Jim Vallance, songwriter and longtime collaborator of Bryan Adams, has opened up about the difficulties they faced getting their music played on US radio in the early eighties.
The pair formed a songwriting partnership long before the Canadian rocker released his self-titled debut LP in 1980 and continue to work together to this day, with their most recent tracks included on the 2022 record ‘So Happy It Hurts’.
Celebrating 40 years since the release of the breakthrough ‘Cuts Like a Knife’ album, Jim looks back on a record that marked a turning point for the hitmaker, with lead single Straight from the Heart – the one song from the album written without his involvement – marking a turning point.
It was originally penned in 1978, with the musician telling RETROPOP’s March 2023 issue: “I was literally in bed and Bryan rang me and said, ‘Listen to what I’ve just written,’ and he played it over the phone. I thought, ‘Gosh, that’s good…’”
It hadn’t made it onto his first two projects – “He’s always been a bit funny that way. Even Summer of ‘69 was almost left off ‘Reckless’ – as was Run to You,” Jim says – but it was finally released in December 1982 and began to make waves across Canada and into the US, where a DJ in Detroit started playing the single, from which point it began receiving airplay across the country.
It was, as Jim reflects, a monumental moment for the Canadian musician, as he maintains the US record industry would “lock out” artists from across the border and deny them access to the largest market in the world.
“Some of it is, ironically, due to the fact that the Canadian government invests quite a bit of money to fund Canadian artists and sometimes the US record companies look at that as an unfair advantage,” he shares.
“We had a couple of hurdles to jump, because so many really amazing Canadian bands like Sloan or Tragically Hip, that had careers in Canada, are never able to make the jump to the world market.”
Upon its release, ‘Cuts Like a Knife’ gave Bryan his first Top 10 album in Canada and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, and he launched a global tour in the spring of ‘83 – during which the pair worked on the follow-up, the global smash hit ‘Reckless’ (1984).
Reflecting on that period, Jim adds: “‘Cuts Like a Knife’ was our ‘nearly there album’. We did some better work than we had previously but we hadn’t quite got to the point where we wanted to be.
“‘Reckless’ was the one where we, as writers, figured out what we were doing – but ‘Cuts Like a Knife’ was nearly there.”
Read the full interview in the March 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
