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Slippery When Wet

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Slippery When Wet is the third studio album by Bon Jovi released on July 18, 1986 (see 1986 in music). It is the band's most commercially successful album, selling over 12 million copies in the U.S.. 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". 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 15 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. The album has sold over 27 million albums worldwide.

Background

The album went through various name changes during its inception, with SWW 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 album's original title was "Wanted Dead or Alive", until Bon Jovi read a newspaper about a Los Angeles band that were gaining publicity and becoming famous around the city. Bon Jovi saw the name of the band and immediately thought it was a great name for an album. This meant that for a while during the development of the album the record was going to be called "Guns N' Roses" (the name of that band, for which Bon Jovi had similar success to in the late-80s, whose Appetite for Destruction album was similarly successful to this album).

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 first hard rock band to ever have two consecutive #1 Hot 100 chart hits.

Slippery When Wet was the first 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 spanwed five.

With Slippery When Wet, the band twice had the #1 single and the #1 album simultaneously, another hard rock first.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

A Dualdisc version of Slippery When Wet was released in 2005, featuring the album remixed in 5.1 surround sound and the music videos for "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Livin' on a Prayer," "Wanted Dead or Alive," "Never Say Goodbye" and "Wild in the Streets."

Track listing

Side One

  1. "Let It Rock" (Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora) – 5:25
  2. "You Give Love a Bad Name" (JBJ, Sambora, Desmond Child) – 3:42
  3. "Livin' on a Prayer" (JBJ, Sambora, Child) – 4:09
  4. "Social Disease" (JBJ, Sambora) – 4:18
  5. "Wanted Dead or Alive" (JBJ, Sambora) – 5:08

Side Two

  1. "Raise Your Hands" (JBJ, Sambora) – 4:16
  2. "Without Love" (JBJ, Sambora, Child) – 3:30
  3. "I'd Die For You" (JBJ, Sambora) – 4:30
  4. "Never Say Goodbye", (JBJ, Sambora) – 4:48
  5. "Wild In The Streets" (JBJ) – 3:54

Personnel

Singles

  1. You Give Love a Bad Name / Raise Your Hands
  2. Livin' on a Prayer / Wild in the Streets
  3. Wanted Dead or Alive / I'd Die for You
  4. Never Say Goodbye / Social Disease

Charting

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
1987 Livin on a Prayer The Billboard Hot 100 1
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
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