His most successful productions are Slippery When Wet and New Jersey by Bon Jovi, Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip by Aerosmith, The Razors Edge by AC/DC, and Balance by Van Halen, each of which sold at least three million copies.
He produced albums for many well-known international artists such as Loverboy, Blue Öyster Cult, Bon Jovi, Poison, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, Van Halen, Chicago, The Cranberries, INXS, Kiss and Yes.
[2] In the early 1970s, Fairbairn started producing while he was part of the Vancouver jazz-rock group Sunshyne, in which he played both trumpet and horn.
In 1980, Fairbairn won his first of three Canadian music industry Producer of the Year Juno Awards for Prism's third album, Armageddon.
[4] Fairbairn's productions attracted a growing list of international artists to Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios to work with him and his protégé Bob Rock.
"[6] His next major production, Aerosmith's 1987 album Permanent Vacation, was another international success and generated a series of hits including "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Angel", and "Rag Doll".
In 1993, he produced another Aerosmith commercial hit, Get a Grip, which racked up sales of seven million and solidified the band's growing representation as international media stars.
His last fully completed project was the Atomic Fireballs' Torch This Place for Atlantic Records in 1998, which Fairbairn described as "a return to my brass roots".
[7] During the mixing sessions for Yes' The Ladder, on May 17, 1999, Fairbairn was found dead by Yes singer Jon Anderson and Armoury Studios manager Sheryl Preston in his Vancouver home.
[2] A memorial, "A Celebration of the Life of Bruce Earl Fairbairn", held at the Vancouver Chan Centre, was attended by more than 300 people.
His interviews concerning The Ladder represent some of his final moments on camera, included in short sections as part of the bonus material on Yes' Live at the House of Blues DVD.