Fellas, fellas, we're on Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" now. And speaking of which . . . it performed well in Britain, but not nearly as much as stateside. The tale of the tape: #4 Gallup, #5 NME, #7 Melody Maker. And this was before it made its splash here. At the time this peaked in the UK, The Housemartins' version of "Caravan Of Love" was the Number One song of the land. Now, with this on top here, over there a future #1 on our shores was at the summit, followed (in "Livin' On A Prayer's" last week or so at #1 here) by a real oldie.
Lol- I knew that these responses where coming; did not disappoint fellas!!! Is the song a masterpiece? No. Is it ridiculous and deliciously over the top, the perfect type of song to put in a party or bar that will get everyone shouting at the top of their lungs? Oh absolutely. I’ll give credit to Bon Jovi and say that they really knew how to make the big, anthemic choruses work extremely well, unlike others cough**Imagine Dragons**cough
I was in a hair metal band in the '80s. It was literally a rule to be as shallow as possible. Bon Jovi made an art out of being shallow. That being said, I like a few hair metal singles from the '80s. But not Bon Jovi's.
I will never say that someone shouldn't be in the R&R HOF. But, remember, an artist cannot be eligible until 25 years after their last recording, which kind makes no sense. I haven't done any research on that, but i'm sure that the hall of fam has either broken their rule, or artists who were nominated or won recorded after their induction.
The song was kind of cool the first couple of times hearing it, but it became annoying very quickly! I had bought the "Slippery When Wet" CD, but always skipped over this song because of it's annoyance factor, and that radio played it so much. This was around the time where my listening was either from top 40 radio heard at work, or from the CDs I bought.
I don't mean to jump ahead, but I was in a club a couple of years ago when they played "Eat The Rich" by Aerosmith. Someone complained bigtime and they shut the song off after about a minute and a half. There were a few wealthy people in that club.
It would sure be nice if people would type out the full name of the song if it is longer. That way everyone can know what is being talked about. The only song I can think if is "Rain" by The Beatles.
Bon Jovi: Livin' On A Prayer Lots of passive aggressive commenting here for sure. You jealous? Didnt get to play in a band when you were young? Now old and balding? Lost your gf to a Bon Jovi poster in 1986? Come on fellas? Whats wrong? And its not just this forum. Hate. Pure hate against this band. Whatever. This song is so perfectly crafted one can only wonder how they did it. Key change at the end is ridiculous for sure but other than that its perfect. The build up in the beginning, verse, pre-chorus, chorus and so on. Sambora's doing the thing at the solo: playing the friggin' bass melody? Yes, because its the best hook you could wish for. And the lyrics? Optimism. There you go. Now please, go crazy and hate this song. Thank you. (+FU too) And still wondering: you really lost your gf to a Bon Jovi poster? *LOL*
I'll say this: Bon Jovi and fare like this were certainly - and certifiably - among the reasons why PolyGram, after years of losing money hand over fist owing to Neil Bogart and Casablanca spending money like water (and leaving the company in the hole for years, irrespective of the few hits they had within the Hot 100, R&B and country charts), climbed back into profitability. By this time the U.S. PolyGram was run by a former CBS Records exec, Dick Asher - which (and who) was giving CBS honcho Walter Yetnikoff much tsuris. (Asher was one who fought tooth and nail against what was documented in the Hit Men book as "The Network" - but he was practically alone, as the likes of Yetnikoff swore by them.) U.S. pressing variants included the former RCA (now BMG) plant in Indianapolis (70) . . . . . . Specialty Records Corp., Olyphant, PA (49) . . . . . . ElectroSound Group Midwest, Shelbyville, IN (016; code recycled from Goldisc Record Mfg., Holbrook, NY) . . . Noticeably missing from the variant list were PRC in Richmond, IN (72) and Compton, CA (26), and Bestway Products, Inc. (19), the last-named apparently no longer was in operation by this time (PRC would carry on until the early 1990's when they sold out to Cinram). Allied Record Co. (22) pressings would have had the same type on the label as Specialty pressings.
Since they're talking about the Carpenters and Madonna (No correlation! One is much better and a brother is involved in the one that is vastly better), I'm guessing it's the Carpenter's song "Rainy Days And Mondays". But then, doesn't Madonna have a song called "Rain"? Hmmm? I was really no help on this.
I think it comes from the fact that most music forums are male-dominated, and that when the band rose to prominence in 1986, Jon Bongovi, a pretty boy who sings about boy-girl relationships, attracts young females. As discussed in another thread, a lot of males are threatened by anything associated with females for some reason. They think the association threatens their manhood because that's the way they were brought up, or they don't want anyone to think they are, you know...
I mean, there's only one person in here who seems to be getting emotional, defensive, telling people "FU" and suggesting someone else was sleeping with their girlfriends. And it ain't us. We're just giving our opinions about a song here. But glad you like it, I guess.
