Slippery When Wet
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| Slippery When Wet | |||||
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| Studio album by Bon Jovi | |||||
| Released | August 18, 1986 | ||||
| Recorded | Little Mountain, Vancouver, BC | ||||
| Genre | Hard rock, Glam metal, Heavy metal | ||||
| Length | 43:42 | ||||
| Label | Mercury 830 264 | ||||
| Producer | Bruce Fairbairn | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Bon Jovi chronology | |||||
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| Alternate cover | |||||
Original banned wet T-shirt cover
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| Singles from Slippery When Wet | |||||
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Slippery When Wet is the third studio album by Bon Jovi, released on August 18, 1986. It is the band's most commercially successful album, selling over 13.9 million copies in the U.S. and being named the top selling album of 1987 by Billboard. Today it stands as one of the six best selling hard rock albums ever, and spawned two #1 singles, "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer", making Bon Jovi the first Hard Rock band to have 2 consecutive #1 hit singles. The third single "Wanted Dead or Alive" was a Top 10 hit, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The fourth single, "Never Say Goodbye", the album's signature ballad, reached #28 on the strength of airplay alone. Slippery When Wet stayed at #1 for 8 weeks, the record for a hard rock album on the Billboard 200. The album is the band's biggest selling album in the USA and the world, having sold over 28 million albums worldwide, and is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
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[edit] Background
The album went through various name changes during its inception, with Slippery When Wet being the final title conceived. According to Jon Bon Jovi in a DVD interview on the box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong, the albums working titles were Wanted Dead or Alive and later Guns N' Roses when Bon Jovi read a newspaper article about then-upcoming Los Angeles band Guns N' Roses and wanted to name the album after them.
Jon Bon Jovi was initially reluctant to include "Livin' on a Prayer" on the album, believing that it was not a good enough song. Richie Sambora was convinced it was a hit single in the making, and so the band re-recorded it, releasing the second version on the final album. Ironically, it became the band's most popular and well-known song, and was the #1 song of 1987. The song is referred to in Bon Jovi's 2000 single "It's My Life" among other songs. The original demo, which Jon Bon Jovi thought was not good enough for the album, can be found as a hidden track on the band's box set.
With this album's singles, Bon Jovi was the 1st hard rock band to ever have two consecutive #1 Hot 100 chart hits.
Slippery When Wet was the 1st hard rock album to spawn three Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits. The band would go on to break this record with New Jersey, which spawned five.
With Slippery When Wet, the band twice had the #1 single and the #1 album simultaneously, another hard rock first.
The cover consists of a wet black bin liner with the words "Slippery When Wet" traced in the water. The album originally was to feature a woman in a wet yellow tee shirt with the album name on the front of the shirt. This original version of the cover was swapped for the wet plastic bag cover just prior to release, mainly due to the fact that Bon Jovi hated the pink edging to the cover. The exception is in Japan where most releases of the album do include the original cover art.
The track "Raise Your Hands" was featured in the 1987 motion picture Spaceballs. "Raise Your Hands" also remains a staple in Bon Jovi's live shows, being a stalwart on their recent Have a Nice Day Tour.
The German team handball club VfL Gummersbach often uses this song during their home matches when the players enter the field.
"Wanted Dead or Alive" is currently the theme song to the television show Wanted, Dog The Bounty Hunter, and a short section for the opening theme of Deadliest Catch and was in the 1991 film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.
"Wanted Dead or Alive" is credited with spawning the very popular MTV Unplugged series when Bon Jovi and Sambora appeared on the MTV Music Video Awards with just acoustic guitars and preformed it in front of the live audience.
[edit] Edge of a Broken Heart
One of the songs written during the making of the album was "Edge of a Broken Heart", which did not feature on the final version of the album but appeared on the soundtrack of Disorderlies. It became a Billboard Top 40 hit on airplay alone, and has since become a fan favourite, with the band receiving numerous requests to play the song live at their concerts. It has since been released on the band's box set, and featured on the special 2-CD edition of Cross Road.
