SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 4:40 MIN.
Recorded as the love song for Disney’s 1993 Three Musketeers movie soundtrack (complete with an MTV video), Bryan Adams teams up with Sting and Rod Stewart. Among the albums this ballad later appears on is Adams’ second career retrospective: 1999’s The Best of Me.
REVIEW:
Deploying an upbeat approach, it treads the same chivalrous turf as Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love” ballad, which serves as the love theme of 1986’s Karate Kid, Part II. Working off a catchy melody, the good-spirited harmony amongst Sting, Stewart, and Adams remains this track’s best asset. Mostly deferring to his two cohorts, Adams’ husky vocals deliver solid support in the choruses.
However, the Three Musketeer-themed lyrics, unfortunately, are so schmaltzy that the tune risks becoming a real eye-roller. There’s no doubt that the intent was to copycat Adams’ 1991 “Everything I Do (I Do It for You),” but Adams and co-writer/producer Robert “Mutt” Lange don’t come close to recapturing their hit song’s magic. The forgettable “All for Love” just isn’t in the same league, especially with a string of half-hearted clichés that the Sting-Adams-Stewart trio are stuck pitching.
If “Everything I Do (I Do It for You)” hadn’t already existed, this knock-off might have well taken its place as Hollywood’s best swashbuckling love song. Instead, “All for Love” only ages so well for an even more hollow reason than listeners practically tasting the syrupy lyrics. This mercenary tune plays like it’s the equivalent of Adams, Sting, and Stewart cashing their hefty paychecks.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 6 Stars
