Essential Bon Jovi Songs

Never was a Bon Jovi fan, ever, despite enjoying the music of their peers like the Scorpions and Def Leppard. I guess I'm slowly coming around on Bon Jovi, but I'm sure my list will be different compared to those who are fans and grew up in the hey day of big hair.

10. "Keep The Faith" (Keep The Faith)
I had considered doing a Bon Jovi list last summer, back when I tried to map these out months in advance, but planning and my brain don't really mix too well together. I did buy used copies of Slippery When Wet and New Jersey from Pekin's Co-Op Records in an attempt to file the CDs away on my shelf for a later date. I was told to check out Keep The Faith, too, and while it didn't really click with me, the title track is pretty cool.

9. "It's My Life" (Crush)
I was a teenager working at K-Mart and their "lite rock" music selection featured this song prominently, along with "Everyday." It's stuck with me ever since then, so it cracks the Top Ten, and that's really the only story I have to tell on this song.

8. "Born To Be My Baby" (New Jersey)
This song ALWAYS seemed to pop up on XM radio's Hair Nation last summer whenever I'd have it on more than five minutes, long enough to hear two songs. That was always the second song to play, so it stuck it my brain whether I liked it or not.

7. "Let It Rock" (Slippery When Wet)
Once I realized who Desmond Child was, I felt like the only good Bon Jovi songs from that peak period of Slippery When Wet/New Jersey were those that Sambora and Bon Jovi wrote with Desmond. They're the ones on the radio all the time, the ones that people remember, and I'm not too wrong for the most part. Then I realized I was somewhat wrong- this one was pretty cool for a Sambora/Bon Jovi tune.

 

6. "I'll Be There For You" (New Jersey)
This would be when I could say I first came around on Bon Jovi. Last January my friends in The Great Affairs covered this song at their favorite place to play, John Brown's On The Square in the fine town of Marion, IL. They'll probably say the cover was a work in progress to downplay it, but I think it was cool, and forgot all about that Bon Jovi song; which is lost to classic rock stations around that only play the same 3 songs ad nauseam.

5. "Damned" (These Days)
So about that theory on how Desmond Child co-wrote all the good tunes... I like quite a few on this album, and it would be my favorite album, if I was ever to list one. While Desmond does share a few writing credits on These Days, this isn't one of them. The guitar is pretty cool, almost like what Richie Kotzen was doing with Poison around that time.

4. "You Give Love A Bad Name" (Slippery When Wet)
Yeah, it's catchy.

3. "These Days" (These Days)
I borrowed this, along with a greatest hits CD titled Cross Road, from another friend Brent back in the Fall when Chuck recommended a Bon Jovi list. While the previous albums didn't grab me beyond the "hits", I really enjoyed These Days. It feels stylistically similar to bands like KISS, Poison, and Alice Cooper, that all had hits with the hair/glam period, but then needed to adapt their sound following the rise of alternative rock in the 1990's.

2. "My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms" (These Days)
Another one from These Days and was very close to being #1 on this list. It could technically be my favorite, but the song that made #1 has a funny story behind it, which makes it impossible to not like the song.

1. "Livin On A Prayer" (Slippery When Wet)
This gets number one simply because of Michael Sweet. I saw him perform an acoustic set this past Fall with my "rock and roll dad", and he built up a song in his intro as "the greatest song ever written about prayer." Like most in the crowd, I assumed it would be some religious song... NOPE. Bon Jovi.

Several months ago, while looking up Bon Jovi songs on Youtube prior to purchasing the albums, I came across this video. It made the cheesy-as-hell "Livin On A Prayer" too impossible to dislike. Now I think of the song in that style whenever I hear it.