The song came about when Adams was approached to write something by the producers of the then-upcoming Kevin Costner film, "", and was asked to work on a theme song. He was provided a tape of orchestration written by the composer of the film score, Michael Kamen. With this, he and Lange used a section of Michael's orchestration and created "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which was then placed deep into the closing credits of the film when it opened on June 14, 1991.