After a tour supporting his album "Cuts Like a Knife", Adams immediately started the recording sessions for the new album, "Reckless". "Summer of '69" was finished on January 25, 1984, co-written with Jim Vallance in his basement studio. The song went through a number of changes because neither Adams nor Vallance was convinced it was a strong enough song to be featured on the album. In their first draft, the lyric "summer of '69" appeared only once. At that time the two were planning to title it "Best Days of My Life" instead. While the lyric "Best days of my life" appeared seven times in the first draft, on the final draft it had been replaced by "summer of '69" and appeared only two times throughout the song.