Bon Jovi: History
...Judas Priest, and the Scorpions, in order to build their fan base while preparing to make their third LP. (Friend 2) Jon hired songwriter Desmond Child to help in creating the third album, and recorded 30 songs; these 30 songs were then played for a group of New Jersey teens who decided which songs made the album. (Friend 2) The finished product, 1987’s Slippery When Wet, included three Top Ten singles, “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “Livin’ On a Prayer”, and “You Give Love A Bad Name”, and catapulted the band to superstardom, going on to sell more then 14 million albums worldwide. (Hindin 2) In the midst of their world tour, Bon Jovi recorded their fourth album, New Jersey, using the same formula with similar results: five Top Ten singles, and 8 million albums sold. Despite the enormous commercial success of these two albums, they were both panned by critics, called “slick, cheesy power metal…”(Iconofan 1) After three consecutive years of touring, the band went on a self imposed hiatus to pursue solo projects and rest from the road. (Hunt 8D) During the bands hiatus, Jon Bon Jovi released “Blaze of Glory”, the soundtrack to the 1991 movie “Young Guns II”. The album would go on to sell three million albums, have two Top Ten singles, and receive nominations from the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. (Erlewine 2) Richie Sambora also released a solo album in this time period. Stranger In This Town was released to excellent critical reviews, but didn’t do much commercially. (Dry County 2) With the musical climate changing from power metal to a more alternative sound, the band reconvened to record their next album. In the middle of the grunge explosion of 1992, Bon Jovi released their fourth Magras 3 album, “Keep The Faith“. “It’s all going down in a sea of grunge…” was Jon’s description of the music scene in 1992. (Justin 1E) Burnt by critics who resented Bon Jovi’s combination of their power ballad formula and a social conscience, Keep The Faith sold two million albums. (Coleman 168) While respectable in the era of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, it was enough for critics to write the band off as finished. The critics were answered in 1994 when Bon Jovi released a greatest hits collection, Cross Roads, which contained the Top Ten single “Always”. The album stunned everybody, selling twelve million albums, and breathing new life into the band, but provided more break up fodder with the firing of bassist Alec John Such in late 1994. (Andrea 2) Nearly two years passed before Bon Jovi released their next album, a darker work entitled “These Days”. The 1996 release moved one million copies, and coupled with Jon’s second solo effort “Destination Anywhere” failing to sell, the critics hammered what was thought to be the final nail in the coffin of the Bon Jovi legacy. (Brunner 47) Following “These Days”, another hiatus was taken by the band, with each member pursuing other projects. No one was sure what, if anything, to expect from the band. In 2000, four years after the commercial bust of “These Days”, Bon Jovi reemerged from nowhere with “It’s My L...