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Bryan Adams is releasing a new compilation encapsulating the best of his 35-plus-year career into one disc.
Ultimate, available November 3, features 21 tracks including two new recordings, the single “Please Stay” and “Ultimate Love.” The Canadian singer/songwriter/photographer’s biggest hits are here, including some of his biggest breakthrough singles during the ’80s (“Cuts Like a Knife,” “Heaven,” “Summer of ’69”), soundtrack smashes from the ’90s and ’00s and two tracks from his most recent album, 2014’s Get Up!, which paired Adams and longtime songwriting partner Jim Vallance with the instantly recognizable production of Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne.
Beyond the two new tracks, a strange thing that makes Ultimate unique is it finally presents the single version of one of Adams’ biggest hits, the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves theme “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” on an album. Every one of Adams’ previous compilations–1992’s So Far So Good, 1999’s The Best Of Me and 2005’s Anthology (and even Adams’ entry in UMe’s Icon series in 2010)–have featured the longer album version.
You can add Ultimate to your collection November 3 by pre-ordering now at the below links.
Ultimate (A&M/UMe (U.S.)/Polydor/USM (U.K.), 2017)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
- Go Down Rockin’
- Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
- Run To You
- Ultimate Love *
- Heaven
- It’s Only Love (with Tina Turner)
- Here I Am
- When You’re Gone (with Melanie C)
- Cloud Number Nine (Chicane Mix)
- (Everything I Do) I Do It For You (Single Edit)
- You Belong To Me
- Summer Of ’69
- Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
- Somebody
- Please Forgive Me
- Cuts Like a Knife
- The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
- All For Love (with Rod Stewart & Sting)
- Back To You
- Please Stay *
- 18 Til I Die
Tracks 1 and 11 from Get Up! (Polydor/UMe, 2014)
Track 2 from Waking Up The Neighbors (A&M, 1991)
Tracks 3, 5-6, 12 and 14 from Reckless (A&M, 1984)
Track 7 from Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron – Music From The Motion PIcture (A&M, 2002)
Track 8 from On a Day Like Today (A&M, 1998)
Track 9 from The Best Of Me (A&M, 1999)
Original version of Track 10 from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – Original Motion PIcture Soundtrack (Morgan Creek, 1991)
Track 13 from Don Juan DeMarco: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (A&M, 1995)
Track 15 from So Far So Good (A&M, 1993)
Track 16 from Cuts Like a Knife (A&M, 1983)
Tracks 17 and 21 from 18 Til I Die (A&M, 1996)
Track 18 from The Three Musketeers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (A&M/Hollywood, 1993)
Track 19 from MTV Unplugged (A&M, 1997)
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Trying to sum up Adams’ nearly 40 year career in to a single disc retrospective is too difficult. A handful of his albums are not even represented here, yet we get two cuts from his last studio effort. Adams really needs a multi-disc box set representing his entire career, including single versions, rarities, and b-sides. Other than collecting the two new tracks and the single version of “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”, which makes its debut on an Adams collection, there’s little incentive to buy this single disc retrospective. “Anthology”, from 2005, would be a much better bet, even though that 2-disc collection is still missing some hits.
That or the 2-disc compilation that came out in Australia with other rarities — such as “House Arrest (live at the Montreal Forum)”.
I get that Adams is touring Canada in November and has a new album coming before the end of the year — but A&M has to treat his catalogue seriously, especially if he is to ever be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
But, then again, this is the label that took years to give us an overpriced (and undervalue) Sting set. :-/
Very true. I have that Australian “Greatest Hits” 2-CD package from 2013. It’s a nice mix of hits, rarities, and live cuts. Even though it’s far from an excellent hits package, it’s much better than any single disc compilation.
What? No ‘Let Me Take You Dancing’?
LOL. One can dream.
And still no “Diana.” Not a huge hit but it got pretty regular airplay back in the day. I was disappointed when it wasn’t included on the “Reckless” deluxe set. Bummer…
Unfortunately, I don’t think that we will ever see “Diana” released on any physical format ever again, at least why Adams is alive. The reason that he did not wish to include “Diana” on the 2014 “Reckless” deluxe edition, as he has stated, is out of respect for her. He stopped performing it after she passed. It’s all too unfortunate because I think that it is one of his best songs. It was sorely missing on that deluxe edition. Shame. Perhaps he should have allowed a remastered digital single (or physical single) release of the song with all proceeds going to her charities.
It is a shame that they did not, or could not include the huge Top 10 duet with Barbra Streisand “I Finally Found Someone”.
I love Bryan Adams, and his music.
From what I see on their Google Play running times, Please Forgive Me, Cuts Like A Knife and Here I Am also appear to be either edits or alternate versions compared to their album versions, which would be enough of a reason for me to get this. I’m surprised Straight From The Heart or Heat Of The Night didn’t make the cut though, those were pretty big hits…