Did BOC refuse a hit song?

I would love to hear an album of Bryan Adams doing all the songs he co-wrote but never recorded. It seems like his well has largely run dry (I mean, aside from the Jeff Lynne one, he keeps putting out pretty dull records).

 

Two really good singles with good videos were released from The Revolution By Night and it still tanked. I doubt "Run To You" would have saved it.

 

I don't know about all that, but for almost 20 years there was no new product from the band & now there seems to be an abundance.
A new studio album & several archived live shows.

 

and two songs for KISS' 1982 Creatures of the Night album, War Machine and Rock & Roll Hell which was previously recorded by BTO in 1979.

His many credits.....

Bryan Adams discography - Wikipedia

 

There's certainly plenty of great material just waiting to be recorded, out there!

 

On a Windows machine: Alt+0214

 

I still think it's BOC's best album but I'm aware I'm in the minority with this opinion.

 

I think in another BA-related thread someone posted a live clip of Bryan singing "When The Night Comes," and man I'd love to hear that done properly. Plus, I just don't think he really has any rockers left in him, so at least it'd give him an album to do that could rekindle some of that old magic.

 

well Lynryd Skynryd turned down Neil Young's Powderfinger.

 

Interesting that neither of those earlier versions included the instrumental bridge!

 

So it was written tailor-made with BOC in mind. That's makes sense, rather than, hey, do you want this single? I don't want to be too successful.

Pete Townshend was thinking of giving 'Let Me Love Open The Door' to Blondie. Don't know what happened with that.

Maybe Adams should have thrown 'Run To You' to Def Leppard.

 

Funny to think that both those cassettes lived in my '73 Buick Regal for months on end back in '84/'85 and I never knew that Adams wrote this. Liner notes weren't exactly top of mind in those days.

 

Reminds me that Springsteen "was to" give Hungry Heart to the Ramönes

 

Allegedly "Hungry Heart" was written for the Ramones at Joey's request, but Landau convinced Bruce to keep it for himself.

So that's different than "Run to You" in that if accurate, the Ramones never had the chance to turn down the song!

 

I think in the Deluxe Reckless liner notes Bryan himself confirms the story that the song was written with Jim Vallance FOR Blue Öyster Cult.

According to the excellent Jim Vallance website the song was written in January 1983 so after the Cuts Like A Knife album was recorded, so it's fair to assume Blue Öyster Cult could have recorded it for the Revolution By Night album if they had wanted to. It seemed their response was that they didn't like the song which is quite bizarre since it was a very good song specifically written for them and as a fan of both band, I'm sure it would have been the best song or one of the best songs on the album. But that might have prevented Bryan to use it on the Reckless album, where it just fit perfectly...

 

If there were a take of Blue Öyster Cult demoing 'Run to You', I might listen to it once for novelty's sake. I'd be much more interested in the novelty of Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting taking a crack at '7 Screaming Diz-Busters' though.

 

While I do agree they definitely were better when they wrote their own material, after they parted ways with Albert I think they could have used all the help they could get. I’m a huge fan of theirs and can honestly say I like Revolution By Night and even Club Ninja, but to me they are by far their weakest albums. Coulda, woulda, shoulda or not we’ll never know cause they didn’t. Run To You could have replaced the often criticized Let Go.

 

Yes. Also, I think B.O.C. could have taken Run To You and put more of an otherworldly spin on it--made it their own. Maybe some alteration of the lyrics and an overall sinister-izing of the tune could have resulted in something special.

 

Agree that they never got proper label support. I’ve always believed I Love The Night could have been as big or bigger than Don’t Fear The Reaper if it had been released as a single and properly promoted.

 

BOC have a fab catalogue but they've got many albums that, in my opinion are no better and occasionally worse than Club Ninja, and if the law decreed that I was only allowed to own one album by them. I would choose The Revolution By Night. It's one of my favourite albums of the Eighties.

 

I wish BOC had done the song. That would have been cool. Especially those heavy chord in the chorus.

 

To each their own, but I find it hard to say whether Club Ninja is slightly better or slightly worse than The Revölution by Night. Both have a few decent songs: "Take Me Away", "Shadow of California", "Shooting Shark", "Dancing in the Ruins" (yeah, not their own song, I know), "When the War Comes", and "Perfect Water"; and both have some truly awful songs like "Eyes on Fire", "Let Go", "Make Rock Not War", and "Beat 'em Up". Mirrors is nearly as bad as those two, though "Dr. Music", "The Great Sun Jester", and "In Thee" start it off deceptively well; the three of them collectively are IMHO the worst of BÖC's Columbia period.

 

I used to feel the same about Mirrors for the longest time. It to me just seemed out of their character for them while all the original members were still in the band. Then I put it on one day and for some reason just couldn’t stop listening to it. I think it made me realize just how good they are that they could make something out of their wheelhouse and I still liked it.

 

Heck, maybe they still will!

Billy Idol was offered "Don't You Forget About Me" before Simple Minds, but turned it down at the time. But 15-20 years later he ended up doing it for a greatest hits release.

Maybe BOC could do something similar with "Run To You".

 

If BOC had done it, probably would sound different and t would not be a hit.