Tag: Alec John Such

Bon Jovi – ‘The Love Songs E.P.’ (2001) – Promo CD (The Bon Jovi Collection)

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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.

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Bon Jovi – “Please Come Home For Christmas” (1994) – CD SINGLE (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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In 1992, Jon Bon Jovi did a cover of the Charles Brown song “Please Come Home For Christmas”. It was released on the Christmas album ‘A Very Special Christmas 2’ of that same year. Two years later, the band re-released the song as a charity single in Europe for the Specal Olympics. This time, they branded the song under the Bon Jovi label rather than as a Jon solo release even though no other Bon Jovi member was on this song. The CD Single was released on December 5, 1994 and the single did reach #7 on the UK Chart where it went Silver selling over 200,000 copies.

The version I have is the European version with a wonderful picture of Cindy Crawford and Jon on the cover for which a video was made with her as well. The CD Single also had two other Christmas songs from the band including “I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas” and the other was “Back Door Santa”.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Cross Road’ (1994) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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After the release of their last album ‘Keep the Faith’ in 1992, the band set out on an extensive worldwide tour. They hit 37 countries while performing over 177 shows and those shows saw reached over 2.5 million people. The boys were busy and as a result of this tour, very tired. They also needed more time to work on their next album. To hold fans over, a greatest hits compilation was released by the band and the label. The album came out on October 11, 1994 and contained songs from every album including 1 from Jon’s solo album and 2 unreleased tracks. The U.S. version got a special track of Livin’ on a Prayer which had been redone and called “Prayer ’94”, however, my vinyl set of the album does not have that song.

The album was titled ‘Cross Road’ which is possible that was where the band saw themselves at. The music landscape was changing rapidly, their 80’s rock glam style was no longer popular, yet this band kept on chugging. ‘Cross Road’ sold went to #8 in the U.S. and #1 in so many country. Worldwide they sold over 21,000,000 copies as Bon Jovi was even bigger around the world than at home. The cover art was taken at a diner called the Roadside Diner and it was near the crossroads of Rout 33 and Route 34 so it was a very appropriate cover.

The one strange thing about the album was inside they had a picture of all the band’s albums including Jon’s solo album and even Richie’s solo album, but no song from Richie’s album made the set yet Jon’s did. Another prime example this was Jon’s band and even the back cover only had Jon on it. A picture says a 1,000 words I believe is the saying.

The compilation kicks off with one of their most popular songs, “Livin’ On A Prayer” off the album ‘Slippery When Wet’. It opens with a wicked bass line, finger cymbals and a talk-box. But that wasn’t all that was great about it, it is the story of Tommy & Gina in “Livin’ on a Prayer” that makes this such a great song. Jon has a way of making the songs human and easy to connect with. The everyday person with problems just like you so the songs feel personal.  The song is loosely based on Desmond and his girl-friend as she worked in a Diner, but he was a taxi driver and not working at the docks.  It was that Blue Collar feel to the song that made it resonate with so many people.  It was a time when Bon Jovi actually wrote songs that told a story that connected with people and not try to write just to make a hit. The funny thing about this one is that Jon didn’t like it, but Richie was able to convince Jon that this was a hit and it should be on the album. Thankfully for the band, it was as it went to #1 as well. Hugh McDonald who is currently the bass player for Bon Jovi in 2023, was the bass player on this song back in 1986.

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Bon Jovi – “I Believe” (1993) – 7″ Single (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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The first track on the album, ‘Keep the Faith’ was “I Believe” which was also the fifth single and released in the UK Where it went to #11. The song was written solely by Jon Bon Jovi and was released on September 20, 1993. The single is not the album track, but the single mix down by Bob Clearmountain thus the name Clearmountain Mix. The B-Side of this UK version of the single is a live version of the song. So, both versions on here are not really album tracks.

The song is about hope. Believing in yourself to fulfill your hopes and dreams. The main protagonist is disillusioned by the world, but yet they still have things they want to do and accomplish. They need to look from within to find the power to still believe in themselves. A pretty great, positive message. Jon really pushes himself on this song and album to be a better songwriter and I think he succeeds.

