In the summer of 1998, Bryan Adams was at The Warehouse studio in Vancouver with a handful of trusted players, trying to make his eighth studio album faster than he had ever worked before. The sessions ran only from June through August, and by October 27, 1998, the record was in stores. That album, On a Day Like Today, arrived with a bright, guitar-forward sound, but it was about to face a very strange obstacle.
The label switch behind the scenes
Why did an album by one of the biggest rock singers of the 80s and 90s almost disappear in the United States? The problem started behind the scenes. Adams had made On a Day Like Today for A&M Records, but as AllMusic later reported, the label sold his contract to Interscope, a rap-focused company that barely promoted the record in America. The singer who had filled arenas for years was suddenly an afterthought at his own US label.
The music itself did not sound like an afterthought. Adams produced the album with Bob Rock, Phil Thornalley and Phil Western, and critics noticed a shift away from the sweeping ballads that had made him famous toward a harder rock edge. The first single, the title track, came out on September 22, 1998, and showed the new energy immediately. In Canada it went straight to the top of the singles chart, while in Britain it reached a respectable 13th place. The standard edition carried thirteen tracks, but the album's shape changed depending on where fans bought it. European, South American and Australian pressings added the bonus song "Lie to Me", while Japanese and Australian copies included "Hey Baby" instead. A later Japanese SHM-CD edition went further, appending "I Love Ya Too Much" and "What Does It Do to Your Heart".
The Melanie C duet that changed fortunes
Then came the song that changed the album's fortunes. For the second single, Adams brought in Melanie C, one of the Spice Girls, for a duet called When You're Gone. The pairing was unexpected, but it worked: the single climbed to number 3 in the UK and stayed in the top 10 for ten weeks. In Canada it settled at 11th place, and suddenly On a Day Like Today had a genuine international hit on its hands.
The pairing was unexpected, but it worked: the single climbed to number 3 in the UK and stayed in the top 10 for ten weeks.
The singles kept coming even as the American market stayed quiet. Cloud Number Nine arrived on May 3, 1999, and reached 6th place in Britain and 7th in Canada. The album itself climbed to 3rd place in Canada and 11th in the UK. Critics were split: Entertainment Weekly gave the record a B+, while AllMusic was far harsher with just two stars out of five. The mixed reviews did not stop the momentum outside the US.
In Canada, On a Day Like Today eventually earned double platinum status, and it picked up gold or platinum awards across Europe and Japan. The contrast with the United States was stark. For the first time since Cuts Like a Knife in 1983, a Bryan Adams album failed to go platinum in America. The label switch had left the record without the promotion it needed in the one market where Adams had once seemed unstoppable. The album's core band gave the sessions their punch: guitarist Keith Scott, drummer Mickey Curry, bassist Dave Taylor and percussionist Danny Cummings all played on the record. Keyboardist Robbie Buchanan and programmer Olle Romo were also brought in as guests. Their work helped Adams and his producers push the material toward the harder rock sound that critics noted.
Looking back 28 years later, On a Day Like Today is a strange case: an album recorded in a three-month sprint, handed to a label that did not care, and still carried to success by its singles in Britain, Canada and beyond. The rock edge Adams and his producers brought to the sessions gave the record its own identity, even as the American industry looked the other way.