Can Anyone Tell Me About Bon Jovi History?

Hi. One way to answer your question is to type Bon Jovi in search engines like google, yahoo or this site. Press search.

Naturally, what you see are mostly positive. Don't dwell much on that, look at the negative and learn something from it...

I know they started in 1986. My first year of high school. I remember well how popular they were back then. They were consider a rock band or hard rock band back then. They still sound really good to me.

Well, I could write a book about Bon Jovi, but I don't think you're asking for such detailed information, so I'll try to keep it short.

John Bongiovi's always loved music, since he was a little kid. At 7 he was given his first guitar as a gift, but he just threw it down the stairs 'cause he didn't really know what to do with it. As a teenager he found out exactly what he wanted to do with it, which was making a career out of it and become a star. That's when he started playing in bars on school nights (sleeping very little), gaining his first taste of fame. Between his teens and twenties, he started working at the recording studio owned by his cousin Tony Bongiovi, that was the time when he started recording his own stuff on his spare time and when he got to know some music celebrities, most of them wooing them to pursue his dream. He was reported saying the bigger the stars were, the nicer they were.

During this time, he recorded what is now considered the first Bon Jovi song ever made: "Runaway". The song was actually Jon's creation, but of course it was included in the band's first album as well. The song was sent to a radio station for a contest of which winners got their song released on a compilation album promoted by the radio itself. The most successful song out of the album was indeed "Runaway", there were a lot of radio requests and such, so much that many record companies contacted Jon willing to make him sign a record deal. He signed with Polygram Records on July 1st, 1983. Of course, now that things were getting really serious, he realized he needed a band. David Rashbaum (who then changed his name into David Bryan) has been there by his side since the beginning being a friend of his, so the keyboard player position really wasn't a problem. Alec John Such (the former bass player) came next, suggesting Tico Torres at the drums. At first, playing guitar for them was Dave "Snake" Sabo (Skid Row's guitarist later on), but he wasn't really the band's cup of tea, so he was replaced right away with Richie Sambora. The band was complete now. The band name was given after John, who also changed his name to Jon Bon Jovi.

Their first record was released in 1984 and it was called "Bon Jovi". Sales didn't really go well, except for Japan, where the band became popular right away. Same thing happened with their second album, released in 1985, "7800° Fahrenheit". Bon Jovi literally outdid themselves with the release of their third album in 1986, called "Slippery When Wet". It was their most successful album, and surely one of the most popular album of all time. Exact numbers about sales cannot be found, but according to most sources, the album sent approximately 26 million copies worldwide; this kind of numbers would make ANY star pass out in disbelief.
I'm not going to list all of their albums, but I just wanted to arrive to this point where they finally obtained the attention and love they deserved.
For their fourth album "New Jersey", released in 1988, I cannot keep myself from reporting about the follow-up tour, nicknamed "The Tour Without End". The tour, in fact, was made of 236 shows in not even 2 years. No need to say that after the tour was over, the band was literally exhausted to say the least.

They were not only tired of working, but tired of each other. They'd been living together like a family, only there was little rest or no rest at all, and they were phyically too close even for a family... too often, too much.
That's when every one of them decided to dedicate their efforts to some work on their own. Jon made the "Young Guns II" soundtrack (and he appeared for a few seconds in the movie as well) in 1990, Richie released his first solo album and David did the same. Tico had probably already started his painting career as well.
1990 is usually referred to "the gray period" by Jon, because he had a personal crisis due to the realization of the presence of dirt in the music business. He eventually got over it, and it was reported the song "Radio Saved My Life Tonight" (released on the band's 2004 Box Set) is about this period and it looks like happening to listen to a certain song on the radio (it was never said which song) literally "saved his life", getting him out of his crisis.

Now, I've just realized I AM writing a book, even though my intention was otherwise... Well, I'm almost done.

The band took a short break after the release of "Keep The Faith" (1992) and "These Days" (1995). Their next album came out in 2000, it's called "Crush".
The album is considered a milestone just as "Slippery When Wet", not much for the sales (which were good, but not AS good), but mostly because of what both albums represent. "Slippery When Wet" made them popular to the world, "Crush" gained them a lot of newer, also younger, fans.
A live album was released in 2001, called "One Wild Night: 1985-2001", followed by the release of "Bounce" in 2002. What was meant to be an acoustic album actually became a "greatest hits... with a twist", as written on the cover its cover. The title is "This Left Feels Right" and it's an incredible and original experiment in which some of their most famous hits were reinvented with a new sound and feeling to them. This album is a "love it or hate it" work. Jon's always felt like the majority of fans didn't like it, and he's never taken it too well. My opinion? I think fans just never understood the intent of the band with this album. People think Bon Jovi wanted to IMPROVE their hit songs and "ERASE" the original versions somehow, someway. Reality is Bon Jovi just wanted to experiment and give a new feeling to their most famous songs which we love so much and, of course, will never forget for what they were "born" like.
2004 was yet another milestone reached for them. 20 years of activity and still going strong, if not stronger. To celebrate this achievement, a box set was released, called "100,000,000 Fans Can't Be Wrong...", referring to the number of sales up to that year, being also a tongue-in-cheek reference to Elvis' album "50,000,000 Fans Can't Be Wrong". The covers of the albums were also very similar, as a funny tribute to the King, but Elvis' record company didn't like it one bit, and the Bon Jovi's box set's cover was changed just a little bit to avoid any other conflicts.
"Have A Nice Day" was released in 2005. The album came with a huge promotional job behind it, thanks mostly to what became the famous business mind of Jon Bon Jovi. He created the well-known "smirk" logo (also knows as Joe V. after a contest held by the official fan club for fans to decide the smirk's name). The logo was and still is all over the place. You can find it sticked on cars, painted on walls, printed on shirts: it's everywhere. A lot of business deals were held at the time too.

Speaking of Jon's business mind, how could I not mention his football team and his charity involvement? He's been working with Habitat For Humanity and Project H.O.M.E. to provide houses to those who don't have one and fight homelessness, he also worked with stylist Kenneth Cole to promote action to help others; his football team, the Philadelphia Soul, is involved too with the Philadelphia Soul Charity Foundation. Have I forgotten to mention he's great friends with Bill Clinton and Al Gore, just to name a couple?

But let's go back to the band and the music. Their latest album was released this year and it's called "Lost Highway". The album is often mistakingly referred to as "Country", due to some misunderstandings of Jon's words", but reality is, as Jon always explains, this is a Bon Jovi album influenced by Nashville (the city where most if not all of the songs were written and, if I remember right, also recorded).
Bon Jovi are touring right now, so make sure to grab a couple of tickets!

What to say, I didn't mean to write a novel, but I did. It's important to say that I left out A LOT though. If I were to write everything that came to my mind, it would take me months. But I'm sure this is enough for you to play with for now. If you need any clarification or anything, you can send me a PM or reply here. I hope my post was useful and not too boring to you, but Bon Jovi's history can't really be boring, now can it?

Bon Jovi is a hard rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Fronted by lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi, the group originally achieved large-scale success in the 1980s.

Bon Jovi formed in 1983 with lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, bassist Alec John Such, and drummer Tico Torres. Other than the departure of Alec John Such in 1994 (which pared the lineup down to a quartet), the lineup has remained the same for the past 23 years.

After two moderately successful albums in 1984 and 1985, the band scored big with Slippery When Wet (1986) and New Jersey (1988), which sold a combined 19 million copies in the U.S. alone, charted eight Top Ten hits, and launched the band into global superstardom. After non-stop touring, the band went on hiatus after the New Jersey Tour in 1990, during which time Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both released successful solo albums. In 1992, the band returned with the double platinum Keep the Faith and has since created a string of platinum albums throughout the 1990s and 2000s, also expanding their musical horizons, combining rock with such genres as pop, adult contemporary, and country. The band has also been credited with inspiring the MTV Unplugged series with their famous sit-down acoustic performance at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.

In 2006, the band won a Grammy for best Country Collaboration for "Who Says You Can't Go Home" with Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland and also became the first rock band to reach #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart with the same song. They have also been nominated twice for the smash hit "It's My Life" and two songs from the album Bounce, "Misunderstood" and "Everyday".

Throughout their career, the band has released ten studio albums, of which nine have gone platinum. In addition, the band has charted 19 singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, four of which reached #1 ("You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' On A Prayer", "Bad Medicine", and "I'll Be There for You"). The band also holds the record for the most weeks for a hard rock album at #1 on the Billboard 200 with Slippery When Wet, as well as the most Top 10 singles from a hard rock album, with New Jersey, which charted five such singles.

Over the past 23 years, Bon Jovi has sold over 120 million albums worldwide, 34 million in the United States alone.