Bon Jovi and the label were really pushing their single “Thank You For Loving Me” off their 2000 album ‘Crush’. The single was released on November 6, 2000 and only went to #57 on the Billboard Hot 100. So, to help promote the song even more, they created an E.P. with that song and other love songs. This is a rare bonus CD, that was available only on Valentine’s Day of 2001 with the purchase of the studio album Crush. It contained five Bon Jovi love ballads; “Thank You for Loving Me”, “Bed of Roses”, “Always”, “I’ll Be There for You” and “Never Say Goodbye”. I also read that it was sent to radio stations as well as promo to be played as it contains the radio edit of “Thank You For Loving Me”.

The CD comes in a cardboard gatefold sleeve with a bunch of hearts on the front. The gatefold opens with the chorus of the song on the right and a heart shapped cut-out that is holding the CD on the left. It is pure Valentine’s Day cheese. I’ll tell you, it isn’t that hard to come by and not real expensive so if you need to complete your collection with this, it won’t be to difficult. Hit up eBay or Discogs and you should find it easy enough. As I mentioned, the first song is a radio edit and so is “Always”. The rest are the original versions from the albums. Let’s go through them all.

The song title, “Thnk You For Loving Me” seems to be inspired by Brad Pitt’s character in the film ‘Meet Joe Black’ where he tells Claire Forlani’s character “thank you for loving me”…or it could be a giant coincidence. It was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and was inspired by Jon’s own personal experiences and observations on how love can change you and it was a giant thank you to those special people in his life. It is chock full of ballad cliches with a full on string section, soft & gentle piano and some nice sweet guitar licks from Sambora giving us the power in power ballad. And yes, it is a little over-the-top at times and cheesy, but Jon still delivers it as only he can with all the emotion needed to draw in the listener and pull at their heartstrings. Not their best ballad they’ve ever done, but honestly, its pretty damn good nonetheless.

Next is another ballad of all ballads from ‘Keep the Faith’ with “Bed of Roses” which was written by Jon when he was hungover in a hotel room. The slow, long drawn out guitar notes, the piano playing so softly and the vocals that are so damn emotive gives us one of the best ballads they have ever done. Even the solo by Richie feels the pain of loneliness in this song. Jon paints a beautiful picture with those lyrics as his writing keeps getting better. You would have thought that ballads were dead by 1993 when this was released as a single, but this one went all the way to #10 on the Top 40 charts.

The big hit off ‘Cross Road’ was “Always”. It was released as a single on September 12, 1994 and is one of their biggest selling songs of all time with over 3 million copies sold. It reached #4 in the U.S. and #1 in several countries worldwide. The song was gong to be used by Jon for the soundtrack to the movie ‘Romeo is Bleeding’, but after Jon say an advance screening of the movie, he decided against it because the movie was so bad. This coming from a band who put a song on ‘The Disorderlies’ soundtrack. Hypocrite much! “Always” is a very cheesy piano based ballad heavy on the orchestration, but Bon Jovi does these type of ballads so well. Jon really gets all emotive and really goes over-the-top with the vocals. It ain’t half bad and I can see why it did so well.

“I’ll Be There For You” is a pure 80’s power ballad from the ‘New Jersey’ album. The song is about a guy that screwed it up with his girlfriend and is dying for one more chance. The song kicks off with the girl having packed her bags and leaving. He apparently has hurt her a lot as she’s cried a thousand rivers. The boyfriend pleads for one more chance and will do anything for her he promises. He’ll be there for her…blah, blah, blah. You know he won’t. He’ll screw it up again. It is probably best she leave, but sorry that isn’t in the song as I went off on a slight tangent, sorry about that.

Musically, it starts off with a soft guitar picking and is really a slowed tempo. Jon comes in singing softly and tries to be emotive as he can. The song builds up and gets a little stronger as we go. Richie Sambora actually shares a little of the lead vocals with Jon. Richie’s backing vocals and lead in this case are always the best and he was so crucial to their sound which they are lacking now, but we won’t go there. The song is a classic power ballad including the powerful choruses and the killer guitar solo also by Richie. I don’t know if I’ve noticed how prominent Tico’s drums were on this one, very nice. With all that is going on in the song, it is no wonder this song went to #1.

The last track is from ‘Slippery When Wet” and as we’ve seen from this compilation, there is one thing Bon Jovi does well and that is ballads and with “Never Say Goodbye”, they nail it again. The final single from the album sees the band mix a little country, a little blues and rock together to give us another heart wrenching ballad. The bass line is powerful and has a nice groove, the guitar wails as if filled with tears and the drums sounds sad and lonely. Jon gives it all the feels with his powerful vocals. A job well done by all.

And there you have it. Is this an E.P. you need in the collection? No, as if you have those albums you have this stuff already. But the radio edits of two of the singles might be reason enough if you don’t have those on anything yet. This is for the completist in you and the diehard fan. It is a cute promo with all the Valentine’s Day hearts and I will admit it was put together with some great packaging. I’m not scoring it as it is truly a promotional album and all the songs are really great. I will let you decide for yourself if this is for you or not. Thanks for walking through this piece of the collection.

