Bon Jovi #1 Single 25 Years - Thanksgiving 1986

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It was 25 years ago that Bon Jovi had their first number one single the week of Thanksgiving 1986. "You Give Love A Bad Name" hit number one November 29, 1986.  Raised in New Jersey I had all of Bon Jovi's albums going back to 1984. I have seen Bon Jovi in concert 3 times, most recently on their Circle Tour 2010. Read the post on this blog "Bon Jovi Circle Rocks" posted March 10, 2010.

"You Give Love A Bad Name" is a song written by Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child and Richie Sambora about a woman who has jilted her lover. Although originally written for the band Loverboy, the song was recorded by Bon Jovi. The track was released as the first single from the album "Slippery When Wet" and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 29, 1986, Bon Jovi's first number one hit. The song reentered the charts at #29 after Blake Lewis performed it on American Idol. In 2009 it was named the 20th-greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. 

"Slipper When Wet" Bon Jovi's third studio album; of which "You Give Love A Bad Name" was Bon Jovi's first single from the album in August 1986. It is Bon Jovi's best selling album to date with 12 million copies in the U.S. and 28 million copies worldwide. Billboard named "Slippery When Wet" the best selling album of 1987 and the 21st best selling studio album of all time. The album spent eight weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was the top selling album 0f 1987.

Below is the original Music Video of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" singing in concert in 1986.  I have also listed "You Give Love A Bad Name"  Lyrics below, which is published on many websites today. Also, check out  "You Give Love A Bad Name" Facts and Rumors that is included in this post. Congratulations to Bon Jovi on their 25th anniversary of their first number one single! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! - Kenny Leibow

There are 100s of sources confirming the facts mentioned throughout this post. I will name a few: Billboard, Rolling Stone, m.songfacts.com, lyrics007.com,  Deniz and Kenny Original Songs, Official and Non-Official Bon Jovi websites.

Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name 1986 

You Give Love A Bad Name lyrics

Songwriters: Bon Jovi, Jon; Sambora, Richard S.; Child, Desmond

Shot through the heart and you're to blame

Darlin' you give love a bad name

An angel's smile is what you sell

You promise me heaven then put me through hell

Chains of love got a hold on me

When passion's a prison you can't break free

Oh! You're a loaded gun, yeah

Oh! There's nowhere to run

No one can save me

The damage is done

Shot through the heart and you're to blame

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

I play my part and you play your game

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

Hey, you give love a bad name

Paint your smile on your lips

Blood red nails on your fingertips

A school boy's dream, you act so shy

Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye

Whoa! You're a loaded gun

Whoa! There's nowhere to run

No one can save me

The damage is done

Shot through the heart and you're to blame

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

I play my part and you play your game

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

You give love, oh!

Oh! Shot through the heart and you're to blame

You give love a bad name

I play my part and you play your game

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

Shot through the heart and you're to blame

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

I play my part and you play your game

You give love a bad name

(Bad name)

You give love

You give love

(Bad name)

You give love

You give love

(Bad name)

You give love

You give love

(Bad name)

You give love

You give love

© DESMOBILE MUSIC COMPANY; POLYGRAM INT. PUBL., INC; AGGRESSIVE MUSIC; SONY/ATV TUNES LLC; BON JOVI PUBLISHING

You Give Love a Bad Name - Facts and Rumors

1.  Desmond Child helped write this along with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. He was brought in by the record company to give Bon Jovi a more commercial sound. Among others, Child has written hits for Cher, Aerosmith, and Ricky Martin.

2.  This was the first time Child worked with Jon and Richie. He came to New Jersey, where they worked on this in the basement of Sambora's mother's house. Child came up with the title, and Jon immediately thought up the first line ("Shot through the heart..."). From there, they put the rest of the song together, with "Shot Through The Heart" as the working title.

3.  This song is about a guy whose girlfriend is extremely bad for him.

4.  Jon Bon Jovi dated actress Diane Lane in the mid-'80s, and there are rumors that she was the inspiration for this song. We haven't found anything to confirm this.

5.  This was the first big hit for Bon Jovi, but they did have a minor hit 2 years earlier. In 1984, "Runaway," from their first album, became popular in New Jersey and hit #39 in the US.

6.  At one point, this was intended for the group Loverboy. Bon Jovi and Sambora started out writing it for them, but liked it so much they kept it for themselves.

7.  This was the first Bon Jovi song to get played on MTV. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi had big hair at the time.

8.  The follow-up single, "Livin' On A Prayer", was also a #1 hit. Desmond Child also helped write and produce that one.

9.  The album was recorded in Vancouver. They got the idea for the album title at a strip club they went to after recording sessions. "Slippery When Wet" is also a common road sign in America, but they were probably more inspired by the girls who danced in a shower at the club.

