Richie is the sole reason for Bon Jovi world acclaim.

And that sums it up perfectly for me - thanks.

Absolutely, Prayer became their anthem but any of the Slippery songs could have been the same following Bad Name.

Imagine, a world where Social Disease was released instead of Prayer...

You say that like its a bad thing. The song might not be favorable here but the fact remains that back in 1987, it was a solid song and still is today. It's not a song that would get released as a single but it's a solid rock song that helped define the Slippery mania.

I'd love to hear Jovi do it live. Its an ageless song that could fit in any post slippery album up to Have A Nice Day.

Definitely a key moment in history, but I think Desmond helped Richie in convincing Jon to include in on the album. I also think with or without it they would've still been a damn big band.

Not for me. To me, it's probably the most dated of the songs off Slippery (although NSG is also up there).

I also could not see Social Disease on Keep The Faith or These Days.

What if LOPrayer replaced hmm Game Of The Heart? What if "Game Of The Heart" would be realised as a single and became 2x bigger hit as LOPrayer? So then we can say that Richie is the reason why Bon Jovi lost their biggest single hit (probably their first #1 in UK, Grammy Award ecc).
I can say it could be true but just because of Richie we never know...

I would also not include demo of LOPrayer on SWW. When they re-worked it song became a lot better.
And LOP it's not their only hit. We all remember that Richie don't want part "Like Frankie said" and I think it's very catchy and important part of IMLife.

All these 'what if' scenarios are just getting rhetorical right now. What if Jon wasn't born and his brother Tony was the lead singer?

Things do happen for a reason and the stars were lined up for Bon Jovi in 80s. Jon was born to be a rock star and Richie, his musical soul mate. End Of Story

I think his point went over your head