Pre-Release
- 7 JUN 2024
- 12 Songs
- Slippery When Wet · 1986
- Slippery When Wet · 1986
- Cross Road · 1994
- Slippery When Wet · 1986
- Crush · 2000
- Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (Deluxe Edition) · 1992
- New Jersey (Deluxe Edition) · 1988
- New Jersey (Deluxe Edition) · 1988
- Forever · 2024
- Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (Deluxe Edition) · 1992
Essential Albums
- 1988
- The original cover of Bon Jovi’s third album featured a woman in a wet T-shirt with the words Slippery When Wet on the front, framed by a hot-pink border. Executives worried that stores wouldn’t sell the LP, so they made a change, swapping in a photo of a wet garbage bag with the title streaked in black. One image was meant to be fun and trashy (figuratively, at least), the other tough and stoic. That the band could pass as both spoke to what a massive phenomenon 1986’s Slippery When Wet became. They had enough of a taste of heavy metal to sound contemporary (“You Give Love a Bad Name”, “Social Disease”), but—compared to pin-ups like Poison and Mötley Crüe—they also felt like classic rock (“Livin’ on a Prayer”, “Wanted Dead or Alive”). They could tap into the nostalgia of a Skynyrd ballad (“Never Say Goodbye”) just as naturally as they could channel the swagger of a Rod Stewart rave-up (“Wild in the Streets”). And because they are, at heart, a pop band, they pull it all together with a seamlessness that makes you not care where they’re coming from in the first place. So, while a lot of their pop-metal peers ended up stranded on the last branch of an evolutionary tree, Bon Jovi and Slippery When Wet both resonate as products of their time and a step in the continuum of loose-letting, party-friendly rock—trash-bag-black and wet T-shirt contest alike.
- 2024
- 2020
- 2015
- 2009
- 2024
- 2024
- 2024
- 2021
Artist Playlists
- Celebrating 40 years as a band and a million faces rocked.
- The singer's magnetic charisma always commands the camera's gaze.
- Hard and heavy heartland rock for the working-class hero.
- “We need to come together so that this doesn't boomerang on us.”
- Pop-metal mavens and glammy power balladeers.
- There's no shortage of ferocious hard rock in their catalogue.
Live Albums
Compilations
Appears On
- Various Artists
More To Hear
- Thanks to a radio DJ, Bon Jovi got their start 40 years ago.
- This song is less about the date and more about the message.
- Richie Sambora tells the stories behind Bon Jovi’s biggest hits.
- Jenn reflects on 35 years of Bon Jovi’sSlippery When Wet.
- Zane and Jon revisit the rocker's biggest hits with the band.
- Jon Bon Jovi selects music and FaceTimes Zane.
More To See
About Bon Jovi
Everything about Bon Jovi is huge—the choruses, the sales numbers, the riffs, the arenas—and they earned their place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with explosive tunes that command singalongs. But when Jon Bon Jovi formed the band with guitarist Richie Sambora, bassist Alec Such and drummer Tico Torres in New Jersey in 1983, the biggest thing about them was their hair. They were a glammy pop-metal outfit who found themselves going from their local clubs to touring alongside Scorpions and Kiss on the strength of both their heartthrob looks and the 1984 Top 40 hit “Runaway” and its relentlessly catchy, New Wave keyboard line. With 1986’s Slippery When Wet, which broadened their arsenal with twangy power ballads (“Wanted Dead or Alive”) and working-class rock anthems in the Springsteen mould (“Livin’ On a Prayer”), they became MTV staples and global icons. As they aged ever-gracefully, Jon dabbled in acting—he had a recurring part on television’s Ally McBeal, among other roles—and the band continued reaching younger fans with 2000’s Max Martin-assisted “It’s My Life”, while later taking a stab at country on 2007’s Lost Highway, which featured guest spots from Leann Rimes and Big & Rich. But it’s the enduring lyrics of struggle and heartache and the eminently shoutable hooks that keep the fans coming in droves, whether or not they were alive for the days of spandex.
- ORIGIN
- Sayreville, NJ, United States
- FORMED
- 1983
- GENRE
- Rock