I'll Be There for You on The Voice

All very true... but check out this BOR performance and vocal from 2013. Not horrendous
This last half of the tour killed Jon vocally without Richie to help him out but there were some good ones in the beginning.

I think a lot of it does just come down to personal opinion. I think Richie's version (I'm thinking of MSG 2008 as a reference) has just as much overall passion as Jon's, even purely in singing terms. What gives Richie's version the edge for me is his overall performance, to sing like that while playing is pretty awesome, plus his playing in that version is sublime. The natural harmonics after "as my broken heart lies bleeding" and the outro solo at the end are awesome. Just overall, I prefer Richie's performance.

You're spot on in your first sentence. For me, Richie just isn't a good enough lead vocalist to make it big. Dont get me wrong his voice is incredible, but he lacks that raw gritty passion that Jon used to have that made us all fall in love with this band. Obviously that's been dead for years now! But as I said in a previous thread there are only a select few songs that Richie nails live and they are his own and not Bon Jovi's

Come on, whether you prefer Jon's version of IBTFY or not, you can't see that Richie didn't nail this performance:

Or this one:

I saw both concerts and Richie was superb.

Not feeling it...

"Wanted to be your Valentine yine yine" around 2:10.... In addition, Richie just screams the song. Jon delivers it with passion.

And Jon singing with Richie on backing vocal works for me. Richie singing with Dave backing doesn't. I was never a fan of Dave's voice to begin with. I don't know what irritates me more, his voice or his hair.

This is how it should be done! Period!


Same line for Jon at 3:30... Wanted to be your Valentine...

And then the scream after "blow the candles out" is just chilling as one of Jon's signatures just enhances his passion.

I think Jon was sick during that show,he really looks bad and sounds off.Checkout the other performances from 89-90
Checkout this one
It's from a bonus track on KTF album.Love the way Jon says when you get drunk i'll be the wine, takes a small break and then continues the note.This is one of the best performances,the vocals are great,backing vocals are great,the guitar and bass are great.
The one thing I really like about Richie on IBTFY are his backing vocals .Let me show you a few performances

At 4:45 when he says Down down dooooooown.IMO this is one of Richie's best backing vocal performances...

5:32 When he says "Wasn't there to make you happy'' is another thing that I really like,but I couldn't find another performance where he sings that part in the same way...also Jon does a great scream in this performance,pretty similiar to the one in Philly 89.


And this performance has the best solo of all the performances imo.I literally have an eargasm when I hear this solo,i feel like it has so much emotion,just listen to it,around 3:34 he makes a squeak sound and after that goes in to the ''tanananana'' part(I hope you understand what I mean),which he doesn't do anymore and imo that ''tanana'' part is the best of the solo.

Anyways,I also prefer Jon as lead vocalist cause he has a unique voice,Richie too has a great voice but doesn't have that ''spark'' and plus Jon can adapt to different singing and music styles.Richie sings every song in a bluesy way which sometimes I find annoying,especially on LYHOM.

Sorry for the off-topic but did you have a chance to get home and get that Souls on Fire video from 2002-2003 in which Jon takes the lead on a verse?

Yep! All great versions that I'm extremely familiar with.

The Souls on Fire is just audio that I was going to throw on Youtube. No video. Being that u are the only one interested, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you the audio.

So strange how coincidentally some things happen. I'll Be There For You is now very important for me for what it means (not the lyrics) and we discuss it here in detail with some of the live versions...

Don't agree at all, Richie's version is absolutely bursting with passion. Ironic really - a criticism i've often heard levelled at Jon is that he's a bit shouty, especially pre-2000, something i have to agree with at times.

Although, I will admit that Richie's backing is pretty awesome in Jon's version, but the man can't do both