Songoftheday 6/9/22 -This ain't a song for the broken-hearted, no silent prayer for faith-departed...

 

 

"It's My Life" - Bon Jovi

from the album Crush (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song comes from the rock band Bon Jovi, who after touring behind their sixth studio album These Days in 1995, their first without bassist Alec John Such (who just passed this week), took a long break. Leader Jon Bon Jovi released a second solo album Destination Anywhere in 1997. The record didn't do anywhere near the numbers the group did, reaching #31 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, while lead single "Midnight In Chelsea", which wasn't released as a single commercially, stopped at #57 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 Airplay chart. (To be honest, it's quite dreadful.) However, the song was pretty big overseas, topping the Spanish chart and becoming a top ten hit in Finland (#2), the UK (#4), Switzerland (#5), Hungary (#6), Austria (#8), and Germany (#9). A second song from the record, "Queen Of New Orleans", scored a second top ten hit in the UK at #10, starting a revival for the singer and his band in that country that would continue for a decade. Guitarist Richie Sambora also released a second solo album, Undiscovered Soul, in 1998, which went to #174 on the Billboard 200 and landed a top-40 Mainstream Rock radio hit with "Hard Times Come Easy" (#39), which also made the top-40 on the British Singles chart at #37.

 

In 1999, Bon Jovi, Sambora, Tico Torres, and new bass player Hugh McDonald reunited for a song for the Ron Howard-directed spoof movie EdTV, "Real Life" (keyboardist David Bryan was still recovering from a bad accident). The track didn't hit the American singles chart, but reached the top-40 in the UK, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria.  

 

The following year, Bryan returned for the band's seventh studio set Crush. The lead single from the record was "It's My Life", written by Bon Jovi and Sambora with Swedish pop uber-producer Max Martin, and produced by the bandmates with Luke Ebbin. The production recaptured the bright chunky guitar hooks they made famous with their work with Desmond Child and Bruce Fairbairn in the 80's. The lyrics even name-check Tommy and Gina from their signature song "Livin' On A Prayer", with a sense of urgency without exactly the plot depth of their earlier work. Nevertheless, it seemed like a return to form, and with Martin's "keep it simple" chord-change magic and the vocoder back in play, Bon Jovi found themselves back on American radio...

"It's My Life" returned Bon Jovi to the American Hot 100 top-40 for the first time since the summer of 1995 (with "That Ain't A Love Song") in September of 2000. The song spent a half a year on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio format chart, just missing the top ten at #11. Internationally, the single was massive, topping the charts in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium (#1F/#6W), Switzerland, Portugal, and Romania, and reached the top ten in Germany (#2) ,Sweden (#2), Denmark (#2), Iceland (#2), the UK (#3), Norway (#3), Greece (#3), Australia (#5), Ireland (#5), Hungary (#5), and Finland (#6). The Crush album, released in June of that year, peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200, spending 51 weeks on the chart and going on to sell over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2001, "It's My Life" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Rock Performance, losing to U2 for their "Beautiful Day", while Crush was up for Best Rock Album, which the Foo Fighters took home for There Is Nothing Left To Lose. 

The second single from Crush was "Say It Isn't So", written by Jon with former SOTD artist Billy Falcon. While it was another big hit internationally, reaching the top ten in Australia (#9), Belgium (#4W/#45F), and the UK (#10), it was passed over by radio here in the States. That was followed by the ballad "Thank You For Loving Me", which was a moderate hit on "easy listening" radio, hitting #15 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart and #22 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, but stalled down at #57 on the Hot 100. Meanwhile, it was a decent hit overseas, making the top-40 in Belgium (#6W/#17F), Portugal (#6), the UK (#12), Italy (#14), Spain (#14), Austria (#14), Ireland (#19), Finland (#19), Norway (#20), the Netherlands (#24), Germany (#25), Switzerland (#26), and Australia (#34). Bon Jovi will be back to the series, but it'll be another long wait.

(7/10)

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Here's the band performing "It's My Life" on the British show CD:UK promoting the album...

...and in 2000 on the Howard Stern Show...

Next up, the group touring behind the album...

They performed "It's My Life" at the Live 8 charity concert in 2005...

and lastly, at the concert for Sandy Relief in 2012...

Up tomorrow: This upright band is selectively religious.