You Give Love A Bad Name

"You Give Love a Bad Name" is a song written by Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child, and Richie Sambora about a nameless woman who has jilted her lover. Although originally written for the band Loverboy, the song was recorded by Bon Jovi. The track was released as the first single from the hard rock album Slippery When Wet and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 29, 1986, Bon Jovi's first number one hit. The song reentered the charts at #29 after Blake Lewis performed it on American Idol. In 2009 it was named the 20th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. Desmond Child said about the co-working on this song, "The very first day we got together we wrote 'You Give Love a Bad Name'. Then a few weeks later we wrote 'Livin' On A Prayer'. It was a magical collaboration and there was instant chemistry between us." This song was the first single from the album. It reached number-one position on the US Billboard Hot 100 having become the band's first number-one hit. Songwriter Desmond Child had written the song “If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)” for Bonnie Tyler, but was unsatisfied with its chart performance. So he brought the music to Bon Jovi and they rewrote it as “You Give Love A Bad Name”. It was released as the first single from the album Slippery When Wet and became Bon Jovi’s first of four #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a top 30 hit in several countries overseas including the UK. In 2009, “You Give Love A Bad Name” was named the 20th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. In a 2014 interview with The Tennesseean, Desmond Child said, Jon Bon Jovi had gotten my number from Paul Stanley, because they had been the opening act for KISS in Europe that year. This was 1985, I think. He talked me into coming to Jersey, so I had to rent a car, drive out there to this little wooden house. It was like the last house on the last little block. Behind it was a ginormous marsh, and at the end of the marsh, it was like Emerald City, it was an oil refinery. Healthy place to live, right? It was Richie Sambora’s parents' house, and that’s where he grew up. I had brought a title with me. We sort of sat around, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve got a title. It’s called 'You Give Love a Bad Name.’ [Jon] loved that. He had a title he loved, which was on his previous record, a song called ‘Shot Through the Heart.’ That’s how we opened it.