The third album by New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi was going to be a crucial one.
There simply was no doubt. Their first album, the band's self-titled one, sold over half a million copies in 1984 and gave the band their first Top 40 hit, "Runaway," which peaked at No. 39 in April 1984, spending one week in the Top 40. Their second album, "7800 (Degrees) Fahrenheit," also did well with sales of over half a million copies, but there were no Top 40 hits, although the band did a cool video for the song, "In And Out Of Love" in the summer haven of Seaside Heights, N.J.
Success was the band's when it came to a core audience. But that core audience was the same audience that appealed to glam metal bands. In other words, the band was pretty successful in bringing dudes in to listen to their music.
They had a problem relating to the ladies. And the band's new manager, Doc McGhee, who had worked as manager for KISS and Motley Crue, knew that if his new artists he was representing could ever make it in the business, they needed to appeal to the ladies and not just the metal heads that followed them around like puppy dogs.
McGhee knew he had five good-looking young guys in their mid-to-late 20s, led by long-haired, blue-eyed and looks-that-could-melt-any-heart lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, who the band was named for. The appeal there to the ladies wasn't a problem. But he needed a "bridge" to get the girls over to the band's side.
That bridge was being built in January 1986 at the Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, well over 3,000 miles away from the band's Sayreville, N.J. base. After working with Lance Quinn on two albums, McGhee had the band work with rock production veteran Bruce Fairbairn and mixer/engineer Bob Rock. Next, McGhee brought in another veteran of the industry, Desmond Child, to compose songs with the band's two main writers, Bon Jovi and lead guitarist Richie Sambora.
The guys worked hard on writing songs for the album that would have more of a "mainstream rock" appeal, which had been missing on the first two albums. Sambora and Bon Jovi co-wrote nine of the 10 tracks, and four of those songs were collaborations with Child.
But Child had come into the session with a song he had as an ace in the hole. The original title of the song was "If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)." Child wrote the song in 1985 and handed it off to Jim Steinman, who once again was producing Bonnie Tyler on a new album called "Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire." Child heard the final version of the song, and though Steinman did his best in production, he was not happy with how it came out. So armed with the same song, he had a plan for his two new writing buddies -- let's re-write the heck out of this song.
So the trio did. And what the three of them turned the song into was of a wicked woman who is well-versed in her ways and that Bon Jovi is trapped under her spell. Making the new lyrics memorable are that the lines "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, you give love a bad name" and "Oh, you're a loaded gun. Oh, there's nowhere to run. No one can save me. The damage is done," are repeated throughout. This was perfect for the new fan to come in and listen to this song by an act they may have heard of before, but now had their full attention.
Many of the songs on the album they would call "Slippery When Wet" were meant to appeal to all audiences, most notably, "Never Say Goodbye" and "I'd Die For U." The idea from the start was to "soften" the Bon Jovi hard-rock image and the song that everyone agreed would be the one to kick off the new album was the one Child, Bon Jovi and Sambora re-wrote, "You Give Love A Bad Name," even though the song sounded strangely familiar in hard rock style as songs from the first two albums. As a matter of fact, a song called "Shot Through The Heart" was on the band's debut album in 1984, and it did for a short time cause confusion with the new single.
This release was going to build the pop "sex appeal" for the band.
But its chart run didn't get off to such a hot start. It was the lowest of the five Hot 100 debuts the week of September 6, 1986, at No. 93, the highest debut being Chicago's remake with new lead singer Jason Scheff in charge of their 1970 hit "25 Or 6 To 4." The next week, the song climbed 10 notches to No. 83.
Everything, though, changed for the band the week of September 20, 1986. It leaped 15 points to No. 68. The run to the top was officially on.
The week after that, Bon Jovi was in the Top 50 at No. 47, up 21 places. Their second Top 40 hit was inevitable.
Not yet, though. It was a surprise the next week that "You Give Love A Bad Name" slowed down and only went up six places to No. 41. But a week later, Bon Jovi was in the Top 40 pool with both feet in as the song leaped up to debut at No. 29.
After a five-point move to No. 24, Bon Jovi jumped into the Top 20 the week of October 25, 1986, going from No. 24 to No. 16. After a climb to No. 11 the next week, Bon Jovi was in the Top 10 for the first time ever the week of November 8, 1986 at No. 7. How far could it go from here?
On November 15, 1986, Bon Jovi cracked the Top 5, leaping two places that week. The next week, it was at No. 4, but still had some prime area to get through -- notably new No. 1 hit "Human" by the Human League and Madonna's latest smash single, "True Blue," at No. 3.
One thing going for the band was the fact that "Slippery When Wet" had hit No. 1 on the Top 200 album chart the week of October 25, so many people who bought the album were familiar with the song and told others to buy the song or request it on radio stations. And that led to the unthinkable just a year or two earlier when on the week of November 29, 1986, "You Give Love A Bad Name" scaled the last three points on the chart to become Bon Jovi's first No. 1 hit.
And though the song would spend one week at No. 1, the ball was rolling. There would be two more Top 10 hits for the band to come, including the follow-up No. 1 hit, "Livin' On A Prayer," and that helped propel the album sales to 12 million copies in the United States alone for "Slippery When Wet." It also helped to propel the two previous albums the band recorded over the 1 million sales mark, making both those albums platinum, too.
In the end, the band not only stayed true to their metal head guys who first worshiped them, but also allowed the young ladies who were taking longing looks at Bon Jovi and his bandmates to come be a part of the experience as well.
McGhee got what he wanted and thrived because of that simple, subtle move to make the band be more appealing to the chicks as well as the dudes. And Bon Jovi the band became worldwide superstars who toured endlessly, most famously for the Monsters Of Rock tour in 1987 alongside Cinderella, Dio, Metallica, W.A.S.P. and Anthrax and for their 1989 visit to the U.S.S.R. just before the end of Communism and the bringing down of the Berlin Wall.
Though key members Alec Jon Such and Sambora no longer play in the band, they continue on as a trio -- Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan and drummer Tico Torres. And though Bon Jovi himself can't hit some of those high notes he once did, he still knows how to bring the fans in.
Both dudes and chicks.
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