Jon Bon Jovi has since said (from notes in the boxset booklet and on the boxset DVD (Disc 5)) that this track should have been on the album. Jon said "It was absolutely appropriate for the Slippery record - coulda, shoulda, woulda been on Slippery had cooler minds prevailed. Here's my formal apology." Jon also mentions that this was the same era when he thought "Livin' On A Prayer" wasn't a hit (see above) and he's never claimed to be a good A&R guy.
[edit] Track listing
- Let It Rock (Bon Jovi, Sambora) - 5:25
- You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child) - 3:44
- Livin' on a Prayer (Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child) - 4:09
- Social Disease (Bon Jovi, Sambora) - 4:18
- Wanted Dead or Alive (Bon Jovi, Sambora) - 5:08
- Raise Your Hands (Bon Jovi, Sambora) - 4:16
- Without Love (Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child) - 3:30
- I'd Die for You (Bon Jovi, Sambora) - 4:30
- Never Say Goodbye (Bon Jovi, Sambora) - 4:48
- Wild in the Streets (Bon Jovi) - 3:54
[edit] Special Edition Bonus CD
Japan Only Limited Edition
- Wanted Dead Or Alive (Live/Wembley 1995)
- Livin' On A Prayer (Live/USA 1987)
- You Give Love A Bad Name (Live/USA 1987)
- Wild In The Streets (Live/Wembley 1995)
- Borderline (Studio Outtake)
- Edge Of A Broken Heart (Studio Outtake)
- Never Say Goodbye (Live Acoustic Version)
[edit] DualDisc
In 2005, Slippery When Wet was re-issued as a DualDisc. This released supposedly to celebrate the albums 20th anniversary the following year. The CD side containing a newly remastered version of the album, and the DVD side containing the same album in its original stereo mix, plus a slightly expanded Dolby 5.1 Surround version. The expanded album included additional elements many of the songs, in some cases increasing their runtime. The audio material is playable through a DVD-Audio player and standard DVD Players. The DVD side also included all 5 promo videos from the album:-
- You Give Love A Bad Name
- Livin' On A Prayer
- Wanted Dead Or Alive
- Never Say Goodbye
- Wild In The Streets
The DualDisc was released on September 20, 2005, the same release date as Have A Nice Day.
[edit] Samples
[edit] Personnel
- Jon Bon Jovi – lead vocals
- Richie Sambora – guitars, guitar synths, backing vocals
- Alec John Such – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Tico Torres – drums, percussion
- David Bryan – keyboards, piano, synthesizer, various noises, backing vocals
- Bruce Fairbairn – percussion, horn, producer
- Bob Rock – engineer / mixer
- Tim Crich – assistant engineer
- Tom Keenlyside – horns
- Bill Levy – artwork
- George Marino – digital remastering engineer
- Hugh McDonald – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Lema Moon – horn
- Mark Weiss – photography
[edit] Singles
- You Give Love a Bad Name / Raise Your Hands
- Livin' on a Prayer / Wild in the Streets
- Wanted Dead or Alive / I'd Die for You
- Never Say Goodbye / Social Disease
[edit] Chart positions
[edit] Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | The Billboard 200 | 1 |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | You Give Love a Bad Name | The Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| 1986 | Wanted Dead or Alive | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 13 |
| 1986 | You Give Love a Bad Name | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 9 |
| 1986 | You Give Love a Bad Name | UK Singles Chart | 14 |
| 1986 | Livin' on a Prayer | UK Singles Chart | 4 |
| 1987 | Livin' on a Prayer | The Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| 1987 | Wanted Dead or Alive | UK Singles Chart | 13 |
| 1987 | Wanted Dead or Alive | The Billboard Hot 100 | 7 |
| 1987 | Livin' on a Prayer | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 1 |
| 1987 | Never Say Goodbye | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 11 |
| 1987 | Never Say Goodbye | UK Singles Chart | 21 |
| Preceded by Fore! by Huey Lewis & the News |
Billboard 200 number-one album October 25 - October 31, 1986 January 17 - March 6, 1987 |
Succeeded by Third Stage by Boston |
