Bon Jovi

 In the beginning of '80s, the US rock scene was looking for new stars and in New Jersey, John Bongiovi was one of young talented musicians who saw the great opportunity. His cousin Tony Bongiovi owned the Powerstation studios in NY and John assembled a group of young musicians to record his first single, 'Runaway'. It managed to get local airplay in NY and this single soon became something like a cult hit. Later, John got together with four more musicians to establish his band: Richie Sambora - the guitarist, Tico Torres - the drummer, Alec John Such - the bass player, and David Bryan - keyboard expert.

The band, called Bon Jovi, also gained experience on the road together with ZZ Top and their recorded their first album, simply called 'Bon Jovi'. The album was released in 1984, and recorded in Warehouse Studios, Philadelphia. "Runaway" hit the charts and brought the album to the gold status (50000 copies sold). It was released also in UK by Phonogram Records, proving that major success for the band is only matter of time.


In 1985, the band recorded their second album - '7800 Farenheit' (the title coming from the temperature inside a volcano during eruption), containing songs as "In And Out Of Love" and "Tokyo Road". However, this album was not as successful as was expected to be.

One of the first career highlights of the band was to appear at the first Farm Aid charity event in USA, together with such stars as Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

Then, the recording of the third album began. Canadian Bruce Fairbairn was brought in as producer replacing Lance Quinn, and the songwriting team was expanded - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and new member, Desmond Child, who was working with Aerosmith and Kiss. This record, 'Slippery When Wet', was something like absolute success for Bon Jovi. The album featured major chart toppers - "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Living On A Prayer", "Social Disease", "Wanted Dead Or Alive", and "Never Say Goodbye". Even in the UK, where entertainment is really a throat-cutting business, the album was a success.

In September 1988, the next album was released - 'New Jersey' - a mixture of rock and romance. The album contained enormous hits "Bad Medicine", "Lay Your Hands On Me", "Living In Sin" and "I'll Be There For You". Sales were lower than with 'Slippery', only 8 million. The band really believed in this album - the evidence is major promotional tour - from London via Moscow to Los Angeles. The Moscow Music Peace Festival is one of BJ's greatest moments.

BJ became one of the world's most successful rock'n'roll bands, playing to 4 million people in 1989 alone and selling 25 million albums 1985-89. But, the band were exhausted and had to take a break.

During these years off, Jon recorded his solo soundtrack album for the 'Young Guns II' film - "Blaze of Glory"(Feb 1990). By late 1993, "Blaze Of Glory" sold over 3 million copies and the title track was a big hit worldwide. Jon also established his own record label, Jambco. Richie also recorded his first solo effort - 'Stranger In This Town' album (Sep 1991), featuring Tico, David and Eric Clapton. Some songs were written before BJ even got together.

In 1992, the band regrouped and spent 6 months recording 'Keep The Faith', the album released in November 1992. The album contained really big variety of songs and 5 hit singles: "Keep The Faith", "I Believe", "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead", "In These Arms" and "Bed Of Roses". However, the centerpiece of album, "Dry County", written by Jon, never got as much sympathies as it deserved. This album was not promoted by a world tour, but by a series of short stints. The 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' tour kicked off in Phoenix, AZ on Oct 8th 1992 and ended on 31st December 1993.

BJ's next memorable moment was 10th Anniversary, celebrated with 'Cross Road - The Best Of' album, released in 1994. The album contained 13 old classics and 2 new songs - "Always", worldwide single hit and "Someday I'll be Saturday Night", the single with MTV-banned video. The title 'Cross Road' was indeed symbolical - Bj had to decide which way to go.



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