NEXT UP: BON JOVI – ‘TOKYO ROAD: BEST OF BON JOVI’ (2001) – ALBUM REVIEW

THE BON JOVI COLLECTION SERIES:

1. Bon Jovi – The Albums Box Set (2017)
2. Jon Bongiovi – The Power Station Sessions (1980-1983) (2001)
3. Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi (1984)
4. Bon Jovi – Shot Through the Heart: Live in Cleveland, OH March 17, 1984 FM Broadcast (Bootleg)
5. Bon Jovi – 7800° Fahrenheit (1985)
6. Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet (1986)
7. Bon Jovi – New Jersey (1988)
8. Bon Jovi – New Jersey: Super Deluxe Edition – Disc 2/DVD (1988)
9. Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” – Cassette Single (1988)
10. Jon Bon Jovi – Blaze of Glory (1990)
11. Jon Bon Jovi – “Blaze of Glory” – Cassette Single (1990)
12. Richie Sambora – Stranger in this Town (1991)
13. Bon Jovi – Keep the Faith (1992)
14. Bon Jovi – “I Believe” – 7″ Single (1992)
15. Bon Jovi – Cross Road (1994)
16. Bon Jovi – “Please Come Home for Christmas” – CD Single (1994)
17. Bon Jovi – These Days (1995)
18. Bon Jovi – Live From London – DVD (1995)
19. Jon Bon Jovi – Destination Anywhere (1997)
20. Richie Sambora – Undiscovered Soul (1998)
21. Bon Jovi – Crush (2000)
22. Bon Jovi – Live From Osaka E.P. (2000)
23. Bon Jovi – “Thank You For Loving Me” – CD Single (2000)
24. Bon Jovi – The Crush Tour – DVD (2000)
25. Bon Jovi – The Love Songs E.P. (Promo) (2001)
26. Bon Jovi – Tokyo Road: Best of Bon Jovi (2001)
27. Bon Jovi – One Wild Night Live: 1985-2001 (2001)
28. Bon Jovi – Bounce (2002)
29. Bon Jovi – Unauthorized: Rock ‘n Roll Legends – Bootleg DVD (2002)
30. Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right (2003)
31. Bon Jovi – Target E.P. (2003)
32. Bon Jovi – Wild in the Streets: Unauthorized – Bootleg DVD (2003)
33. Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right – DVD (2004)
34. Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Part 1) – (2004)
35. Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 1, Part 2) – (2004)
36. Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 2, Part 3) – (2004)
37. Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 3, Part 4) – (2004)
38. Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 4, Part 5) – (2004)
39. Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 5, Part 6) – (2004)
40. Bon Jovi – Have a Nice Day (2005)
41. Bon Jovi – Live from the Have a Nice Day Tour (Walmart Exclusive) (2006)
42. Bon Jovi – Lost Highway (2007)
43. Bon Jovi – Lost Highway: The Concert (2007)
44. Bon Jovi – The Circle (2009)
45. Bon Jovi – When We Were Beautiful Documentary DVD (2009)
46. Bon Jovi – Live at Madison Square Garden – DVD (2009)
47. Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (2009)
48. Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Video Collection – DVD (2010)
49. Bon Jovi – Inside Out – DVD (2012)
50. Richie Sambora – Aftermath of the Lowdown (2012)
51. Bon Jovi – What About Now (2013)
52. Bon Jovi – Live E.P. (RSD – 2013)
53. Bon Jovi – Live 2 E.P. (RSD – 2014)
54. Bon Jovi – Burning Bridges (2015)
55. Bon Jovi – This House is Not For Sale (2016)
56. Bon Jovi – This House is Not For Sale – Live From the London Palladium (2016)
57. Bon Jovi – The Albums Box Set – The Extra LP (2017)
58. RSO – Radio Free America (2018)
59. Bon Jovi – 2020 (2020)
60. Bon Jovi – 40th Anniversary Box Set (TBA – I Hope it is out by the time we get here)

We’ve reviewed a bunch of pieces already over the years and won’t review again. They are as follows:

1. Bon Jovi – The Brotherhood Tour Book (1988-1990)
2. Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi Tour 2011 – Tourbook
3. Bon Jovi – The Rock History – Bootleg CD
4. Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name” – 12″ Single
5. Bon Jovi – “You Give Love a Bad Name” – 7″ Single
6. Bon Jovi – Red Hot & 2 Parts Live E.P. – 12″ Single
7. Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive” – 7″ Single
8. Bon Jovi – “Bad Medicine” – 7″ Single
9. Bon Jovi – “Born to Be My Baby” – 7″ Single
10. Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” – 7″ Single
11. Bon Jovi – “Lay Your Hands on Me” – 7″ Single
12. Bon Jovi – “Living in Sin” – 7″ Single