Hello, Fellowship Family. So in today's video, I am bringing up a topic that I bring up constantly in my day to day life. Half because I agree with it and I'm very passionate about this argument and half because it bugs people and it's kind of fun to see their, you could see the gears turning in their head. And that argument before I just bury the lead is well, Bon Jovi's song, living on a prayer is the greatest love song of all time. Now that probably just annoyed a few of you by hearing that because well, me saying greatest is subjective. It's relative. And honestly, if you look at just Bon Jovi's catalog alone and just from that era, you could go, well, what about never say goodbye? What about Always Bed of roses to go into the early two thousands? What about you wanna make a memory you had me at Hello, Real Love, which is a bonus track from 2016, painting pictures of you from 2013. All these different songs now. Yes, those songs are great. Don't Get Me Wrong. That is my favorite part of Bon Jovi now. For anyone who has never encountered the Fellowship of the Much Obliged, I'm a diehard Bon Jovi fan. So I love me some sappy romantic Bon Jovi songs. But all those are like the feelings and how you feel in the moment. Living on a prayer is the greatest love song because of the story it tells.
Now it's not just off of the story, so let me give you some stats. So, living on a prayer spent two weeks at number one on mainstream rock tracks charts from January 31st to February 14th, 1987. Now, I find it funny that it charted into Valentine's Day. This sappy romantic love song charted into Valentine's Day. It then also right after that spent four weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 from February 14th to March 14th right after that.
It's super well known. God I love this song. Now to get into the meat and potatoes of the argument to circle back to what I was saying at the start. It's not about the feeling of this is how I feel about you right now that makes it so romantic. What makes it so romantic is the story it tells because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I say to you, it matters that my actions prove what I'm saying to you. I would rather be the person that says I love you, but the woman knows I've loved them through actions that I have done for weeks and months prior to that than just the I love you. But, there's no actions to show it. You're just saying it and you have to hope that she believes you with no proof to back it.
So to get to the story, here's the fun part about the story. So the song was written by three separate people. It was written by John Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child. And it's a very, it's a real, they all went into it apparently with an idea. And here's a quote from during an access Hollywood clip from a few years back of Jon Bon Jovi talking about that, of how it came from just a feeling.
"You know, the truth is it sometimes songs fall out of the sky. I like doing what you can. For instance that I wrote myself recently, the collaborative effort happened on living on a prayer and I co-wrote that with Richie Sambo and Desmond Child. The three of us didn't have anything when we walked in the room. Just ideas about what we were feeling for the album.
When we walked out of there that day, having created that song. I honestly remember saying to Richie, yeah, it's OK. I think we should give it to that soundtrack that they're asking us for a song and he said you, are you out of your mind? And I, I, I, I get it, but I don't get it. And in truth, it was such a unique song especially. Well, even now it didn't sound like anything on the radio. It didn't sound like anybody else or anything else. And of course, you know, it's it's one of our cornerstones, one of the biggest songs that we'd ever written. but it fell out of the sky It was written in its entirety in a day and, you know it'll be mentioned in my obituary someday."
So this song just came from a feeling and blew up, became something massive, but there's more to it before I start analyzing the lyrics there's more to it because in a lot of interviews from the last few decades, John Bon Jovi points out at least in his shoes.
He was basing Tommy and Gina off of this real couple he knew. And it's really, really sweet and it gives the story way more context. But so here's another quote from a TV clip from I believe in 1987 of Jon Bon Jovi discussing the song on MTV
“I had a couple of buddies of mine that used to think we were gonna rule the universe. What happened one day is as we got out of high school, one of them got a scholarship to go play baseball. And me, I was in the bars playing writing songs and he got a phone call one day, his girlfriend, she said she was pregnant. Now you had to hang up those cleats tire the base for glove. And all these years later, I guess all he has left is that dream. So like a long distance dedication. The names have been changed to protect the innocent for anyone who ever felt like Tommy Gina.”
So now we know it started off as something tiny, it blew up, had a ton of success. But then with the story John in his eyes based off of his buddy who from that clip, I just played John openly admits the buddy had to pack up his dreams and provide for his family now to get into the actual lyrics. The whole beginning opens up, sets the scene Tommy's a dock worker union's giving them no pay because they're on strike. They're living off of Gina's waitress paycheck. That's not much at all. So then later when they're talking in the pre chorus “we've got to hold on to what we 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.” And the whole course goes into, they're halfway there. They're living on a prayer. Take my hand will make it, I swear.
So this is my basis of the argument of why this song is the greatest love song of all time. Because at the end of the day, they have no money they're struggling to get by. All they have is a waitress paycheck their love for each other and their hopes and prayers in tomorrow. That's all they got. And that's all they need. And I love this song because of that because personally, I have the mentality of if I had to choose, I would rather know I was gonna die in two weeks and live in a cardboard box But have love then be successful and well off and not have to worry about a thing.
This song is just so sappy to me and just the values of it of, I don't care about me. I care about you and the love for each other and the whole song they're going back and forth those the first verse or the first set of verses, it's Gina wanting to get away, wanting to get away from the life that they have and Tommy consoling her. And the second verse set of verses, you can argue. It's the other way around because it talks about how Tommy and his guitar and it, he, they, they sum up of like that packing up the dream, that baseball dream to support the family, to support love.
It's the, I love you. I am making this work because I love you no matter the sacrifices because at the end of the day, we have each other and that's all that matters. What we lost, what we gain, none of that matters what matters is at the end of the day the two people have each other's back and love each other and know that the other will never leave.
All these things they proved their point very, very well because Tommy and Gina, they became the everyman for people you hear it and go oh I'm Tommy or, I'm Gina, or that's the relationship you want and you idolize. And so many people fell in love with that song to the degree that 14 years later when it's my life came out. Bon Jovi has a lyric in it of “for Tommy and Gina who never backed down,”. Still just circling back to that general message of just fighting for what you believe in and, and it's my life It's very, arguably a that whole song is I'm sticking it to every Doubter, all of the people that tell me I can't do what I need to or want to do. And it gives that whole thing a different message just by hucking that in of everyone's doubting the relationship everyone's doubting their love. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
Everyone else going. Oh, they can't pay their bills all, all of these things, all of these negative, negative things because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because they have each other. That's all that matters And now I've rambled a ton and I hope I've gotten my point across and part of this ramble is just because I absolutely love this band. Like the favorite band of all time and it just, they bring me so much joy and I needed to get this argument out.
-Smokey