The Success of Bon Jovi's Album "Slippery When Wet"

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You will be hard pressed to find someone over the age of 25 that has not heard at least one song by the band out of New Jersey, Bon Jovi. The band got together in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey, made up of lead singer, Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist, Richie Sambora, keyboardist, David Bryan and Drummer, Tico Torres. Since the formation of the band, they have been making music for 30 years.
Before 1986, Bon Jovi released two albums: Bon Jovi(1984) and 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit(1985). They were able to build a pretty steady fan base from these two albums, though these albums did not have as much success in the mainstream rock market as their third album, Slippery When Wet.
Slippery When Wet, was the third album released by Bon Jovi. The release date was August 18, 1986 on Mercury Records. This album is the best selling album for the band, having over twelve million sold in the United States alone! The album also went on to be number twenty-one on the list of best selling studio albums of all time.
The first track is “Let It Rock”. This song was written by Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi. This song is up tempo and, like most songs on this record, has interesting sound that comes from the use of the keyboard. The song starts out with a keyboard solo, and then the other instruments join in harmony establishing the beat and tempo. Electric guitar makes use of distortion to add some interest to the riffs and solos. The song is a verse/chorus organization and is also an endless loop with the music fading out in the end of the five minutes.
The second song is “You Give Love A Bad Name”. This song opens with just the vocals proclaiming, “Shot through the heart and you’re to blame, darling you give love a bad name.” Next, the instruments com...

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...ack is up tempo, featuring the guitar, keyboards and drums. It is a verse/chorus tune that makes great use of all rock elements. This was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Garland Jefferys. With the intro and end of the song instrumental, the harmony between the instruments is very important. The execution by Bon Jovi on this track was exactly right.
Slippery When Wet has to be one of my favorite albums ever! I think many of these songs have had the ability to speak to the generations that have come after the initial release. It is rare to find a CD that you want to listen to all the songs back to back, but this is one of them. The new generations are hearing the new releases from the band, but I know many are going back and listening to this album, which in reviews on the Bon Jovi website, it is being called “epic”. This is exactly how I feel about all of these songs.

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