10. In 2005, this became a #1 hit in Poland when the Polish singer Mandaryna recorded it.

11. Blake Lewis performed this in 2007 on season 6 of American Idol, incorporating beatboxing into the song. The judges loved it, and Lewis performed it again on the season finale. Lewis came in second to Jordin Sparks. (thanks, Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR, for above 2)

W.A.S.P. I Wanna Be Somebody

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W.A.S.P. is a shock metal band that I first heard in 1989; however they had been around most of the 1980s. The song that caught my attention from their 1989 "Headless Children" album was "MEAN MAN". This album featured ex-Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali. The song "Mean Man" had the coolest lyrics I had every heard at that time: "Chewbacca in the rye, the water of fire, A terror in the flesh, a killer for hire". Awsome! Below is a YouTube video/audio with the lyrics to Mean Man. W.A.S.P. had to be one of the most successful shock metal bands of their time selling over 12 million albums worldwide.

Below is a biography, or more like a summary, of W.A.S.P. This bio is from Starpulse.com, so it is opinionated with the successes and failures of the band. W.A.S.P. released an album as recent as 2009, "Babylon". I have also included live videos of early hits "I Wanna be Somebody" and "L.O.V.E. Machine". It's fitting that W.A.S.P.'s first single "I Wanna Be Somebody" is ranked #84 in WH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. - Kenny Leibow












Warning: Videos below contain profanity


W.A.S.P. - L.O.V.E. Machine (LIVE)

W.A.S.P. Mean Man with Lyrics







W.A.S.P. I Wanna Be Somebody (1984)







W.A.S.P. Biography

Source: Starpulse.com

One of the heavier bands to come out of the early-'80s L.A. metal scene, W.A.S.P. quickly rose to national infamy thanks to their shock rock image, lyrics, and live concerts. Unfortunately, once the novelty and scandal began to wear off, the band found it difficult to expand, or even maintain, their audience by relying only on their music. 

Leader Blackie Lawless (bass/vocals) was already a rock & roll veteran when he relocated to the West Coast and founded W.A.S.P. with guitarists Chris Holmes and Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards. The band soon established a reputation as a ferocious live act, thanks in large part to Lawless' habits of tying a semi-naked model to a torture rack and throwing raw meat into the audience. And with the release of their self-explanatory independent EP, Animal (F**k Like a Beast), W.A.S.P. became impossible to ignore. 

They signed to Capitol Records, and with songs like "I Wanna Be Somebody" (an absolute anthem to blind ambition) and "L.O.V.E. Machine" leading the way, their self-titled 1984 debut was an instant success. W.A.S.P. took their horror show on the road, and their momentum continued to build with the following year's The Last Command, which featured new drummer Steven Riley and the band's biggest hit, "Blind in Texas." Later that year, the band gained even more prominence as one of the biggest targets of Tipper Gore and the P.M.R.C. (Parents' Music Resource Center), a group of Washington housewives leading a crusade against violent, sexist song lyrics. Though the incident (which included Senate hearings on the issue with guest speakers as disparate as Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider from Twisted Sister) would cause more publicity than actual results, it served to make W.A.S.P. a household name -- for good and for worse. 

Ironically, the band toned down their act for 1986's Inside the Electric Circus, a lackluster, repetitive album which saw Lawless switch to guitar (replacing the departed Piper) and the hiring of bassist Johnny Rod. The blood and guts were largely gone (as were the good songs), and despite releasing a strong live album entitled Live...In the Raw the following year, the band's popularity began to plummet. The all-time low arrived with the release of Penelope Spheeris' heavy metal "rockumentary" The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years. An expose about the L.A. metal scene, the film's most dramatic and depressing sequence showed an inebriated Chris Holmes drinking himself into a stupor in full stage gear while lying on a float in his mom's swimming pool. In a movie filled with debauchery and decadence, this scene was by far the scariest. 

1989's Headless Children (featuring ex-Quiet Riot sticksman Frankie Banali) was a return to form, but it couldn't revert the band's slump and W.A.S.P. disbanded soon after. Lawless eventually returned as a one-man show for 1993's The Crimson Idol, an ambitious rock opera/concept album billed as Blackie Lawless & W.A.S.P. Resurrecting the band's old shock rock antics, but alas, not fame and fortune, the album flopped, and the following year's greatest-hits set, First Blood...Last Cuts, seemed like their last chapter. 

But the resilient Lawless returned once again, luring guitarist Chris Holmes back into the fold and recruiting bassist Mike Duda and drummer Stet Howland for 1996's Still Not Black Enough. This lineup has continued to tour and record for a number of independent labels, with their albums including 1997's K.F.D., 1999's Helldorado, and 2001's Unholy Terror. The band released Dying for the World in 2002, an exceptional collection of unusually serious material inspired by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was followed in 2004 by the conceptual Neon God, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, with Dominator arriving in 2006. Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi