Songoftheday 3/23/15 - Tommy used to work on the docks, union's been on strike he's down on his luck, so tough...

"Livin' On A Prayer" - Bon Jovi
from the album Slippery When Wet (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the New Jersey hair-rock kings, Bon Jovi, who made it to the big time with their third album Slippery When Wet, which scored the guys a #1 pop hit with "You Give Love A Bad Name" in the fall of 1986. But it was their second release from the album that would become the song people would remember them first for. "Livin' On A Prayer", written by Jon Bon Jovi along with band guitarist Richie Sambora and "song doctor" Desmond Child, mined the "everyday man" storylines like those of Springsteen and Cougar but added a slick faux-metal sheen produced by Bruce Fairbairn highlighted by the most memorable use of the talkbox in rock music since Peter Frampton...

"Livin' On A Prayer" went to #1 on Valentines' Day in 1987, spending a month on top of the American pop chart (eventually tying George Michael's "Faith" for most weeks at #1 that year). The record also topped the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Canada and New Zealand, and top-10 in Britain, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain (it stopped at #20 in Germany). Most recently, thanks to Billboard fekaka new chart rules, a "viral video" which had the song playing in the back allowed it to re-enter the top-40 in America at #25 in 2013.

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Here's Bon Jovi performing the song live in 1987...

..and again on their New Jersey tour in 1989 in Russia...

For their 1994 Cross Road hits collection, the band reworked the song into a trippy modern rock exercise...

...and back to rockin' in out at Wembley in 1995...

Bon Jovi appeared on VH1's Unplugged show and again slowed "Livin' On A Prayer" down...

In 2010 at the height of Glee-mania, the TV musical comedy cast did a "mash-up" of this song with the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up", and nabbed another top-40 pop hit in the U.S. (#31), the UK (#39), and Canada (#22)...

Finally, here's the Jersey Boys live in 2008...

And as an added bonus, here's Cristina Scuccia, the nun who won The Voice Of Italy, covering the song last year...

Up tomorrow: A song for Nicole.