Bryan Adams – Summer of '69

"Summer of '69" is the fourth single released from Bryan Adams's fourth album, Reckless. It made the charts in virtually every country in the pop world and also earned praise from journalists. Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance won the 1985 Juno Award for Composer of the Year and "Summer of '69" was nominated for the 1986 MTV Award for Best Male Video.

Dave Marsh, who ranked "Summer of '69" as the 635th best single ever made, says of the song: Bryan Adams is "stalking a moment when time seemed to freeze, when simple things – good, right, and true – abounded, a moment that ought to be mythical but in many lives tangibly and persuasively presents itself as a yardstick for future and past alike."

Whether Adams is talking about the year 1969 or the sexual position, as he has claimed, doesn't really matter, because "Summer of '69" is a great pop rock song. It made all three Chart magazine polls (#24 in 1996, #4 in 2000, #5 in 2005), both CBC lists (#17 in 2005, #12 in 2014), Bob Mersereau's 2010 The Top 100 Canadian Singles book (#4), the Huffington Post list in 2014 (#9) and the 1992 Mar*Star poll (#101).

Click below for:

• the original video version
• a 1996 live at Wembley Stadium version

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Personnel

• Bryan Adams – rhythm guitar, vocals
• Keith Scott – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Dave Taylor – bass
• Pat Steward – drums
• Tommy Mandel – keyboards
• Bruce Paulen – backing vocals