This song is featured in the Kevin Costner movie Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, where it plays over the end credits. It was written to order for the movie, initially by American film composer Michael Kamen, with the middle eight, break, outro and arrangement added by Adams and producer Mutt Lange. Adams used a line in the movie, "I do it for you..." as the basis for the song, and they had it written in about an hour.
There are no specific references to Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves in the lyric; the song quickly became dissociated from the film and far more popular. The song finds Adams pouring out his devotion for a girl, letting her know that their love is worth dying for. He knows if she looks into her heart, she will know it's true.
In the wrong hands, this would be terribly cheesy, but Adams can deliver this sentiment with total conviction, even if it was written for a movie.
Adams said that initially, this song didn't meet with Hollywood approval, as the film company wanted the song to have instrumentation in line with the film's era - lutes, mandolins, and the like. The film company relented, but still buried the song midway through the credits, apparently unaware of the huge hit they had on their hands.
This is one of the most successful singles of all time, selling over 3 million copies. It was #1 for 16 weeks in the UK (from 13th July to 26th October 1991) and seven weeks in the US.
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Suggestion credit:
Matthew - Shrewsbury, England
A longer version of this song was used as the B-side to Adam's next single, "Can't Stop This Thing We Started."
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This brought Adams a huge Adult Contemporary audience, but alienated many fans of his rock music. He continued to record dramatic ballads for romantic movies: In 1993, he sang "All For Love" with Rod Stewart and Sting for
The 3 Musketeers, and in 1995 he recorded "
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" for
Don Juan DeMarco.
This went to #1 in 30 countries. It also won a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture Or For Television in 1992.
Some of the hits Mutt Lange produced before lending his talents to this track include "
Back In Black" for AC/DC and "
Photograph" by Def Leppard. Bryan Adams
told Songfacts about working with Lange: "Mutt is great to work with because he is committed to making sure the songs have the best of everything before they go out into the world. We've had three number one records together and many good times, a true friend."
Brandy covered this on her 1998 album
Never Say Never.
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Suggestion credit:
Daisy - Ikast, Denmark
Michael Kamen had originally wanted the song to be as if it were Maid Marian singing to Robin Hood. However, this initial version was deemed so bland that Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Lisa Stansfield all turned it down.
When Adams and Lange were recording the song, Adams told the producer he felt they'd cut it too slow. The Canadian singer demonstrated it to Lange by grabbing him and dancing together to the tune. Lange agreed with his point of view, but said they didn't have time to re-record it. So instead, Adams and Lange sped the tape up to the right speed and then he re-sang it. Adams thinks this contributed to the enormous success of "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You."
"Anyone who is a musician out there will note that the song is in C sharp, but it was actually recorded in C and so it has got this strange key for the song, so I wonder even if that contributed to the fact that the song is different, because it is in a strange key," he told Absolute Radio presenter Leona Graham. "It is in a key that no other song had ever been in, you would never write a song in C sharp, so I just wonder if that had something to do with it."