Slippery When Wet

Background

Despite the moderate success of 7800° Fahrenheit, Bon Jovi had not yet become the superstars they had hoped. This made them change their approach for the next album, going for a more mainstream sound than their heavier first two albums. Hiring professional songwriter Desmond Child as a collaborator, the band wrote 30 songs and auditioned them for local New Jersey (including recording artist and Phantom's Opera vocalist Colie Brice) and New York teenagers, basing the album's running order on their opinions. Bruce Fairbairn was chosen as the main producer for the album, with Bob Rock as the mixer. The 1985 album Without Love which Fairbairn produced for the band Black 'n Blue, attracted Jon Bon Jovi for its sound quality, and he immediately sought out the producer.

Writing and composition

Much of the album's content was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, except "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Livin' on a Prayer," "Without Love" and "I'd Die For You" which were co-written with Desmond Child. Child was brought in by the record company to help write some of the songs along with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. This was the first time Child worked with Jon and Richie. He came to New Jersey, where they worked on this in the basement of Sambora's mother's house.

Jon Bon Jovi was initially reluctant to include "Livin' on a Prayer" on the album, believing that it was not a good enough song. Richie Sambora was convinced it was a hit single in the making, and so the band re-recorded it, releasing the second version on the final album. It became one of the band's most popular and well-known songs.

One of the songs written during the making of the album was "Edge of a Broken Heart", which did not feature on the final version of the album. Jon Bon Jovi has since said that this track should have been on the album. He said "It was absolutely appropriate for the Slippery record - coulda, shoulda, woulda been on Slippery had cooler minds prevailed. Here's my formal apology." It was first released on the soundtrack to the 1987 movie Disorderlies and has since been released on the band's box set as well as the special 2-CD edition of Cross Road. It was also on the B-side for the Livin' on a Prayer single. The song has never been performed live by the band, despite being a favorite among the hardcore fan-base.

Title and artwork

The album went through various name changes during its inception including Wanted Dead Or Alive, an album cover was produced with the band dressed as cowboys, owing to Jon's growing cowboy fetish. The artwork was later used for the single release of the track of the same name), with Slippery When Wet being the final title conceived. According to Jon Bon Jovi, the band decided to name the album Slippery When Wet after visiting The Number 5 Orange Stripclub in Vancouver. According to Richie Sambora, "this woman descended from the ceiling on a pole and proceeded to take all her clothes off. When she got in a shower and soaped herself up, we just about lost our tongues. We just sat there and said, ‘We will be here every day.’ That energized us through the whole project. Our testosterone was at a very high level back then."

The cover consists of a wet black garbage bag with the words "Slippery When Wet" traced in the water. The album originally was to feature a busty woman in a wet yellow T-shirt with the album name on the front of the shirt. This original version of the cover was swapped for the wet plastic bag cover just prior to release. The reasons most often given for the switch were record execs' fears that the dominant record store chains at the time would have refused to carry the album with a sexist cover, or Jon Bon Jovi's complaint that the record company had put a bright pink border around the photograph that the band had submitted.

In Japan, most releases of the album did include the original cover art.

Release and reception

The album became a massive success commercially. Between 1986 and 1987, Slippery When Wet produced an amazing string of hit singles, including three Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits, two of which ("You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer") reached No. 1, making Bon Jovi the first hard rock band to ever have two consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 chart hits. The third single "Wanted Dead or Alive" peaked at No. 7, making Slippery When Wet the first hard rock album to spawn three Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits.

The album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming Bon Jovi's first number-one album in the United States. The album also had impressive staying power, with 38 weeks inside the Top 5 of Billboard 200, including 8 weeks at No. 1. Slippery When Wet was the best-selling album of 1987 in the United States, and eventually reached Diamond certification by the RIAA and current sales stand at 12 million copies, making it the 48th best-selling album in the United States.

In the UK, Slippery When Wet received a 3x Platinum certification by the BPI. The album also achieved Diamond status in Canada, and 6x Platinum status in Australia.

The album was ranked 44th in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the Definitive 200 albums of all time.

DualDisc edition

In 2005, Slippery When Wet was re-issued as a DualDisc. The CD side contained a newly remastered version of the album, and the DVD side contained the same album in its original stereo mix, plus a slightly expanded 5.1 surround sound version. The expanded album included additional elements within many of the songs, in some cases increasing their runtime. The audio material is playable through a DVD-Audio player and standard DVD Players. The DVD side also included all 5 promo videos from the album:

The DualDisc was released on September 20, 2005, the same release date as Have A Nice Day.

Personnel