What If Crossroad were a double album?
 

From time to time I tend make playlists of songs. This time I wanted to put together a second disc of Crossroad as if it were released as a double album.
I didn't go for a list of my favourite tracks (otherwise there would be Stick To Your Guns etc,) but I tried to come up with what could have been released based on Jon's comments from an interview and other known facts.
The order was made using similar logic as the first disc. Speaking about the first disc, I used the international full version of 15 tracks. That means with In These Arms and Never Say Goodbye and without Prayer '94.
Some songs were obvious choices because they were clearly left out, that's why it starts with Born To Be My Baby which was the biggest hit that wasn't included on Crossroad and it kinda is in the same vein as Livin' On A Prayer.
You can find there Jon's Miracle and Richie's Stranger In This Town because Jon said in one interview that he would have included them if there were enough space. Personally, I'd only keep there Stranger to balance out Jon's Blaze Of Glory from the first disc but I used the known info.
I also added two "new" songs that we know are from the period Crossroad was released. Good Guys were an obvious choice and as the second song went for Nobody's Hero because I wanted to add such a type of Jon&Richie song and even though I probably prefer The Fire Inside or Gotta Have A Reason might be eligible I decided for this one because I put it back to back with Prayer '94. Kinda the same thing they did on the fourth boxset disc. This time only with Prayer '94 and in reverse order :) There are a few other tracks that would deserve the spot as well - Open All Night for example.
Edge Of The Broken Heart earned its place because even though it wasn't a single, it charted as a soundtrack song.
Blood On Blood and Wild In The Streets were supposed to be singles (probably), they had their videos filmed and released and also were total staples in the setlists from their inception and after the release of Crossroad.
I wanted to add I Believe in its single version but because I don't have it and because I wanted to do it similarly as they did it with the first disc - I kept the version with intro and put it in a similar position as Lay Your Hands On Me has on the first disc.
Living In Sin takes the spot of the lead ballad because it's the second biggest single that was left out originally.
Silent Night and Only Lonely have their place there as well because they were singles even though not that much successful.
On the other hand She Don't Know was left out because.. well, my personal taste intervened here :) plus it's not a band's song as such because it wasn't written by any member.
An early version had The Boys Are Back In Town included but I wanted to make a 15 disc version (to complement the first disc equally) and because it's a cover (though released, maybe as a single around the Mosccow Music Peace Festival) I left it out.
Apart from those two, I considered I'd Die For You because I just dig that song so much and it definitely has a lot of single potential plus was a live staple. Also Tokyo Road would deserve its place but I decided to use the more global singles from that album.

Track list:
01. Born To Be My Baby
02. Good Guys Don't Always Wear White
03. Blood On Blood
04. Dry County
05. I Believe
06. Wild In The Streets
07. Only Lonely
08. Edge Of The Broken Heart
09. Living In Sin
10. Miracle
11. Silent Night
12. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
13. Stranger In This Town
14. Prayer '94
15. Nobody's Hero

Any thought, comments? Can someone skilled make an artwork for the double disc version? :)

I don't agree with some of these songs.

Just look at Wikipedia and use the singles released during that period.

In These Arms and Never Say Goodbye for sure.

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That's what I did. Did you even read what I wrote? ITA and NSG are on the international version which I used as the first disc so it doesn't make any sense to use twice, does it? What other singles did I skip? Apart from She Don't Know Me which I explained why.

Interesting idea, but I don't think Cross Road ever needed to be a double album. It was a greatest hits album by a 10-year-old band who'd *only* released 5 albums at that point. The actual album we got is a solid collection (well, the International version is anyway) and would have sufficed for any then-casual fans or newcomers. If they wanted to hear more, they could just buy the other albums.

If it were up to me though, I would have them release a Bonus disc version of B-Sides/Rarities (GGDAWW, EoaBH, etc) and maybe a few then-unreleased songs (like what eventually ended up on the Box Set) so more hardcore fans at the time would have a reason to invest in it beyond more than just two new songs. We eventually got that 11 years later with the "Deluxe Sound & Vision" version.

I must have missed it... but even so, I wouldn't dismiss them because if there was in fact a double disk, there wouldn't be the need for an international version. Or it would probably be much different...

Is your topic about a double Crossroads standard CD or a double international version CD?

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Yeah, it didn't need to be a double album, I know. The idea just came to me when I was listening to the third London 1995 show (which is soon going to be 25 years old!) and Richie did Stranger there and they did Good Guys two days before and that reminded me of that interview with Jon saying that they had so many hits and songs to put there that they had to leave out some of them and that he hated it.

