Welcome to the final post in the Bon Jovi Collection Series. I have spent the past 14 months going through everything in my Bon Jovi collection and that included full reviews of ALL 16 Studio Albums. I had done a Ranking back in 2020 after the album ‘2020’ came out but that was based off what I thought listening to the albums only. No deep dive. I will admit this one is slightly different than before as I spent a week with each album and dove deep in to the songs. It isn’t entirely different as the #1 is the same, but there is a lot of movement below.
I am not going to go in to the band’s story here because you can read that if you want by going through the reviews yourself by clicking on the links at the bottom of the post. Bon Jovi has been through changes and some challenges, but they are still going strong…not necessarily with the same crew but Jon, David & Tico are still there holding down the ship…well Jon is as it is his ship as he is the dictator…I mean captain if we are staying with the ship analogy. So, hoist the sail, raise up the anchor and let’s cruise through the 16 Studio albums and see what is the best and what is the worst…I hope you enjoy.
To Celebrate the end of the Bon Jovi Series, it was time to do a show on The Collection where we walked through the Bon Jovi vinyl. For Part 1 was last week and we walked through their peak years of The 80’s & The 90’s. For Part 2, we are going to go through the vinyl in the collection that covers all of The 2000’s from 2000 to 2024. We will capture all the studio albums, compilations, and even some 10″ Picture Discs. Come join as we talk all things Bon Jovi from the 2000’s Crush’ to 2024’s ‘Forever’. I don’t know if this is everything you can get in the 2000’s, but it is everything in my collection and that is the show!
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, September 9, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
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.
The album ‘Crush’ saw Bon Jovi back on the scene and having major success. The album sold over 5 million copies worldwide and go to #9 on the U.S. Billboard charts. The band had a huge successful tour and to capitalize on the renewed love for Bon Jovi, they recorded one of the shows and released it on DVD and sold over 100,000 copies in the U.S. The show was recorded on August 30, 2000 in Zurich, Switzerland at the Letzigrund Stadium. The show was directed by a Jon relative by the name of Anthony Bongiovi. When all was done, it was released in Japan on December 7, 2000 while Wiki says it was released on May 28th, 2001, but since the date on the back cover says 2000, I’m going with the December date.
The boys are the same as it is Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres and of course, Hugh McDonald on bass and not yet a full time official member. The DVD has the full show, plus some bonus features as well along with some music videos so it is jammed pack with goodness. My copy is a standard edition from the U.S., no extras above and beyond what is expected. I picked this up used and it was in great shape and probably cost about $5 so I was pretty happy. Enough chit chat, let’s get to the show.
The show kicks off with “Living on A Prayer”…how solid is your catalog when this classic opens the show? When Richie gets on the talk box and the drums kick in, the crowd goes nuts and starts bouncing up and down for the entire song. They don’t let up. Jon commands the crowd like a good frontman should. They go right in to “You Give Love A Bad Name” and they keep the party going at full force. The crowd doesn’t let a little rain dampen their spirit or their energy.
On November 6, 2000, Bon Jovi released their third single from ‘Crush’, well, their second single in the U.S. The song did really well for the band reaching the Top 40 in a ton of countries like the UK, Germany and Australia, but not in the U.S. where it only went to #57. Proving more that Bon Jovi were actually bigger overseas then in their home country which had the way it was for at least a decade. Back in 2000, when Bon Jovi released a single, there would be a ton of different variants of that single in many different parts of the world, each with their own unique B-Sides and this one was no different.
The version I have is actually a Canadian release (and I think I got this from my good pal Mike Ladano from Grab a Stack of Rock and MikeLadano.com. Go check him out as you won’t be disappointed. The version I have according to Wikipedia is says it is actually the Japanese Edition and that is possible I guess, but this is definitely a Canadian pressing as it states it below.
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.
The song is a ballad and 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. The song 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.
The B-Side tracks (I now it is a CD so technically no B-Sides, but that is what I’m calling them) are all live and recorded to a two track player at The China Club in New York City on September 20, 2000. And all three tracks are not from the ‘Crush’ album. First up is the ‘New Jersey’ track “Born to Be My Baby”. This track was penned with the help of Desmond Child and you can feel his touch all over it with its melodies and hooks and that catchy chorus. Playing it live, they haven’t really altered it or strayed from the live version. It lacks a little of the studio version’s punch, but still a great track.
Next Up is “I’ll Be There For You” is also from ‘New Jersey’ and is a ballad. That opening guitar lick from Sambora is instantly recognizable on this track. Jon’s vocals are high in the mix and in 2000, he still sounded pretty great live. Richie’s backgrounds are key on this one too as I love how his vocals compliment Jon’s so much. If you listen close, you can hear the crowd singing along. They really nail this one and they don’t stray from the studio version much and that is okay.
The final track is “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” from ‘Keep the Faith’ and Bon Jovi shows they are still a bar band at heart, even though I don’t know how much they played in bars. Tico pounds away at the skins and Richie rips some riffs. David’s piano plays like an old honky tonk and the boys cut loose and have a good time with this one. Jon doesn’t sound the best as he sounds a little tired, but this is live and he shouldn’t sound perfect.
And there you have it. A cool gift from a friend and a nice addition to the Bon Jovi collection. I hope you enjoyed it and we still have one final ‘Crush’ related piece in the collection to review and that is coming next week. Until then, have a great day.
