You Give Love a Bad Name

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007)

"You Give Love a Bad Name"
Single by Bon Jovi
from the album Slippery When Wet
B-side	"Raise Your Hands"
Released	July 1986
Format	CD Single
Recorded	1986
Genre	Glam metal
Length	3:42
Label	Mercury
Writer(s)	Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child
Producer	Bruce Fairbairn
Bon Jovi singles chronology
"Silent Night" (1986) "You Give Love a Bad Name" (1986) "Livin' on a Prayer" (1986)

"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^{[citation needed]}, 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.^[1]

Song structure

The song was written with several catchy repeated lines and associated hooks to appeal to mainstream audiences including the chorus as well as several bridges.

The album version of the song ends with the title being repeated until it fades. However, in the Guitar Hero 5 version, the song ends with a concert-style ending. This is also the same for Livin' on a Prayer, which the Guitar Hero World Tour version ends in a similar style.

Music video

The music video for the song used all-color concert footage (the only all-color video song from Slippery When Wet) and Soteria photogenic shots primarily of Jon Bon Jovi as well as other band members in concert. This video, along with Livin' On A Prayer, was filmed at Rochester's Mayo Civic Center.

Other versions

In 1989 Bananarama did a live version of this song during their World Tour.

The song was also covered by the metalcore band Atreyu and is available on the Japanese Version of their 2004 album The Curse. It was covered on the Kerrang! CD, High Voltage. It is frequently played during their shows even though it was voted one of the years biggest rock atrocities in Total Guitar.

In 2005, Polish singer Mandaryna released a version of "You Give Love a Bad Name" as the second single from her number one album mandaryna.com2me. The song reached #1 on the Polish Singles Chart.

Jonathan Fin covered this song, but, talking about how Barry Bonds gave baseball a bad name. The line, "shot through the heart and you're to blame, you give love a bad name,' was changed to, "Shot in the ass before the game, you give baseball a bad name."

Some critics say that the song has the same chorus structure as "If You Were A Woman And I Was A Man" by Bonnie Tyler. ^[2] The Tyler song was also cowritten by Desmond Child. There is also a remix called "Shock From The Heart" with a new rapper named Famouz. Desmond Child has stated that the song is effectively a reuse of the musical structure of the earlier song. ^[3]

Demi Lovato performed a version of the song during a concert at the Wiltern Theatre in December 2008.

In pop culture

Ranked Number 20 in VH1's "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs".

This song is also played several times by the character Barney Stinson on the CBS TV Show "How I Met Your Mother" in Episode 11 of Season One (The Limo). It is the first song on his '"Get Psyched" Mix'.

In the popular game Warcraft 3, the Night Elf Archer unit will quote after multiple mouse clicks, "Shot through the heart, and I'm to blame."

The song was used in the commercial of a 1995 Kia Pregio. (released in South Korea). [1]

The song was made playable in the music video game, GuitarFreaks 6th Mix/Drummania 5th Mix, as well as Lego Rock Band, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, and Guitar Hero 5.

This song was played on a recorder by the character Dwight on the NBC TV Show "The Office" in Episode 4 of Season 4 (Money).

On Australian music TV channel MAX, it was name #131 on their top 1000 80's vs. 90's countdown over easter weekend 2009.

In Thunderbolts #131, Black Widow shot Deadpool in the chest. After examining the hole, Deadpool dropped to his knees and sang the chorus.

References