Writers: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Desmond Child
Producer: Bruce Fairbairn
Recorded: Spring 1986 at Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia
Released: Fall 1986
| Players: | Jon Bon Jovi — vocals, guitar Richie Sambora — guitar, vocals Alec John Such — bass, vocals David Bryan — keyboards Tico Torres — drums |
| Album: | Slippery When Wet (Mercury, 1986) |
The first single from Bon Jovi's third album, “You Give Love A Bad Name” was a breakthrough success, reaching Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 and Number 14 on the U.K. pop chart.
The song was one of the first co-written by group leader Jon Bon Jovi and singer-guitarist Richie Sambora with song doctor Desmond Child, who said he initially “got a lot of resistance. Jon didn't want to try those new rhythms. He thought it sounded too Michael Jackson. It took a tremendous leap of faith for him to let that in.”
Sambora remembered that “Jon, Desmond Child, and I were sitting there talking, and the title was the first thing that came up. Jon said something like, 'How about “You Give Love A Bad Name?”' and I said, 'Ah-hah!' I think the riff came in next. We wrote the chorus first with the riff, put in the verses and that was it. It took one day.”
Producer Bruce Fairbairn recalled that Bon Jovi knew the song would be a hit from the time the trio wrote it: “I remember Jon picking me up at the hotel. (He) said, 'Man, last night we nailed this song that I think is a smash.' The title sounded great right off the bat. When the band learned it and we listened to it, it had a real good feeling because of the changes and the chorus. It had that accessible (feel) to it. We worked it from there, building up the big vocal parts that made the song special.”
The Slippery When Wet album was similarly successful, spending a total of 15 weeks at Number One on the Billboard 200 and reaching Number Six in the U.K.
The video for “You Give Love A Bad Name” won the best stage performance trophy at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards.