In the 1980s, harder rocking songs were dominating the airwaves and the newly premiered MTV. With their heavy drums, metallic guitar solos, and in-your-face riffs, these songs shared common themes of partying and girls. The glam-rock scene coming out of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, in particular, epitomized this quality. When Bon Jovi entered the scene in the early 80s, many of their songs fit this description. But as their songwriting took off, they began to look for inspiration in other places – namely their working-class backgrounds. And in 1986, in collaboration with songwriter Desmond Child, Bon Jovi released the hit that changed the game.
“Living’ on a Prayer” brought the hard-rock anthem to the people – with lyrics that spoke to a working-class human experience – and proved that songs that rocked could also mean something. It has become an iconic song that has remained a staple of classic rock radio, bars, parties and the band’s own live shows. Its rising, ringing chorus has brought together generations of listeners to sing in its resounding refrain.
The band Bon Jovi draws its name from its frontman, born John Francis Bongiovi Jr.. The singer grew up in New Jersey and started his first band when he was only 13 years old. Jon recorded his first tracks at the Power Station in New York, which was co-owned at the time by his cousin Tony Bongiovi, and was where Jon worked part-time. The band we now know as Bon Jovi came together in response to a single, written and recorded by Jon – “Runaway”
“Runaway” made its debut on the local radio station WAPP 103.5FM, “The Apple,” in New York. As the song’s popularity grew, Jon was offered a record deal. Keyboard player David Bryan was the first member of the band to get the call. Searching for that perfect gathering of like-minded musicians, Jon and David began calling other local musicians. This included bassist Alec John Such and drummer Tico Torres. At first, Jon’s friend Dave Sabo filled in on lead guitar, until the group found guitarist Richie Sambora. While they were looking for talent, the band was also looking for drive and commitment. Building on the success of “Runaway,” the band needed musicians who were ready to fully commit to the long road ahead. David Bryan recalled: “Jon got a record deal and the band was formed around that. The deal was in Jon’s name. Jon was signed to the label and we were signed to him. The cement was Jon. He always had that vision. He always saw the whole picture. As much as we were a band, he was the captain of the ship…But it was everybody’s efforts and everybody’s sacrifice that really made it work. You knew then and there, from all the other players you’d played with, that you had to have a certain heart and a certain amount of determination to sacrifice everything to make it. You give up everything.”
Bon Jovi was signed to Mercury Records and released their eponymous debut album on January 21, 1984. The album included “Runaway” (the band’s first hit single), and was moderately successful internationally. Touring provided another avenue for spreading their music as the band got opening slots for the Scorpions and Kiss. Their second album 7800° Fahrenheit was released shortly after, in 1985. While neither album was a massive success, both did well enough to keep the band’s hopes – and record deal – alive.
The album’s third album, Slippery When Wet, changed the game and brought the band unprecedented success. Part of that album’s new equation was the addition of a new songwriter to the efforts – Desmond Child. Desmond had been writing with KISS and other bands when he got the call to collaborate with Jon and Ritchie to create material for the band’s third album. Desmond had an idea for a title which then became the first song they wrote together – “You Give Love a Bad Name.” The song became the album’s first single and the band’s first number 1 hit. It was a hard-rocking track which reinforced the band’s heavy sound and reputation. However, it was the album’s second single, “Living On a Prayer,” which would become the band’s signature song, and which would reveal a working-class image and optimistic face of hard rock.
Prior to this, Bon Jovi had established their reputation in the vein of hard rock – tiptoeing on edge of heavy metal. In 1986, Dennis Hunt proposed in the Los Angeles Times that perhaps Jon Bon Jovi was to become heavy metal’s sexy Messiah, declaring that the genre “needs a young, handsome, macho singer who can electrify metal addicts but also has enough mainstream appeal to make the cover of People magazine. Mainstream acceptance, spearheaded by this Messiah, would also help break down the radio barriers that have been lethal to the genre.” And while the traits that Hunt saw as metal’s salvation would perhaps prevent the band from ever being accepted into metal’s ranks, they were also the qualities which found the hard-rocking common ground between metal and pop: not just good looks and polished performances, but an ability to tap into a universal human spirit – admired by many, but accomplished by few.
“Living on a Prayer” was the song that first tapped into that widespread potential and reminded the world that standing strong and living tough could be done with hope and optimism. The song’s opening builds layers of very David Brian synth-strings into a deep bass groove. Tico Torres’ drums and Richie Sambora’s voice-box guitar sound catapult the track into its iconic driving pulse. About 40 seconds into the track, Jon finally opens up the song’s narrative with a storybook intro: “Once upon a time…not so long ago…” Thus, in the midst of a rockin’ track, the band takes us into the world of Anytown, America…where your local couple, Tommy and Gina, are trying to make ends meet.
The opening verse sings:
Tommy used to work on the docks, union’s been on strike
He’s down on his luck, it’s tough, so tough
Gina works the diner all day, working for her man
She brings home her pay, for love, mmm, for love
The second verse extends the story and the couple struggles. Tommy has had to hock his guitar, and Gina cries at night as they comfort each other. The verses set up a familiar tale to many young people beginning their lives and trying to chase their dreams, while facing reality of work and paying the bills.
The pre-chorus and the chorus, however, offer the hope the song has become so known for:
We’ve gotta hold on to what we’ve got
It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not
We’ve got each other and that’s a lot for love
We’ll give it a shot”
Whoa, we’re halfway there
Whoa oh, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand, we’ll make it, I swear
Whoa oh, livin’ on a prayer
Desmond Child told Louise Goffin in 2020 that the song lyrics were built from an amalgamation of all of their experiences:
“The story of that song had our three stories woven through it. Jon Bon Jovi – working-class kid, tryin’ to do good, you know, with his six-string in hock. And that was so his story. And Richie too. For me, I lived in New York City with my girlfriend at the time, Maria Vidal. We were boyfriend and girlfriend for like four years while I was a NYU and then I had just started songwriting full-time and she was working at a waitress at a bar/restaurant called “Once Upon a Stove” and they had singing waitresses and waiters and she had her waiter-stage-name – Gina Velvet. So… ‘Gina works at the diner all day, working for the man, she brings home her pay for love.’ And that’s where those lyrics came from.
So when I was telling the story, my original name was Johnny Barrett, and I love alliteration, so it was ‘Johnny and Gina’ and Jon looked at me and said ‘It can’t be Johnny! That’s my name! Everyone calls me Johnny.’ And then…maybe it was Richie who said ‘well, how about Tommy…’ – so that’s how Tommy and Gina were born.”
One of the reasons this song is so powerful is the way it combines these meaningful lyrics with hard rockin’ instrumentals and Jon’s incredible vocals. The bass player at the time was Alec John Such and is credited on the album, but it’s commonly accepted that Hugh McDonald wrote the bassline and played on the final version. Richie Sambora’s guitar stands out for its use of a Talkbox effect, and of course his polished and yet expressive guitar. Tico Torres brings a powerful drum and percussion part that perfectly matches the different elements of the song. The nuances of the percussion part (such as the chimes during Bryan’s keyboard intro) are one of the ways the song sounds so polished. The way David Bryan’s keyboard is used in the song also helps it stand out from so much of the hair-metal of the time. We find a unique diversity of sound in the haunting synth strings, the way the rising bassline in the keyboard synth sets up the core tension of the song, and of course the pulsating chords throughout the song which has an underlying drive. All of these elements paired with Jon Bon Jovi’s powerful and expressive vocals brings the song’s storytelling to life. The melodic line contrasts between the verses and the chorus. The verses are characterized by descending melodies which require him to start in the tense sound of the upper register of his voice. The falling melody brings out the tension and hard-times depicted in the song’s lyrics and are in contrast to the chorus which has the rising “whoas”. The chorus provides the uplifting response to the problems presented in the verses
At first Jon wasn’t sure the song was the right fit for the band. The original demo didn’t have the powerful, anthemic sound that ended up being released on Slippery When Wet. You can hear it as a hidden track on the 2004 box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t be Wrong. During the “Runaway to Paradise” fan cruise, Jon revealed the reasons for his hesitation during a fan Q&A:
“Ultimately, the song was so unique. It didn’t sound like anything. You know, ‘Runaway’ had eight notes, like a lot of songs on the radio at the time. Even ‘[You Give Love a] Bad Name’ was reminiscent of other songs that were on the radio.
“‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ didn’t sound like anything. So, I was sort of indifferent. I thought, Well, it’s different, but is it a rock song? Is it us?”
Desmond has stated in multiple interviews that he and Richie had to literally get down on their knees to beg him to give it a second chance: “That song had a majesty, a kind of upward lift that just exuded hope. And at that time, Jon was thinking about making a more hard rock record. So when we wrote the song, he was a little bit… the song a bit sentimental. It’s a bit soft, and he said “I was hoping we could rock harder”. And Richie and I literally got on our hands and knees and begged him to record it. I mean, half joking, but half for real. Just record it! See what happens…”
With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see how the elements that made Jon wonder whether the song was the right fit for the band’s sound, are exactly the elements that made “Livin’ on a Prayer” stand out from the rest of hard-rock radio and transcend into a classic rock anthem for all time. The revised version of the song (the one that made it onto the record) is polished and tight. All the iconic elements – the synth introduction, the talkbox guitar effect, the deep, powerful bassline – came into the picture as the band worked with the producer Bruce Fairbairn.
Before his untimely passing in 1999 at age 49, Fairbairn recalled the moment they came up with the talkbox idea for Richie’s guitar: “We were digging around in Richie’s guitar effects box…I grabbed hold of this old tube and up comes this talk box, and I thought, ‘Stick this in, I haven’t heard one of these since the (Peter) Frampton album.'” Fairbairn was referring, of course, to Framptom Comes Alive, the best-selling live album from 1976.
All of these effects came together to create a unique sound – polished and yet hard-hitting – giving “Livin’ on a Prayer” the perfect makings of a hard-rock stadium anthem. “Livin’ on a Prayer” was the type of song to get a whole stadium of fans singing together. It builds and gathers its listeners in before exploding into the chorus.
“Livin’ on a Prayer” and the entire Slippery When Wet album were produced at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver in the first half of 1986. The album was released on August 18 that same year, and “Livin’ On a Prayer” came out as the album’s second single in October. On February 14, 1987, “Livin’ on a Prayer” gave the band their second consecutive number 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 – “You Give Love a Bad Name” had hit the milestone 3 months earlier. It was also an international hit, hitting the number 1 spot in Canada, New Zealand and Norway, and peaking in the top 5 in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
“Livin’ on a Prayer” brought a down-to-earth, common-man attitude to the age of hard-rock and hair metal. The December 13, 1986 Billboard review of the song declared: “metal muscle meets gritty reality in a tough, clanging rocker.” The song moved the sound of hard-rock away from the glittery glam metal of the sunset strip and to the roots-rock of Bruce Springsteen’s New Jersey. Much like Springsteen had a decade earlier, Bon Jovi was now addressing topics that mattered to people.
But more than just a hard-rocking track with lyrics that meant something….”Livin’ on a Prayer” became an anthem of hope. Further, it is an anthem that has transcended decades. In its excellent songwriting, it is also extremely adaptable – the song exists in different arrangements and formats that bring out different elements of its meaning and beauty. In 1994, the band rearranged a completely different version for their Cross Road album – calling it “Prayer 94.” In 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, the band performed an emotional, acoustic version of the song for New York – famously televised in the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes.
The harmonic colors, the melody, and the powerful lyrics allow “Livin’ on a Prayer” to reach audiences in a variety of arrangements, but the song has never lost its original meaning as a hard-rock anthem for the common man. It remains a staple of the band’s live shows and one of the 80’s most beloved and often-played songs – even four decades later.