Bon Jovi really did attract a lot of female fans, though I don't think of "Living on a Prayer" as aimed particularly at women. Not the way a song like "Bed of Roses" would be (not to jump too far ahead). Personally, I was too young when this came out to have that kind of jealousy or self-consciousness about Bon Jovi. For me, hair metal reminds me of my friend next-door's teenage older brother. He used to drive a Trans-Am, smoke, drink and beat the **** out of us. So a lot of mid-to-late 80s hard rock like this kind of reminds me of him and his teenage dirtbag friends. We didn't like this music because we didn't like them. Which, of course, isn't fair to Bon Jovi, really. But what are you gonna do? I'm sure 10 years later there's some poor kid getting beat up by a teenage dirtbag who liked Green Day, and this cycle continued.
Straight from my heart… right at the time when Livin’ On A Prayer was at the top of the US charts: February 27 1987 Why do I like Bon Jovi so much? What is it about the music that draws me in? I guess it has to do with relating myself to it. Somehow I'm able to picture myself as Gina who dreams of running away. I relate to the characters in the stories - but only when it comes to the songs of Bon Jovi. Their songs seem so vivid. Jon has an ability to write in a fresh way that lends a certain strength to them. It's the reason why I also fell in love with Only Lonely, with the lyrics touching my entire inner being as if that particular song had been written for me… Also, I like Jon's voice: at times thin and full of pain, but then at other times insinuatingly sexy. His voice seems alive, too - the entire man is alive through the music he performs. Bon Jovi seem like an honest band. They do well the thing they are good at and don't even try to be anything they are not. I was fifteen, but Tommy and Gina never really left my world since. There was a period - pretty much a decade between the early nineties until 2002 - where I didn’t hear the song much at all anymore, but almost twenty years ago I returned to Bon Jovi in a big way when I became an active music listener again and at first decided to revisit my musical past… and believe it or not, this classic song sounded better than ever at that point. I gained a new appreciation for it as a thirty-something adult. Livin’ On A Prayer is a classic that for me will always belong in the late 80s, but it’s not hard to understand how it has endured all these decades and become so beloved with younger generations as well. It’s a damn good song! It has a very recognisable and memorable beginning with the synths, then the talk box and guitar riff. The track overall is cinematic and even epic, what with the bigger-than-life chorus that is the musical equivalent of arms reaching towards the sky. ( As a side note; that’s exactly what we did in early 1987 at the local disco for us underaged kids when this song was played - and it was played A LOT. We would pack the dance floor and put our hands above our heads during the chorus and sing along because, you know, how could you not?! ) Richie Sambora executes a melodic guitar solo that is always great to hear and works perfectly within the actual song. I particularly love how it transitions back into the track. PS. I hear these days Jon is lamenting the drastic key change in the final chorus LOL It served the song nicely, though I can see how he cursed it as soon as they started playing it live…!
Thanks for sharing this. I was going to say, last night, that of the three hair metal adjacent acts in the RRHoF (Van Halen, Guns N Roses, and Bon Jovi) it's really Bon Jovi that seems to be most interested in actual songwriting. Van Halen had the musicianship, of course. GNR had strong songs but they were also largely driven by danger and attitude. But Jon Bon Jovi clearly wanted to be the next Springsteen. I don't think he actually gets there, but I love reading your contemporaneous thoughts about relating to Gina. It sounds like what I'd expect a young woman to say about Mary in "Thunder Road", not Gina in "Living on a Prayer". But it shows that, at least on some level, Bon Jovi was writing similar stories effectively enough.
Also, in the Feb. 21, 1987 issue of Billboard, it was noted that BMG would close down the Indianapolis plant by the end of the year. This news made the front page . . . Billboard-1987-02-21.pdf (worldradiohistory.com) They were the second major label to announce a cessation of in-house vinyl pressing; Capitol stopped pressing vinyl a year ago this month (February 1986). While CBS Pitman's plant ceased pressing vinyl, there was still the Carrollton, GA plant. By the time of this record, Indianapolis' pressing shifts per day went down from three to one. It was certainly the last of RCA's plants to still stand (Rockaway, NJ ceased pressing vinyl in 1973, Hollywood shut everything down in 1976). One wonders what type of message the lyrics of "Livin' On A Prayer" resonated with the employees at the Indianapolis plant that pressed this.
I only learned about this hatred of Bon Jovi in last several years over the internet. Where I grew up, guys liked Bon Jovi. As a matter of fact, where I lived, guys just didn't have hang-ups about certain musical artists, except for the guy I knew who wouldn't allow Prince music to be played in his house. But did work with a lot of dirtbags whose steady musical diet consisted of King Diamond, Metallica, and Motorhead, and thought it was funny to play The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" whenever I worked with them.