SIDE 1:

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Bon Jovi – ‘Keep The Faith’ (1992) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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After 16 months of touring for ‘New Jersey’, the band was simply exhausted. Without so much as a goodbye, the band members went home and did their own things for awhile. Jon Bon Jovi became real disillusioned with the music “business” so he fired everyone from management to advisers to even agents (which was Doc McGhee). Jon took control. And in October 1991, he brought the boys back together down in St. Thomas in the Caribbean where the band hashed out their issues and decided it was time to work again.

In January 1992, the band headed back to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada to start work on their fifth album. They tried to get Bruce Fairbairn back to produce, but he was busy with a little band from Boston called Aerosmith and their smash album ‘Get a Grip’. So, they got the next best thing, Bob Rock, who engineered their last two albums with Bruce so he was taught very well. They worked on the album through August of that year and wrote/recorded over 30 songs for the album. Of which, 12 made it and a couple were used for various bonus tracks whether in Japan or Australia.

Things had changed significantly since their last album. Some thing called Grunge had taken over and even Rap was growing in popularity. But the boys ignored all that, they also ignored their old sound which was full of cliches. Instead, the focused on righting real songs about more serious topics. Now, not all the songs were that way, but enough were that we got a band that sounded more mature, more focused and more serious.

The album came out on November 3, 1992 and would spawn six singles – four in the U.S. and two around the world. The album would chart at #5 in the U.S., #1 in the UK and high on so many charts around the world. It would sell over 8 million copies worldwide and have 3 Top 40 hits. Bon Jovi was back and in a big way. They were actually more popular around the world then in their home country. Why did this album do so well, let’s dig in to the songs and see.

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Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” (1988) – Cassette Single (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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“I’ll Be There For You” was the third single off the album and it went to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 Charts. This was the band’s fourth #1 song and if I’m not mistaken, it was their last but not from lack of great songs as they still put out some fantastic tracks even after this one. This particular song was written soley by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora with no outside help. Same with the B-Side, “Homebound Train”. Bon Jovi was at the top of their game and no one could touch them. They could have taken a piss, recorded it and it probably would’ve gone to #1 too as long as Jon and Richie were in the video.

If you ever wanted to know why this era of rock bands were called “Hair Bands”, just look at the cover. Aqua Net stock was riding high at that time as the amount of hairspray being used put a hole in the ozone layer…true fact!! My version of the single is standard cassette single. The single version and album version aren’t really different as there are only a couple seconds shaved off the single. The big difference is the radio edit which this is not.

SIDE 1:

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Bon Jovi – ‘New Jersey’ Super Deluxe Edition (2014) – Part 2 – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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On July 1, 2014, Bon Jovi released the Super Deluxe Edition box set for ‘New Jersey’ which was just a hair past the band’s 25th anniversary of the album which came out on September 19, 1988. It contained the original album with some bonus tracks as well as an additional disc of demos from during the recordings. If that wasn’t enough, there as third disc, a DVD, of the 88-minute behind the scenes documentary of the bands massive tour for ‘New Jersey’ which spanned over 200 shows and 26 countries. It was nuts. Also, included on the DVD were all the music videos for the album including both versions of “Bad Medicine”. These were previously only available on VHS. And lastly there was a booklet with pictures of the band, some commentary and lyrics to all the songs including the demos. It was a great set, only missing a live show from that era to make it complete.

For Part 2 of the New Jersey Review, we are going to go through all the bonus tracks from Disc 1 as well as all the songs from Disc 2 with comments on the DVD and booklet as well. The Original Album was reviewed in quite a lot of detail on Part 1 so we won’t repeat that here. So, sit back and enjoy the walk through of all the additional material of the Super Deluxe Edition of Bon Jovi’s ‘New Jersey’.

