Bryan Adams released “All for Love” with Rod Stewart and Sting as a U.S. CD single on November 16, 1993. Written for Disney’s The Three Musketeers, the ballad put three established solo singers on one record. Its songwriting team had already helped turn another screen adventure into a major pop success.
Adams, Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Michael Kamen had written “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991. The Three Musketeers gave them a chance to work together again, with a clear commercial brief. “They wanted a hit record at the end of the film,” Kamen told The Independent in January 1994. He described Disney’s intention to repeat the earlier film’s soundtrack success, and the writers’ decision to pursue that goal deliberately. They worked on the song one afternoon at Kamen’s home in London’s Notting Hill, where his composing setup included a small studio beside the sitting room.
There was a complication on Adams’s side: his hits collection So Far So Good was arriving around the same time. In his 2022 Stereogum history of “All for Love,” Tom Breihan reported that Kamen suggested a trio to help distinguish the film song from Adams’s own release. Three singers also suited the movie’s central partnership. Adams approached Sting, who agreed to take part, and Stewart completed the lineup.
Getting their voices onto the record involved separate sessions. In a March 2022 interview with Stereogum, Adams recalled recording with Sting in London and Stewart in Los Angeles. Stewart had requested Mateus Rosé before singing, so they worked through the song while waiting for it to arrive. Those early passes proved useful: Adams said recording stopped for the day once the wine turned up.
The arrangement moved between individual voices and combined vocals, making the shared billing part of the song itself. Sting’s contribution also extended to bass, while Adams played guitar. The title adapted the musketeers’ motto into a pledge of romantic loyalty, with the lyrics developing promises of protection, faithfulness and support. That gave the three singers a common perspective even as their voices took different parts.
Kamen’s involvement extended beyond the single: he also composed and conducted the film’s orchestral score. The music reached record buyers through two connected releases, with Hollywood Records issuing the soundtrack album and A&M handling the CD and cassette single. The campaign put Adams, Stewart and Sting’s names together above the song title, linking the collaboration directly to the movie.
“All for Love” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated January 22, 1994, and remained there for three weeks. It became Adams’s third Hot 100 chart-topper, following “Heaven” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You.” The songwriting partnership behind the Robin Hood hit had produced another U.S. No. 1, this time with Stewart and Sting sharing the vocal billing.
