Slippery When Wet

For the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina roller coaster, see Soak'd.

Untitled

Slippery When Wet is the third studio album by Bon Jovi, released in August 1986 by Mercury Records. Slippery When Wet was an instant commercial success. The album features songs that are today considered as Bon Jovi's most well-known tracks such as "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive". It spent eight weeks at number one on Billboard 200. Slippery When Wet is the band's best-selling album to date, with over 12 million copies sold in the United States and over 28 million copies worldwide and received diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. It was named the top selling album of 1987 by Billboard, and is currently the 21st best-selling studio album of all time. The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Background

Despite the respectable moderate success of 7800° Fahrenheit, Bon Jovi weren't becoming the superstars they had hoped, and they changed their approach for their next album. Hiring professional songwriter Desmond Child as a collaborator, the group wrote 30 songs and auditioned them for local New Jersey and New York teenagers, basing the album's running order on their opinions. Bruce Fairbairn was chosen as the main producer of the album, with Bob Rock as the mixer. They recorded the album at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Writing and composition

Much of the album's content was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, except "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer", and "Without Love" which were co-written by Desmond Child. Desmond Child was brought in by the record company to help write some of the songs along with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. This was the first time Child worked with Jon and Richie. He came to New Jersey, where they worked on this in the basement of Sambora's mother's house.

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 one of the band's most popular and well-known songs. 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 2004 box set, 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong.

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. It was first released on the soundtrack to the 1987 movie Disorderlies and has since been released on the band's box set as well as 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.

Album name and art

The album went through various name changes during its inception including "Wanted Dead Or Alive" (an album cover was produced with the band dressed as cowboys, the artwork was later used for the single release of the track of the same name), 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 album's working titles were Wanted Dead or Alive and Guns N' Roses; later the band decided to name the album Slippery When Wet after visiting strip clubs in Vancouver.

The cover consists of a wet black garbage bag with the words "Slippery When Wet" traced in the water. The album originally was to feature a busty, 34DD 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 Jon 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.

Commercial reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Piero Scaruffi
Robert Christgau	B−
Allmusic
Rolling Stone	(unfavorable)

The album became a massive success commercially. Between 1986 and 1987, Slippery When Wet produced an amazing string of hit singles, including three Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits, two of which ("You Give Love A Bad Name" and "Livin' On A Prayer") reached #1, making Bon Jovi the first hard rock band to ever have two consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 chart hits. Slippery When Wet also was the first hard rock album to spawn three Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits. The album also had impressive staying power, with 38 weeks inside the Billboard 200 Top 5, including 8 weeks at #1. Slippery When Wet was the best-selling album of 1987 in the United States, and eventually reached Diamond certification by the RIAA and current sales stand at 12 million copies, making it the 48th best-selling album in the United States. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, becoming Bon Jovi's first number-one album in United States. Over eight months after its release, Slippery When Wet was certified seven times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for 7 million U.S. shipments.

In the UK, it peaked at #6, spent a total of 107 weeks inside the Top 75, 23 of them on the Top 20. It became Bon Jovi's biggest-selling studio album in UK, achieving over 1 million copies sold, and receiving a 3x Platinum certification by the BPI. The album also achieved diamond status in Canada and six times platinum status in Australia.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Let It Rock"	Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora	5:25
2.	"You Give Love a Bad Name"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Desmond Child	3:44
3.	"Livin' on a Prayer"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child	4:09
4.	"Social Disease"	Bon Jovi, Sambora	4:18
5.	"Wanted Dead or Alive"	Bon Jovi, Sambora	5:08
6.	"Raise Your Hands"	Bon Jovi, Sambora	4:16
7.	"Without Love"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child	3.30
8.	"I'd Die for You"	Bon Jovi, Sambora	4:30
9.	"Never Say Goodbye"	Bon Jovi, Sambora	4:48
10.	"Wild in the Streets"	Bon Jovi	3:54

1998 Japanese special edition bonus CD PHCR-90015/6

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
11.	"Wanted Dead or Alive (Live/Wembley 1995)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora
12.	"Livin' on a Prayer (Live/USA 1987)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child
13.	"You Give Love a Bad Name (Live/USA 1987)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child
14.	"Wild in the Streets (Live/Wembley 1995)"	Bon Jovi
15.	"Borderline (Studio Outtake)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora
16.	"Edge of a Broken Heart (Studio Outtake)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora
17.	"Never Say Goodbye (Live Acoustic Version)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora

2010 special edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
11.	"You Give Love a Bad Name (Live/USA 1987)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child
12.	"Livin' on a Prayer (Live/USA 2008)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora, Child
13.	"Wanted Dead or Alive (Live/Wembley 1995)"	Bon Jovi, Sambora

DualDisc

In 2005, Slippery When Wet was re-issued as a DualDisc. This released supposedly to celebrate the album's 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.

Personnel

• Jon Bon Jovi – lead vocals
• Richie Sambora – guitar, backing vocals, talkbox on "Livin' on a Prayer"
• Alec John Such – bass, backing vocals
• Tico Torres – drums, percussion
• David Bryan – keyboards, piano, synthesizer, 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
• Lema Moon – horn
• Mark Weiss – photography

Charts

Album

Charts	Peak Position
Australia	1
Canada	1
Finland	1
Germany	11
Japan	10
New Zealand	1
Norway	1
Sweden	3
Switzerland	1
Netherlands	2
United Kingdom	6
United States	1

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
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

Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA – USA	Gold	October 15, 1986
RIAA – USA	Platinum	October 15, 1986
RIAA – USA	2x Platinum	November 6, 1986
RIAA - USA	3x Platinum	December 9, 1986
RIAA - USA	4x Platinum	January 6, 1987
RIAA – USA	5x Platinum	January 20, 1987
RIAA – USA	6x Platinum	February 19, 1987
RIAA – USA	7x Platinum	April 27, 1987
RIAA – USA	8x Platinum	August 21, 1987
RIAA - USA	9x Platinum	November 29, 1989
RIAA - USA	10x Platinum	October 21, 1993
RIAA - USA	11x Platinum	November 18, 1994
RIAA - USA	12x Platinum	October 10, 1995

See also

• Bon Jovi discography
• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in the United States