How Bryan Adams’ “Run to You” Unintentionally Became His First Top-10 Hit

Sometimes timing and placement are everything.

When Bryan Adams originally wrote “Run to You” for the band Blue Öyster Cult at the behest of his friend, producer Bruce Fairbairn, it was not the first time the Canadian icon had written songs for other people. He and his first major songwriting partner, Jim Vallance, co-penned two songs on KISS’ Creatures of the Night—”War Machine” and “Rock and Roll Hell.” But “Run to You” was a bit moodier and more atmospheric than those bombastic anthems, and it focused on a love triangle where his partners satisfy different needs.

She says her love for me could never die
But that’d change if she ever found out about you and I
Oh but her love is cold
Wouldn’t hurt her if she didn’t know, ’cause
When it gets too much
I need to feel your touch
I’m gonna run to you

Origins of “Run to You”

On his website, co-songwriter Vallance elaborates on the creation of “Run to You”: “In January 1983 producer Bruce Fairbairn asked me and Bryan Adams to write a song for his next production project, Blue Öyster Cult. In search of inspiration we listened to the band’s past catalogue, including their biggest hit ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper.’ The signature sound on ‘Reaper’ is the arpeggiated guitar riff that opens the song. Bryan and I spent about an hour creating a riff of our own, initially in the key of A-minor. I still have a recording of Bryan and I passing the guitar cable back and forth (click, buzz, click, buzz), each of us trying a different variation as the riff developed. Eventually we transposed the riff down to E-minor, later adding a capo to achieve an F#-minor tuning, which better suited Bryan’s vocal range.

“Once the riff was solidified, the rest of the song started to unfold,” he continued. “We spent a few days getting the lyrics and arrangement right, with particular attention paid to the interplay between the bass, drums, and the guitar riff. When the song was complete we recorded a demo and presented it to Bruce Fairbairn, who in turn played the song for Blue Öyster Cult. Bruce called us a few days later with the verdict. ‘They don’t like the song,’ Bruce said over the phone. Refusing to be discouraged we asked our publisher to send the song to a few more bands (reportedly including .38 Special) but they all declined. ‘Run to You’ was now officially an orphan!”

It would not remain so. As fate would have it, the song was meant for its original co-creator.

“So we wrote this song,” Adams recalled to music historian Eddie Trunk of the Blue Öyster Cult demo. “But we really took the demo in the wrong direction. The band didn’t like it, and I ended up not liking it. Then when it came time to record the [1984] album Reckless, I can remember it was like the end of the session, and [producer Bob] Clearmountain who was working with me on the record said to me, ‘I need one more song, is there anything else?’”

Cue Up “Run to You”

“So I taught the band the song, and we did a take of it,” Adams continued. “Then I turned around to look into the control room and everybody was standing up—the engineers, the tape engineer, the assistant—everybody sort of stood up. So the song was finished, and they say, ‘You got to come and listen to this!’ Then I went in, and he was, ‘Just listen.’ I was like, ‘Wow, it’s a lot better than I thought it was.’ But again, I never thought the song would be this kickoff single off the record. It was, and again, another song sort of stood the test of time. It’s still a great one.”

While Adams’ third album Cuts Like a Knife had become his first Platinum album and the title track had soared to No. 12 on Billboard’s Top 100 singles chart, its followup Reckless would blow the doors open on his career. The lead single from the album, “Run to You,” would rocket to No. 4, and five more songs would break the Top 20, including “Heaven,” “Summer Of ’69,” and “It’s Only Love” (with Tina Turner).

Released in December 1984, Reckless would go four times Platinum in a little over a year and reportedly sell over 12 million copies globally, making it one of the top-selling albums of Adams’ career. It all launched with “Run to You,” the song that Adams and Vallance had intended for someone else.

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Photo by Mickey Bernal/Getty Images