That is an interesting thought...did KISS rip off Bon Jovi or is it the other way around? Both songs are co-written by Desmond Child (whom Paul Stanley introduced to Bon Jovi...) while Livin' On A Prayer was released in 1986, we also know that Hide Your Heart was considered in 1987 for the Crazy Nights album but what we don't know is WHEN it was actually written.
WASP Stone Cold Killers Johnny get your guns You'll need all those prophets you pay Oh yeah Johnny get your guns I've come to kill the god that you made
In The Clash’s City of the Dead, “New York Johnny” makes an appearance. It’s basically Johnny Thunders, but it still fits the bill.
The entire Kevin Gilbert album, The Shaming of the True, is about a character named Johnny Virgil. Johnny Virgil, 's a talented guitarist and vocalist. The rock opera is all about how he gets, chewed up and spit out by the record business. With song titles like (the Gentle Giant like), "Suite Fugue (Dance of the A & R Men)", gives you an idea of the content.
How funny, as this was the very first song that flew in my mind and I was just looking through the thread first to see if anybody else posted it!
Good shout and it's what I would have posted had I got here first...but the song is called "Land" - Horses is the album...
Yeah, I used to hear that Lloyd Price song years ago..."Johnny" was his alter-ego in the song. I also thought of the Modern Lovers and the Mystery Trend songs, they had already been posted. I didn't realize there were so many "Johnny" songs...this could be a long thread!
It probably doesn't matter for the following reason: "I wrote 'Gina works the diner all day' based on a girlfriend of mine (when I used to like girls) named Maria. She was in Desmond Child and Rouge. At the diner where she used to work, their nickname for her was Gina Lollobrigida. So that's why I used Gina. "Then I wrote what would be the first line, 'Johnny used to work on the docks'. I liked the alliteration of Johnny and Gina. But when Jon [Bon Jovi] started singing it, it didn't make sense for him to be singing about Johnny, because he was Jonny. So we changed it to Tommy." - Desmond Child So I guess "Livin' On A Prayer" can get an Honorable Mention in this thread. It probably doesn't matter for another reason. Child relates that Jim Steinman called him because he needed a song that sounded a certain way for Bonnie Tyler. He told Child, "The verse has to sound like Tina Turner, the B-section has to sound like the Police or U2 or Hall & Oates, and the chorus has to sound like Bruce Springsteen. Oh, and it has to be about androgyny." Child wrote "If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)" for her. Child thought it was the strongest, most obviously-smash-hit melody he had ever written. "It was actually a big hit in France. But it wasn't the hit I wanted it to be, I thought it would be the biggest song of all time," Child said. "I was sore at the record company for not pushing it. Then when I started working with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, the first song we wrote was 'You Give Love A Bad Name'. If you listen to it side by side with 'If You Were A Woman'... you'll see that we just basically wrote [that song] again. There's so many similarities. And I proved that 'If You Were A Woman' was the giant hit I always thought it was." So if Child admits to rewriting his own songs, the order doesn't really matter, right? If you want to compare for yourself, here's the original: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YzXkgN__LPA
He has also said that he's reused the riff from KISS' Heaven's On Fire several times, most notably on Joan Jett's I Hate Myself For Loving You. I think I just took umbrage at the original accusation .
