Unreleased Song Titles (Revisited)

I'm confused. Isn't that the one that started the whole "he was in the room" thing? He's credited, isn't he? Or do you mean that he should have been credited as writing it alone?

(Or am I totally missing the point? My brain is fried right now...)

I feel exactly the same... I asked if there is any demo for It's My life

Jon has said that, but we know that he likes to alter stories about songs to fit certain occasions (Superman Tonight, These Days, All Hail The King etc.).
And I'm pretty sure that he's even told the Max Martin story in two or three different ways - ranging from "he was in the room" to "he was there and helped on the melody" or something like that.

Here's my take on the story:
- Jon hated boygroups and pop acts around that time, just like Richie did. There was a comment from Richie, pretty snide, around that period trashing young bands who had either been casted or not been making music for a long time. And who could forget Jon's arrogant line on the Zurich DVD "you spend too much time with those boy bands, you got a MAN band up here tonight baby!"
- Max Martin was THE essential hit maker around that time, firing in number one songs for the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, Britney Spears and so on. But again, all pure pop acts.
- Until not long before the album's release, Say It Isn't So was reported to be the first single and there was not even a sign of It's My Life at the Webcast concert in February.
- I'm pretty sure the record company intervened since they didn't seem to have a smash hit at hand and they feared that Bon Jovi's comeback would tank. Which, let's face it, would've most likely been the case hadn't it been for It's My Life.
- Max Martin has always said that his true passion was rock music, so when he was asked to collaborate with Bon Jovi, he surely was more than happy to join in.
- I think he gave the band an almost finished song: beat, basic structure, melody etc. were all delivered to them. Of course, they surely added the talk box, the Tommy and Gina reference and the line "like Frankie said 'I did it my way!'", but other than that it was Martin's work. Simple reason: the song represents nothing else they did in that era (or in the years prior to that) and feels greatly unconnected to the rest of Crush. At the same time, it's strikingly similar to many hits from other bands in the few years prior mentioned above.
- Jon feared being linked to the then-current pop acts with Martin's name on the credit list, so they surely reached a (financial) settlement that allowed them not to list him and most likely made him tons of money as a countermove.

Well, then just send a PM. Maybe I can help you.

This is an interesting take for sure. For starters I always saw "you spend too much time with those boy bands, you got a MAN band up here tonight baby!" as very tongue-in-cheek as a way to get easy applause.

I go back and forth if the rest is dead on or not. Richie I believe has a song on ASCAP registered as "For All The Love Departed" rumored to be pre-2000. Between that turn of phrase, the Tommy and Gina, the talk box, Jon's constant telling of the Frankie story, it's tough to say who did what. Luke in interviews has mentioned how they took Tico's drum beats, put them into a sample and had him play over it and he would have no reason to lie about it being a song sent to them. That's a lot of band involvement so far.

The melody and structure does sound more like typical pop music than it does the band.

To resume: Thanks God that It's My Life exists.

If Bon Jovi is still doing untill today 1st one albuns (we know about the last trick but you got it), I believe that it's more related to it than Livin on a prayer and bad name.

ah C'mon man. It's not a demo. It's just some bad amateur instrumental mixed with some live vocal from Jon.

That's not a demo. It's an amateur band playing the studio track and Jon's live vocals ripped from the "Crush Tour 2000 Zurich" DVD dubbed on top of that.

already sent

The lyrics are a constant re-hash of other lyrics they used to have. Jon had a solo track called "I don't want to live forever" which, on top of all, also had the line "gonna live while I'm alive". I don't doubt for a second that the band had their hand in fleshing out the song, but Jon playing Martin's role down to "he just happened to be in the same room" is quite over the top since, as I stated, the basic structure and melody clearly seems to be from him.