Jon Bon Jovi’s Jaw-Dropping Reaction to ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’
In the mid-1980s, Jon Bon Jovi was preparing for his make-or-break third album with his namesake band Bon Jovi. The album that would eventually be known as Slippery When Wet was still in the planning stages when Jon and Richie Sambora were introduced to songwriter Desmond Child. During their first meeting, Child handed Jon a song title that would launch the band into the stratosphere, “You Give Love a Bad Name.” Jon’s jaw-dropping reaction predetermined the tune’s mega-success.
Jon Bon Jovi had a surprise reaction to ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’
In an interview for Shout it Out Loudcast, Desmond Child recalled first meeting Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist and songwriter Richie Sambora. During that meeting, the genesis of one of the band’s biggest hits took place.
Child recalled, “I went to New Jersey to write at this little wooden house at the end of this cul-de-sac. Behind it was like the marshes that were in The Godfather, where Clemenza says, ‘Leave the gun, take the cannoli.'”
He continued, “So, I went into this little house—and that’s where Richie Sambora still lived with his parents. I walked in, and I made that left, and his room was actually on the right there on the ground floor. And I looked in, and there was a big Kiss poster, there was AC/DC, and a big poster of Farrah Fawcett in the one piece.”
The trio headed downstairs to Sambora’s basement. Child told The Tennessean, “Richie shows me downstairs to this forbidden kind of “Silence of the Lambs” basement. There’s this Formica table and a little electronic keyboard, kind of teetering, a space heater buzzing, and some amps buzzing.”
The songwriter continued, “I pulled out a little piece of paper from my back pocket—because I love going into a writing session with a title to start with—a ‘fetching title,’ so to speak.”
“So, the piece of paper said, “You Give Love a Bad Name,” I said it, and Jon looked at me, and his face lit up. He smiled – I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many teeth ever in my life. I said, ‘OK. That guy’s a star.'”
The song’s refrain was a song on Bon Jovi’s album ‘7800 Degrees Fahrenheit’
Desmond Child would go on to co-write several songs for Slippery When Wet. However, “You Give Love a Bad Name” would give Bon Jovi the shot in the arm it needed to get them to the next level as a band.
It appeared meant to be that Child sat down with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora that fateful day. The song that jumpstarted the band’s career was the first song written during that session.
Child told the Shout it Out Loudcast, “Jon had had a song called ‘Shot Through the Heart’ on his previous album, [7800 Degrees Fahrenheit], and that song sparked him to say “Shot through the heart and you’re to blame,” and then the three of us said, ‘You give love a bad name.'”
To The Tennessean, the songwriting hall of famer added, “One of the wonderful things that can happen is you walk into a room, and you have chemistry with people you’ve never met before. It just is instant. With me, Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora, we had instant chemistry.”
What other songs did Desmond Child write or produce for Bon Jovi?
Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora had a fruitful partnership that produced many top hits for the band, many of which appeared on some of Bon Jovi’s most popular LPs. They wrote and produced songs together for twenty years.
Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Desmond Child wrote “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Without Love,” and “I’d Die For You” for Slippery When Wet. For New Jersey, he co-wrote “Bad Medicine” and “Born to Be My Baby.”
Sessions for “Keep the Faith,” produced “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.” For the album These Days, the trio wrote “Hearts Breaking Even,” “Something For The Pain,” “This Ain’t A Love Song,” and “Diamond Ring.”
Child’s contribution for Bounce included “The Distance,” “Misunderstood,” “All About Lovin’ You,” and “Hook Me Up.” His work concluded with the band with the albums Have a Nice Day, in which he penned “Bells of Freedom” and the tunes “Brokenpromiseland,” “What About Now,” and “Army of One” for The Circle.
Desmond Child will discuss his work with Bon Jovi for the Hulu documentary Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. The four-part series debuts on April 26.
