The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 475

Friday, July 25, 2008

Number 475 - Bon Jovi

Number 475

Bon Jovi

"Livin' On A Prayer"

(1986)

Genre:Rock

You don't have a prayer sonny

Homage to 300 ... Anyway, Prince, or TAFKAP as I prefer to call him, has made me remove one of my videos Number 812 [maybe he didn't like the ranking] except he [his lawyers-same thing] made youtube remove the audio but leave the video? So ... ah, Dear Mr Rogers ..[Prince] What happened to you? Why are you beating on your fans? Why do you have this anal thing about people liking and showing your music? Have you really lost touch that much? Sincerely crowbarred ~ ahhh you get the drift. I'm hoping Prince jumps of this "Metallica" bandwagon either that or I'm Livin' On A Prayer ... my guess is that Prince won't realise before it's too late. But then again ... not my problem.

we could do Star Trek!

It is probably true that Bon Jovi's breakthrough success with Slippery When Wet, their third album, had more to do with lead singer Jon Bon Jovi's mop of curls and winning smile than with anything in the grooves of the record. Nevertheless, the album contained competent contemporary pop/rock, from its Eddie Van Halen-inspired guitar solos to the singer's enthusiastic, husky wail (which owed a lot to Bruce Springsteen). Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, and songwriter-for-hire Desmond Child had little more on their minds than girls and rock-as-mythology (even the working-class anthem "Livin' on a Prayer" featured a character who was forced to hock his "six string"), but that may only mean they had identified their audience -- young white adolescent males -- and were targeting it accurately. ~ [William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide]

For Prince [and his muted video] see Number 812

for more Bon Jovi see Number 522

For Bruce Springsteen see Number 817

What does Rowing Drone think about Bon Jovi?

Like an American Def Leppard, Bon Jovi used good looks and good hooks, toned-down aggression and pumped-up production to forge the pop-metal alloy that made it one of the dominant mainstream rock bands of the late Eighties. Bon Jovi then made two crucial marketing moves: bringing in composer Desmond Child (former leader of the Seventies New York Club band Rouge, he also wrote for Aerosmith, Cher and Kiss) as a song doctor, and basing the next album's content on the opinions of New York and New Jersey teenagers for whom they played tapes of more than 30 possible songs. The resulting selections formed Slippery When Wet (Number One, 1986), which sold more than 12 million copies, with the help of straightforward performance videos that showcased the videogenic band. Hit singles included "You Give Love a Bad Name" (Number One, 1986), the anthemic "Livin' on a Prayer" (Number One, 1986) — both of which Child cowrote — and "Wanted Dead or Alive" (Number Seven, 1987). ~ [Soure:Rolling Stone Updated from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Simon & Schuster, 2001]

For Cher see Number 889

For more Cher visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #088

For Kiss see Number 733

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '475th Song of all Time' was "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys. Beastie Boys has not appeared in The Definitive 1000.

Other songs with reference to Bon Jovi #484, #522, #575, #605, #609, #644, #762, #765

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Not one song) and the Album ranked at (& not one album - They suck)

This song has a crowbarred rating of 76.2 out of 108

Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer
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