Bon Jovi
The New Jersey band that outlasted every act it was filed alongside. Formed in Sayreville in 1983 around Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, and bassist Alec John Such, they spent two albums as a competent hard rock act before Slippery When Wet arrived in 1986 and sold in numbers the genre had not seen. It held No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for eight weeks, carries a rare Diamond certification, and produced "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Livin' on a Prayer," and "Wanted Dead or Alive" in a single twelve-month run. New Jersey followed in 1988 and topped the chart as well.
What separated them from their contemporaries was refusing to stay in the decade that made them. Keep the Faith and These Days traded the gloss for something heavier in the 1990s, Crush restarted the run in 2000 with "It's My Life," and "Who Says You Can't Go Home" made them the first rock band to reach No. 1 on Billboard's country chart. Sixteen studio albums and more than 130 million records sold sit behind a 2018 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a 2006 induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and a catalog three of the founding five are still playing live.
Articles on Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi – America The Beautiful
In the days after September 11, before they wrote a single song about it, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora walked into a studio with two guitars and recorded a 108-year-old hymn for the NFL — no drums, no arena, just a voice and a nation trying to find its footing.
Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands On Me
The Video Team Told Them to Write It — and It Was Written in the Studio, Not the Demo Room
Bon Jovi – Always
Written For A Gary Oldman Movie That Rejected It
Bon Jovi – Christmas Isn’t Christmas
Written When Both Parents Fell Ill On The Same Day
Bon Jovi – Wild In The Streets
The Deep Cut That Celebrated Small-Town Dreams
Jon Bon Jovi – Blaze Of Glory
The Song Written On A Diner Napkin That Became His Only Solo Number One