Bryan Adams is a highly collectible artist, being internationally recognized as one of the biggest names in popular music. His solo career was launched with the 1979 release of the much sought after Let Me Take You Dancing single (7" and 12" versions available in many countries). Previously he was vocalist in a band called "Sweeney Todd" and singles, notably Roxy Roller, featuring Bryan on lead vocals also command high prices. Visit the official Bryan Adams Home Page for biography information.
Bryan's material is released and collected all over the World. Many of the rarest items originate from Japan or Australia. His records sell well in the UK, where many releases in the 80's and 90's featured 2 CD singles, with different sleeves and B sides. Bryan has not escaped the bootleggers either. Listed on these pages are many examples of "unofficial" CD recordings of live performances. And before you ask, no I don't know where you can get these from - they are listed here purely because they do exist, even if they are illegal to make and sell, and many people collect them. Also note that many bootlegs with different titles contain material from the same source.
There are also a fair share of "promotional only" items listed. On some, rare live performances can be found, often not available on any commercial releases. Sometimes the items are identical to the commercial release with just the words "for promotional use only" printed on them. Bryan's "promos" are more common in the US than elsewhere in the World. UK, European &, more recently, Mexican promos are produced in smaller quantities and therefore often command much higher prices than their US counterparts or standard "stock" releases.
Keep an eye out for the nice Japanese variations of Bryan's CDs - there are a lot of different OBIs as the CDs get re-released. Of more specialist interest are the other Asian releases from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong etc which must be classed as "semi-legal" at best. They often feature quite bizarre spellings of titles - my favourite being "Bry And Adams" !! In August 1998, A&M records shut down it's UK branch of the label. From then, Bryan's UK releases have mainly been on the Mercury label, albeit maintaining a smaller A&M logo. More recently, Polydor seems to be the UK label of choice - all part of the Universal Music Group of course.
Whilst the acoustic "Bare Bones", "11" and "Get Up" all got decent promotion and associated promo editions (and even vinyl for the latter), the "Tracks of My Years" album almost seemed an afterthought and appears to have very little in the way of collectable items around it. "Live At Wembley 1996" finally got an official release on double CD too and latterly, 3 disc white vinyl..
The 40th Anniversary of the "Reckless" album bought some deluxe reissues (CD & Vinyl) and the 2017 compilation, "Ultimate" continued the theme. For collectors though, the 2022 release of "So Happy It Hurts" brings an array of different collectable vinyl, a box set and CDs exclusive to individual retailers. The "Classic" vinyl and bonus CD on the SHIH reissue bought some rerecordings of old favourites and the "Live At The Royal Albert Hall" boxed sets (Vinyl and CD) have both turned into instant collectables.
If you have details of any Bryan Adams releases not listed on these pages, or spot any errors, then please contact me! If you are able to attach an image of the sleeve then please do! Don't forget to check out my "for sale" page as well where there are a few Bryan Adams items.
The following people have helped these Bryan Adams pages greatly by contributing Sleeves, information or corrections:- Soren in Denmark, Atsuhi Toyota from Japan, Jude in New Zealand, Stefan & Jonathan. Thanks to all of you and to anyone else who has sent me information.
Here's a text link for all items by BRYAN ADAMS, just in case the drop down menus don't work in your browser.