Bryan Adams Still Disavows His First Hit Song 'Let Me Take You Dancing' Nearly 50 Years Later

Throughout his illustrious music career, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bryan Adams has released his share of chart-toppers, including "Heaven," "All for Love," and "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?".

Adams, 66, also has plenty of songs that didn't reach No. 1, but were hits in their own right. And yet the Ontario, Canada native's debut single, the first song he ever released and found success with, is one Adams refuses to acknowledge, let alone perform almost 50 years later.

In fact, unless you're a diehard Bryan Adams or disco music fan, you might not even know this song exists.

The legend of 'Let Me Take You Dancing'

In 1978, Adams collaborated with Canadian songwriter Jim Vallance to write "Let Me Take You Dancing," a pop/dance song with a disco flavor.

The song was released in November 1978, and gained mild traction in Adams' home country, but when it came time to debut it in America, remixer John Luongo was enlisted to turn it into a disco track.

"Luongo's solution was to beef up the beat a bit, add some percussion and handclaps, and speed up the track a bit. Trouble is, he didn't bother to have Adams re-record his vocal track to match the new, obviously higher pitch, so - bam! - Disco Chipmunk," wrote Pop Dose in 2009.

Indeed, in the clip of the song below, Adams' voice is unrecognizable. In 1997, radio host Howard Stern played "Let Me Take You Dancing" on the air and offered $500 to anyone who could correctly name the singer.

No one won.

Lost to history

"Let Me Take You Dancing" dropped in the United States in 1979 and topped out at No. 76 on the Billboard Disco Top 80 Chart that year. Yet despite the relative success, Adams was "bitterly disappointed" with the sped-up vocals, Vallance said.

The "Cuts Like a Knife" rocker immediately distanced himself from the song and the disco sound as a whole, so much so that he continues to disavow his inaugural single to this day.

In fact, if you're wondering why "Let Me Take You Dancing" is only available in snippets on TikTok, Reddit and a handful of other social media platforms, it's because any full versions uploaded to YouTube or elsewhere have been taken down for copyright reasons--and because Adams himself hates the song so much.

Personally, we think it's awesome, but we concede how it doesn't quite fit into Adams' catalog of rock hits and soft rock ballads.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Apr 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 7:51 PM.