What Is Your First Bon Jovi Memory?

Well, since you asked...I even have the exact date at hand. I took it upon myself to dig out my old diary from 1985, which, amazingly enough, contains a paragraph about the first time I heard Bon Jovi. It happened on November the 2nd, when I was listening to a rock program on the radio (there were no *shock and horror* rock channels in Finland back then.) They played Runaway, a song my best friend had heard some time earlier and she had mentioned to me more than once how great it was. Sadly, she had not yet managed to get it on tape and on that particular weekend she was out of town altogether, hundreds of miles away from her tape recorder! I took pity on her and taped the song myself so she would at least be able to listen to it on my tape. (Boy, does one realise how much technology has advanced when reading this, lol! Music (illegaly obtained, I mean ) just wasn't as readily available for us back then...)

Anyway, my first impression of the song wasn't very positive as I write that it's "not all that special, really", though I do continue with "of course, it could be a song that one learns to like the more one listens to it." And that proved to be the case as later that day I write: "Goodness me, Runaway was played for the SECOND time on the radio today -***** (my friend) will be really mad now! Oh, btw, it did turn out to be the kind of song that grows on one after many repeated listens. I've listened to it and Y&T's Do You Know Me by turns the whole evening." Heheh, and as I predicted my friend was indeed beside herself when she came back home and discovered what she had missed. She then proceeded to lounge at my place for the next two or three weeks and play my tape to death, which eventually made me really sick of the song!

I fell in love with it all over again the next year, though...

The first time I ever heard Bon Jovi I was 11 or 12 and my sister had the radio on in the kitchen and was singing along with this song. I asked her who it was because I was already into rock n roll. She said "Its Bon Jovi." and I remember thinking, God what a weird name for a band. But I loved the song which was Bad Name. Prayer had not even been released yet (Im really showing my age here!) Bought the tape two days later and the rest is history!

Saw the video for Something for the pain in 1995 when i was 11, and liked the song and also instantly liked Richie's looks.

Have a few intermittent memories ... first one was probably circa 1993 or so, heard Bad Name on the radio in the car and thought it sounded awesome, although this was way before I was particularly into music of any sort and I had no idea who it was by

Next time was probably a year or two later, heard Someday I'll Be Saturday Night while eating dinner at a friends house .. the lyrics caught me because they reminded me, for some reason, of a computer game called Eternal Champions where all the characters are various people who've died and been given a second chance at life. Again, I had know idea who it was by, and spent the better part of 7 years unsuccessfully trying to find out

Then in 2000 I started properly getting into music and watching the music channels a lot, so I saw the It's My Life video many times ... it was, as I've said before, Tommy jumping off the bridge and rolling under the lorry in that video that really caught my attention, more so than the music. Then, on a hot summers day, I was round a mate's house, and he'd bought the single and was telling me he really liked it, and I started to quite like it, but not really that much (*sigh* that was also the day I first saw Tremors ... I love that film!). For Christmas in 2000 i asked for the Now That's What I Call Music 47 compilation CD, and listened to about the same 6 or 7 songs on it over and over again ... most of them being pop songs, but one being It's My Life. Then in 2001 some other friends of mine just happened to start talking about Bon Jovi, and saying "They're pretty good, I want to pick up a best of of theirs", and I'd never really thought about it before, but I found myself saying "Yeah, me too!" I downloaded some songs, my friend bought One Wild Night, which I listened to (and how impressed was I that both Bad Name and Saturday Night were on there?) then bought myself, then when my birthday came in October my aunty, who is a longtime fan, bought me These Days, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Wow, that was long, sorry about that!

In the alfa romeo sprint of my bf, summer, driving fast and something on the radio which was GREAT !!! i knew this band but i don't know it was the first time i was feeling something like that with one of their songs. It was really strong. My bf wanted to put his tape of Kate Bush and i nearly shouted No !!! lol. Not sure which song it was thought. It was in 88 or 89 not sure, but a long time ago, cause now Bon Jovi on french radios ... no ...... never lol.
Back home i asked my mum's bf at this time as he had loads of very very good vinyls (Deep Purple, hendrix, the Stones, Led Zep etc ) if he knew Bon Jovi, and of course he knew them and since then each bday he buys me something relative to Bon Jovi

1992. I heard KTF on the radio and thought "oooooh, me likey!". I was 11 at the time and as soon as I could save enough money I ran out and bought the music cassette. I think I lost the poor thing meanwhile but I'd played the heck out of it anyway. lol

Not to me, I was 10 when Crush came out, 12 for Bounce (the album that made Bon Jovi one of my all time favorite bands) and that to me seems like a long time ago.

I think its awesome that we've all come to love the band in different ways at different times. I sort of assumed that most people started liking them with SWW, but obviously their later stuff has been just as relevant and impressionable to a new generation of fans...and then there's the few of you who have truly been with the band since the beginning!

Thanks so much to all of you for sharing your stories.

back in the day when we all had cassette tapes !!!!! sitting in the park having a beer with a gang of friends. I just remember hearing Living on a Prayer and said who is that its great , a guy told me Bon Jovi... I was hooked from that moment... he gave me a copy of the tape... first saw BJ on top of the pops about 6 weeks later, that was a long time ago

Dawn

I liked Runaway the first time I heard it on the radio but to be honest I do not remember when that was. I am guessing 1983-1984 ish. I was 11-12 years old. I bought my first rock t-shirt in 86..Slippery When Wet and the first Bon Jovi Concert I went to was Madison Wi in 1993 when they filmed the In These Arms video, what a night.

CW