NEXT UP: BON JOVI – ‘THE CRUSH TOUR’ (2000) – DVD REVIEW
I can’t believe we are already to the 2000’s with Bon Jovi. Man, has this series been flying. However, we are no where near being done. We are now on the band’s 7th Studio album with ‘Crush’. After the band’s hiatus after the ‘These Days’ Tour, the band took some time to themselves and even released a couple of solo albums. But it was time to get back to work. Well, it was for Jon as he started planning to do a third solo, but that fell through because the band talked and it was decided it was time to start work on the next album.
Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres were ready to go so they planned on getting producer Bruce Fairbairn to handle the producing duties. However, that wouldn’t work out. Sadly, Bruce died in May 1999. The band decided to hold auditions for new producers, but they didn’t like anyone. They asked their old friend John Kalodner if he knew and new, up & coming producers that could help bring their sound in to the 21st Century and he suggested Luke Ebbin. And Luke helped do just that to amazing success.
The album was done and released on June 13, 2000 and it show up the charts thanks to the first single, “It’s My Life”. The album went to #9 in the U.S. and debuted at #1 in the UK which made it the fifth #1 album in the UK for the band. The album saw 3 singles and a fourth in Japan with overall sales reaching well over 4,000,000 copies which easily matched the success of previous albums for the band. Bon Jovi is one of the few bands to survive the 80’s and still see success in to the 2000’s. The album was nominated for a Grammy and Bon Jovi was back in a big way!
The copy of the album I have is the Japanese Edition with 2 bonus tracks and a bonus E.P. called ‘Live in Osaka’. We will talk more about that and the E.P. in the next post and stick to the main CD here. I do have the vinyl as well if you were wondering. You can see all of the Crush collection in the final picture. Let’s go ahead and get to the music.
We are starting out things a little different. We aren’t starting with the earliest Bon Jovi piece in the collection. We are going to start the Bon Jovi Collection Series with the piece that convinced me to start the series. I picked this up around Christmas of last year and when I had all the album on vinyl, I thought, let’s do it. I took some time filling some holes in the collection and arranging what I wanted to review and now here we are. Currently this collection is going to take some time as there are around 60 pieces to review so this will take over a year to complete so I hope you are along for the ride. We will save the history of the band and how it got started to later. For now, let’s look at this box set in all its glory.
The Box Set was released on February 10, 2017 and was released on both vinyl and CD. I chose the Vinyl collection as I love to have their albums on vinyl. The set carries all studio albums up to that point which means it stops at ‘This House is Not For Sale’. But that isn’t all, it has both Jon Bon Jovi solo albums as well as an “Extra” LP with a bunch of their international B-Sides which is a nice treat. But that is it. There no extra posters, stickers, booklets or anything. Each album though is remastered on 180g LP and the 16 albums are spread over 24 LPs. At the time this was released, 7 of the albums had never been released on vinyl and then you have the “Extra” LP which is the first time this had ever been released. So, for the vinyl collector this was the easiest way to get everything. Now, they did release the albums individually, well the Bon Jovi ones were, I don’t think I ever saw the Jon Bon albums ever in the stores…I mean ever.
For My Sunday Song #198, we are going with another deep cut and with a non-single song called “Just Older” off the band’s 2000 album called ‘Crush’. The album was kind of a comeback album for the band and the song “It’s My Life” brought the band back in to superstar status and whole new generation of folks got to know the band again and for the first time. However, it was songs like “Just Older” that made remember what a great write Jon was (with the help of Billy Falcon).
The song is pretty inspirational when you listen to those lyrics. It seems to be about two friends seeing each other again and reminiscing about old times, but the big difference is they have accepted the fact they are older and they have no regrets. The chorus really sums it up…
I like the bed I’m sleeping in
It’s just like me, it’s broken in
It’s not old – just older
Like a favorite pair of torn blue jeans
This skin I’m in it’s alright with me
It’s not old – just older
Being comfortable in your own skin is what it is really all about. When you are comfortable with who you are, you can appreciate everything around you. You can look back with no regrets and see all the positives. There is another line that hits home to and is also a throwback to another Bon Jovi hit…
I’ve kept my faith
Little lines like that make exploring their lyrics so much fun and what makes songs stick with you and stand out more than others. The little things to grab on to that feel like they are talking about you.
Formed in 1983, just a mere 35 years ago, Bon Jovi defined the 80’s music scene. They have since had 13 studio albums, 3 live albums, numerous compilations and even a box set. With so much music, some of course is bad, some is good, some is great and some is legendary. They have had line-up changes as most bands have had and yet the still keep rolling on. They have even made it in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Since there is so much about the band, they deserve to have their albums ranked from Worst to First. I am going to do all 13 of their studio albums, plus 1 compilation which I thought was a studio album, but apparently not…who knew. So, 14 albums in total will be coming at you. I hope you have time to get through all of them.
And as always, let’s start with my least favorite album and work our way to my favorite…so sit back and enjoy…
15. THE WORST – ‘THE CIRCLE’ (2009):
‘The Circle’ was supposed to be the band’s return to rock after a very Nashville based previous album, ‘Lost Highway”. The big problem for me with this album was the lack of credibility the songs had with me. They tried to return to a “working man” sound such as “Work for the Working Man”, but I didn’t believe it. It felt forced and fake. Nothing on this album resonated with me in the least bit. Even today, I can’t think of the names of the songs on this album. They were not memorable and just seemed stale and uninspiring.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 