Songoftheday 7/10/19 - This Romeo is bleeding but you can't see his blood, it's nothing but some feelings that this old dog kicked up...

"Always" - Bon Jovi
from the album Cross Road (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (six weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 29

Today's song of the day comes from the pop-metal group Bon Jovi, whose fifth studio album Keep The Faith may have not sold the numbers of their two previous hugely successful records Slippery When Wet and New Jersey, but still managed to spin off three top-40 pop hits in America with "In These Arms", "Keep The Faith", and the top ten ballad "Bed Of Roses". Furthermore, three more tracks from the album reached the top-20 in the UK (making a total of six), with half of those making the top ten in that country. They also nabbed another top ten hit in the UK (#7) and Ireland (#6) with "Please Come Home For Christmas" from the Very Special Christmas 2 charity holiday album (and originally credited to just lead singer Jon Bon Jovi). The band went on a massive worldwide tour behind the album, and to fill in space on the radio, released their first greatest hits album in 1994, including two previously unreleased songs. The one that would become the first single from the album, "Always", was a straight ahead love power-ballad, and would also be the last single with bass player Alec John Such before he left the band at the end of the year...

"Always" became Bon Jovi's tenth and to-date last top ten pop hit (not counting Jon's solo work) in December of 1994. The song also climbed to #4 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart as well. Internationally, the single was a big success, spending five weeks at #1 in Canada, two weeks on top in Ireland, three weeks in Belgium, as well as a week in Switzerland. "Always" also reached the runner-up spot in the UK, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Poland, and made the top ten in Austria (#3), Finland (#3), Germany (#4), and New Zealand (#4).

The other new track on Cross Road, "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night", which featured hew bassist Hugh McDonald, wasn't released commercially as a single in the U.S., but worldwide was a respectable hit, going to #4 in Finland, #6 in Ireland, #7 in the UK, and #10 in Australia, and was a top-40 success in Switzerland (#11), the Netherlands (#17), Canada (#18), Norway (#20), Belgium (#26), and Germany (#37).

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Here's the band on their tour in 1995...