"Straight from the Heart" is a rock ballad, which was the first single from Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...

' first hit album Cuts Like a Knife

Cuts Like a Knife

Cuts Like a Knife is the third studio album by the Canadian rock artist Bryan Adams. Released on 18 January 1983 through A&M Records, the album became a huge commercial success in Canada and the United States whereas outside North America, the album did poorly...

. The song was Adams' first song to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, reaching #10. It also peaked at #32 on the Adult Contemporary

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks

The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

 chart, the first Bryan Adams single to reach that chart.

Adams wrote the song when he was 18 years old in the late '70s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

. It was first recorded by Ian Lloyd

Ian Lloyd (musician)

Ian Lloyd is an American rock singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the band Stories, whose single "Brother Louie" was No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1973. Lloyd attended Hartwick College during the 1960's where he performed with a band called "The Section" using the...

 in 1980, on the album Third Wave Civilization three years prior to Adams' release. Later, the song was covered by Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...

 for her album Faster Than the Speed of Night

Faster Than the Speed of Night

Faster Than the Speed of Night is an album by Bonnie Tyler released in April 1983. Her fifth album, and her most successful, it includes her UK and US #1 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart"....

, the album released the same year as Cuts Like a Knife.