I don't think there's any way to really know.
1. We don't have much info on all the tracks and such.
2. We don't know What tracks would have been singles
3. We don't know how he album would've been marketed.
All I do know, is that I'm in the immensely distinct minority here of loving Crush.

Would things be better? What's wrong with 'things'? Personally (I think I'm in the minority) nothing post-00 is truly awful ('cept Save The World, see below) - I enjoy some of TLFR even.

I'm a closet liker of Crush - nothing phenomenal, but some great songs, if you're in that mood. Although Save the World is one of the worst songs they've written, in my opinion - I can't get away from the cheesiness of it :p

Oh, in my drop-down menu for my RSS feeds, this topic is called: "Would things be better with sex" :mrgreen:

Sex Sells is a better title. But im alright with Crush

I don't see what people's problems are with Crush. I really like it(with the exception of It's My Life and Say It Isn't So). IMO, it has two good ballads, and OWN/Just Older are brilliant.

It's better than Have A Nice Day, too, IMO.

In 2000 I was 15 and I was attracted by It's My Life and Say It Isn't So and I bought the album and loved it. I bought the others and now it's 8 years later and I'm very glad that I did, because I love the music, have seen some great concerts and thanks to this specific forum I've made some great friends - so my life would probably be quite different if not for Crush. Seems odd when I put it like that, bit it's true.

As for Sex Sells possibly being better, well as more of a fan now I can apreciate more of their music, so some of the songs which didn't make it might have worked better in some respects - perhaps a double album would have been good, but unlikely from this band. Some of the songs which ended up on the boxset were from this era I think and I really love them (some of my favourites being 'Maybe Someday', 'Kidnap An Angel' and 'Satelite')

i totally agree with this as well - very well said!

Gotta agree about Satellite. A brilliant song that should be on Crush.

Satellite would have been a nice ballad to have on Crush--and one that didn't seem like it came out of the bottle of Big Ballad Formula #29.

I think they made a very wise decision in holding off releasing the CD by continuing to write and record forit. Their label had just been bought out by Universal so they were switched to Def Jam records. They were wary of how they would fit in that landscape and they let the dust settle from the changes. It was probably one of their smartest moves ever.

Hehe, that's just your opinion though. ;) My problem with it? It just doesn't have enough songs on there that I like. I don't like it much as an album, because of that. Atlough I do like a small handful of songs on it. I just don't feel they did all they were capable of, on that album. Well actually I think it's more, they were going for a different sound. To be more modern, and appeal to different audience. And as I said before, they definitely achieved that...and good for them too. But for me personaly, it's not their best music at all. But that's just a personal thing, because I like the bigger rock sound Jovi the best, in general. Sure I love a good ballad too, but they have NOTHING on there that is say...Always level. Now THAT'S a bloody ballad!!! I mean what are you classing on there as a "great ballad"? Just out of interest, I'm not picking on you or anything. Because all this is about is personal taste. :)

My question was really:

Would the band have taken a different direction if Sex Sells had come out in 1999. I think due to the reasons of them delaying the release it gave them more time to tinker with it and re-think the final release, that we know of as Crush.

True, without IML would Sex Sells have had a hit on it, who knows, but as a fan at that time I was not interested in hit singles I was interested in good music. Since These Days there has not been an album with enough good music on it IMO, don't get me wrong, there are some strong songs but not a consistant album.

I think the direction may have changed anyway as Jon had released DA and had some success with it. Obviously songs like Older were written and played on his solo tour in 1998.

My point is that due to the circumstances surrounding the delay of Sex Sells/Crush the idea of the album changed. I am just very interested to know what that original idea was like.

As for the promotion, you can catch the early promotion in the video for Real Life, would that song have made the Sex Sells album??