Into the Fire is the fifth studio album by the Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams. It was co-written by Jim Vallance. It was released on 30 March 1987 by A&M Records as the follow-up album to the chart-topping Reckless (1984). Into the Fire peaked at number seven on the US Billboard 200 chart and reached the Top 10 in several other nations. Six singles were released from the album: "Heat of the Night", "Hearts on Fire", "Victim of Love", "Only the Strong Survive", "Into the Fire" and "Another Day".
Music
Recording and production
The recording for Into the Fire started on 16 August 1986 and finished on 24 October. It was recorded at a studio set up in Adams' home in Vancouver, British Columbia. Adams and his backing band, which consisted of Keith Scott, Mickey Curry, Dave Taylor and Tommy Mandel, used the dining room, bathroom and bedroom to isolate the different instruments. A possible influence on the album was Adams' involvement of the six-city "Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope" tour in 1986. Adams says in the "Into the Fire" songbook that the album's title track refers to a man who is at a crossroads and does not quite know what to do with his life, which is how Adams felt when he started recording the album after the massive success of Reckless.
Release and reception
The album was released on 30 March 1987 and featured the singles "Heat of the Night" and "Hearts on Fire". Though commercially successful, peaking at number seven on the Billboard 200, the expectations for Into The Fire were set by the overwhelming success of Adams' previous number one hit album Reckless. That album had sold over 12 million; in that context Into the Fire, which sold over 2 million copies worldwide at its time of release, was viewed as a commercial failure.
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A retrospective review from Eduardo Rivera at AllMusic characterized most of the album's songs as "lifeless and dull", with some even being called "depressing", "ugly" or "truly awful". Only "Hearts on Fire" met with Rivera's critical approval. "Heat of the Night" reached number 7 on the Canadian singles chart and remained in the top ten for five weeks. In Canada, the compact disc release became the first by a Canadian artist to earn a Gold certification (sales of 50,000), and only the second overall following Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. "Heat of the Night" was released the following month in the UK and peaked in the top 50 on the UK Singles Chart at 50, and was Adams' only single from Into the Fire to chart in mainland Europe.
"Hearts on Fire" was the second single from Into the Fire. The song become a minor hit at its time of release. The song peaked at number 26 on the Hot 100 chart and at number 3 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart
- Bryan Adams – lead vocals, rhythm guitars (1, 2, 4–10), keyboards (7, 10), gang vocals (1, 8), lead guitar (1, 4), piano (5, 8)
- Keith Scott – lead guitar (2, 3, 5, 7–10), rhythm guitars (5, 7–10), gang vocals (1, 8), guitar harmonics (1), harmony guitar (4), slide guitar (6)
- Dave Taylor – bass
- Mickey Curry – drums
Additional musicians
- Robbie King – organ (1, 4, 6, 7)
- Tommy Mandel – keyboards (2), organ (5, 9, 10)
- Dave "Pick" Pickell – piano (3, 6, 7)
- Ian Stanley – keyboards (3, 5, 8)
- Jim Vallance – percussion, piano (1, 4, 10), sequencing (2, 8), keyboards (3), gang vocals (8)
Production
- Bryan Adams – producer
- Bob Clearmountain – producer, recording, mixing
- Jim Vallance – associate producer
- Tim Crich – recording
- Richard Moakes – second engineer
- Ron Obvious – technical engineer
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Masterdisk (New York, NY) – mastering location
- Jeff Gold – art direction
- John Warwicker – art direction
- Platform – design
- Anton Corbijn – photography
- Hans Sipma – photography
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ Weekly chart positions for Into the Fire
|-
!scope="col"|Chart (1987–88)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
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! scope="row" | Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| align="center" | 14
|-
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! scope="row" | Canadian Albums (RMP
|align="center"|2
|-
!scope="row"|European Albums (Music & Media)
|align="center"|8
|-
|-
! scope="row" |German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
|align="center"|7
|-
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|}