WCSX Classic Cuts : Cuts Like a Knife

WCSX Classic Cuts

Bryan Adams: "Cuts Like a Knife"

The Hook: He got the title by mumbling, listening back and seeing what it sounded like.

Album: Cuts Like a Knife

Year: 1983

Writers: Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance

Stats: Peaked at number-15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-six on their Top Rock Tracks chart.

Background: Bryan Adams tells us that he and his co-writer Jim Vallance used an unusual technique to come up with the title of his 1983 classic cut "Cuts Like a Knife."

Bryan Adams on finding the title “Cuts Like a Knife” by mumbling. OC:…good idea. :22

“A lot of my song titles are mumbles. With ‘Cuts Like a Knife,’ Jim Vallance and I would jam songs together and I remember we listened back to the tape afterwards and I said, ‘That sort of sounds like cuts like a knife. Didn’t it sound like cuts…’ And he goes, ‘Yeah.’ And I play it back and yeah, I said, ‘Cuts like a knife, that’s cool.’ And then he’d say, ‘What about “Cuts like a knife, but it feels so right.’’ I said, ‘That’s a good idea.’”