut Like a Knife, Adams took his career into the stratosphere with Reckless.  The album hit #1 on the Billboard album charts, as well as #1 on the Canadian album charts and the top ten in five other countries.  Reckless has gone platinum five times in the U.S. and three times in the UK, as well as diamond in his native Canada.

And check out this impressive stat.  All six of the singles from the album released in the U.S. rose to the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100:  "Run To You" (#6), "Somebody" (#11), "Heaven" (#1), "Summer of '69" (#5), "One Night Love Affair" (#13), and "It's Only Love" (with Tina Turner) (#15).  At that point in time, the only other albums that could make that claim were Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA.  Not too shabby, eh?

I remember hearing "Summer of '69" for the first time at some point in 1985 at a friend's house.  He had Reckless on cassette tape, as was the style at the time.  I thought the song was great the first time I heard it, and I still think it's great.  The first stanza -- now instantly recognizable -- grabs your attention:  "Got my first real six string / Bought at the five-and-dime / Played until my fingers bled / Was the summer of '69."  The song then goes on to tell the story of forming a band, the band breaking up, falling in love, and the narrator's relationship with his lady falling apart.  But those were the best days of his life.  Even more impressive is that all of this happened in the summer of '69, when Bryan Adams was nine years old.