Songoftheday 1/31/15 - An angel's smile is what you sell, you promise me heaven then put me through hell...

"You Give Love A Bad Name" - Bon Jovi
from the album Slippery When Wet (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day comes from the band Bon Jovi, who started out pretty modestly compared to the rock juggernaut they would become, with their debut album doing respectably but just scraping the top-40 with their breakthrough single "Runaway" in 1984. After a second single, "She Don't Know Me", almost did the same, the group released a another album a year later, and while the full-length set reached the top-40, none of the songs did so.

With their third album, Slippery When Wet, the two biggest factors to making the big leagues are the hiring of "song doctor" Desmond Child to help write the album, and Canadian Bruce Fairburn to produce (he previously helmed Loverboy's successful sets). For their first single, Child brought in the melody to a chorus for a song he wrote for Bonnie Tyler, "If You Were A Woman", and basically laid new lyrics on it. Here's Bonnie's record, which was a top-10 hit in France...

So, here's Bon Jovi with lead singer Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora's contribution...

So there.

"You Give Love A Bad Name" was a record the band needed, shooting up to #1 on the American pop chart in November of 1986, while peaking (surprisingly) at #9 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single reached the runner-up spot in Canada and the Netherlands, top-10 in Belgium, and #14 in the UK.

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Here's the band live in 1988 in Japan...