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No one knows metal better than Lucas Aykroyd, author of 1984: The Ultimate Van Halen Trivia Book and reviewer for the Georgia Straight, Classic Rock, and Exclaim! Here he picks the five best pop-metal LPs from the decade time forgot Click to view Top 5 Eighties Heavy Metal LPs.
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Best For Choruses (Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet) |
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 When the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics included Bon Jovi playing "You Give Love A Bad Name" many of the 55,000 spectators in Salt Lake City and millions of TV viewers worldwide sang along. It was a perfect indication of how the choruses from the band's 1986 breakthrough album have stood up over time. |
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The New Jersey-based quintet made a solid impression in the then-burgeoning heavy metal scene with their self-titled 1984 debut and 1985's 7800 Fahrenheit. But despite modest hits like "Runaway" and "In And Out of Love", Bon Jovi were about $2 million in debt to PolyGram Records prior to making Slippery When Wet. At 24, Jon Bon Jovi was not only a charismatic, photogenic frontman, but also savvy enough to realize that his band's songwriting and production had to take another big step forward to gain a worldwide following.
Adding producer Bruce Fairbairn and tunesmith Desmond Child to the mix proved to be key decisions. Fairbairn had made a name for himself with bands like Loverboy and Blue Oyster Cult, and his work on Slippery When Wet would springboard him to further success with Aerosmith, the Scorpions, and Van Halen. Child, who had a brief career as a 70s rock artist, was best-known at the time for collaborating with KISS on such singles as "I Was Made For Loving You" and "Heaven's On Fire". Not coincidentally, both those songs featured big, instantly memorably choruses. |
Let It Rock |
| When they all got together in Fairbairn's native Vancouver, Canada for the recording sessions, magic ensued. "Let It Rock", the album opener, quickly establishes the hugeness of this enterprise. |
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 A Bach-style organ introduction from keyboardist David Bryan morphs into the kind of anthemic "whoa-oh" refrain that would become a Bon Jovi trademark, underscored by a pumping bass line and jubilant, hard-hitting guitars (including an extended, shredding solo by Richie Sambora). The chorus of "Let it rock, let it go/You can't stop a fire burning out of control" might not look like Shakespeare on paper, but it's delivered with such kinetic conviction that you can't help wishing you were striding the city streets in search of a good time with Jon and the boys. It may only be an album track, but it's one of the best the band ever recorded.
"You Give Love A Bad Name" is an even better example of Bon Jovi's knack for big choruses. An acappella gang rendition of the title hook launches this number forcefully, with Bob Rock's engineering prowess making those voices sound monumental. Decrying a femme fatale, this song even has a pre-chorus ("Whoa oh oh, you're a loaded gun" etc.) that outstrips most of its pop-metal competitors for catchiness. Alec John Such's four-string work on this track also shines. Co-written with Child, "You Give Love A Bad Name" became Bon Jovi's first No 1 hit.
Could things get any more ebullient? They certainly could, courtesy of "Tommy and Gina," the fictional working-class New Jersey couple whose struggles to make ends meet are emotionally described by Jon in "Livin' On A Prayer." Sambora incorporates a talk box effect into his opening riff for the song, and much like "You Give Love A Bad Name," the feeling builds up toward an explosive chorus. During the final, repeated fade chorus, Bon Jovi pulls off arguably the most successful modulation in pop history (that is, lifting the melody up one key), with Jon screaming out the lyrics ecstatically. Thanks again in part to Child's input, this ditty also topped the charts.
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Larger Than Life |
The fact is, there isn't a single chorus on Slippery When Wet that doesn't rate between "good" and "excellent". "Wanted Dead Or Alive" is a classic power ballad that exploits the rocker-as-cowboy metaphor better than any group since Bad Company, and it also cracked the Top 10.
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 The driving "Raise Your Hands" is made for stadium-sized audiences "from New Jersey to Tokyo," as Jon belts it out. Whether reminiscing about high school romance ("Never Say Goodbye") or pledging his troth Romeo-style ("I'd Die For You"), Mr. Bon Jovi emerges as a larger-than-life character.
The band toured furiously behind Slippery When Wet and became a ubiquitous MTV presence. To date, 25 million copies of the album have been sold worldwide. Even though Bon Jovi has released six studio records since then, gradually adopting a more mellow pop-rock sound, this chorus-laden platter will go down in history as the band's finest hour. |
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