DISC 1 – Bonus Tracks:

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Bon Jovi – ‘New Jersey’ (1988) – Part 1 – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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After a sixteen month tour for ‘Slippery When Wet’, Bon Jovi immediately went back in to the studio so they could prove that their third album wasn’t a fluke. They packed their bags again and headed back to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with Bruce Fairbairn back as producer and Bob Rock as the engineer. The band was ready to record and they record they did. This time around, they wanted to experiment a little with their songs and their sound, but at the same time they brought back a team that understood them and what they wanted.

The were so inspired on tour, that they had a ton of material to record. So much so, that they wanted the album to be a double album and it was going to be called “Sons of Beaches”. They had Desmond Child back to help with some songs and this time around they even had a couple other very famous songwriters, Holly Knight and Diane Warren. They really wanted to make sure they could repeat their previous success. When all was said and done, they had around 26 songs. However, the record company was really nervous about releasing a double album. They were worried that it would price them out of the market. So, they made the band release a single album.

That album would end up being called “New Jersey” and it was released on September 19, 1988 and was it as successful as ‘Slippery When Wet’? Uhhh..basically, yes! It went to #1 and had 5 hit singles and sold over 7 million copies (I think Slippery has had over 12 million). I would say that was another massively successful album. The sound of the album was really middle-America with a rock, country flair that felt like a Rock & Roll Western at times, but still that Arena rock overall filled with even more great ballads. It is a quintessential 80’s Rock album. Let’s get to the music.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Slippery When Wet’ (1986) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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Bon Jovi had two moderately successful albums under their belt. However, they weren’t happy with the fact they weren’t superstars yet. So, changes had to be made. Not in the band line-up as it was still Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Alec John Such. Nope. They needed to change their approach. One of the first things they chose to do was bring someone in to help with the songs. That person was Desmond Child. Desmond didn’t try to change who the band was with the songs, but he helped refine them, make them better. Jon and Richie wrote well together, but with Desmond’s help, the songs became stories that connected with people, but first they had to record them.

To do that, they changed even more stuff. Jon was listening to Black & Blue’s album ‘Without Love’ and he loved the production of it. So, he reached out to Bruce Fairbairn and he was hired as producer..with some other cat named Bob Rock as the engineer. The band moved to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada and the record was started. The album was finished and released on August 18, 1986 and would become a 12,000,000 selling album making it Diamond. It would spark 4 Top 40 singles of which 2 went to #1 and would see the band tour massively. They would start out the tour as an opening act, but by the end they were the headliners. The band got what they wanted and they were now Superstars!

But before we get to the music, let’s talk about the album name and cover. It was inspired by a trip to The No. 5 Orange strip club in Vancouver. The boys saw this stripper who stripped all the way down to nothing, stepped in to a shower and lathered herself all up. That was motivation for the boys to finish the album and inspired the Slippery When Wet name. One of the original names was ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ and had the boys dressed as cowboys, but that was scrapped. They did use that cover for the single though.

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Bon Jovi – ‘7800° Fahrenheit’ (1985) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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The success of the debut album, ‘Bon Jovi’, the band was out on the road a lot opening for Scorpions in the United States and with Kiss in Europe…two very solid bands to help you get noticed. As a result, the band only had about six weeks to record the new album. Things didn’t go well as they had trouble with producer Lance Quinn and their personal lives were also a little messed up. The band were not happy with the results as they hated sound of the album and have pretty much ignored this album when they finally blew up in to superstar status.

But for fans, such as myself, we actually love this album. Yes, it didn’t sell as much as the debut, but I think there are some really great songs on here. The band even started writing more together as four of the band members had writing credits, even Tico Torres has one which is rare. The only member without a credit is Alec John Such.

The title of the album is ‘7800° Fahrenheit’ which is actually the melting point of rock. SInce this is a ‘rock’ album, they felt it was a great title. Being the U.S. is probably the only country that uses ‘Fahrenheit’ as measure of temperature, it made the album very American. In Celsius, the temperature is 4313° if you were curious. And one other fact, this it the first album with the Bon Jovi logo that adorned all their biggest albums. Okay, enough already. On to the music.

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