The Deluxe Sound & Vision is crap - it's a weird collection of songs from different eras. It doesn't make any sense.

Obviously it's a double international version. Mainly because the international version has the most songs but also because it's the version the world has.

I'm not debating the need for a double disk version. I just did it for fun and I enjoy listening to both discs back to back.

Given the change in style with Crush and the long break between TD and Crush, I think Crossroad should have been released after These Days. But that's what we know now given the history that followed.

That's true. I've heard/read a number of times how Jon wanted "Stranger in this Town" on Cross Road (though I would have gone with "Ballad of Youth" personally) and other Bon Jovi hits like BtBMB would have been worth including somehow. But like I say, there has to be some incentive to go back and buy the previous albums.

You're right, it's a weird collection and I probably wouldn't have used that exact tract list for a 2nd disc of rarities back in 1994. Three of those tracks didn't exist back then for a start. But perhaps include tracks from the 80's that weren't available or hard to find on CD by then.

If it's not a debate, then there isn't much to discuss here... There were only 5 band albums to date. Picking the songs is nothing more than a process of elimination.

During the crossroads radio promos, the double album thing came up all the time... Sure they could have filled it especially with new songs and another rework but the record company said no...

Thanks to Always, they are probably kicking themselves for not doing a double CD.

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Then again, a double disc = higher price point which could have lead to less sales. We'll never know but I think the label made the right call.

Considering it was released right in the middle of the Grunge movement, they made the obvious decision in America.

But you're right about the price point. When double cds first came out, they were priced much higher. It wasn't until later when they changed to be just a couple bucks more.

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Yeah I didn't make the tracklist because I felt that Crossroad should have been a double disk album. But it could have been. So I tried to come up with what I think could have made the album.
I've expected us here to discuss the tracklist :D

I must say that I really enjoy listening to it. 30 songs that represent their peak. On the other hand, if I were to pick songs 30 songs from 1984 to 1994 to introduce Bon Jovi to new listeners, I'd have picked different songs and not alomost strictly singled. Generally, I think that a ompilation album should be a double disc when the first disc are the greatest hits -> the most successful singles over some time period (that means skipping some to have the chance to introduce the whole time period) and the second disc should be the best of -> fan favourites, band favourites, live staples, not necessarily commercial songs.
And as I've already mentioned, I'd go for such album after These Days.

What If Crossroad were a double album?
 

Normally a bands “greatest hits” album aren’t the bands beat songs. I mean one example, no Dry County on Crossroads.
I always think they should be called “the singles” collection as most are singles that were released.
GNRs greatest hits album has about 7 cover versions!
Around the early-mid 90s, putting 1 or 2 new tracks on a greatest hits album started to happen and that worked out brilliantly for Jovi with Always. I often wonder how many albums Crossroads would’ve sold without Always. As a fan without that and Sat night I’d have no reason to buy it.
Crossroads is Jovi biggest selling album in uk with roughly 2 million sold.
Greatest hits aren’t really aimed at die hards but more the causal fan.
You can’t have Edge of a broken heart on there as it never made an album and despite how great that song is it’s technically an unused track so not a greatest hit.


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Back in the mid-90s, there were lots of unofficial CDs sold in Bulgaria. When I became a Jovi fan in 1998, I could not for the life of me find any original Jovi CDs here (it was not until 2001 that I found a music shop offering to import music CDs from abroad). That being said, I bought whatever unofficial Bon Jovi CDs I could find. One of them was called "Crossroad volume 2," and it had the following tracklist:
1. Something For the Pain
2. Breakout
3. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
4. Diamond Ring
5. Dyin Ain't Much of a Livin
6. Let it Rock
7. Hey God
8. Mr. Bluesman
9. This Ain't a Love Song
10. Born to Be My Baby
11. Price of Love
12. I Believe
13. Billy Get Your Guns
14. I'd Die For You
15. Love Lies

I thought it'd be interesting to share. It's by no means a definitive list, but I was delighted to hear those songs for the first time when I bought it.

https://img.discogs.com/spl4l4rGZAtW...-4953.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/T-K1HETuPxad...-3820.jpeg.jpg

I think for a second disc you would have struggled to fill it really.

Maybe something like this could have worked, taking the US version as disc one...

1. I Believe
2. Born To Be My Baby
3. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
4. Living In Sin
5. Only Lonely
6. Edge Of A Broken Heart
7. Dry Country
8. Miracle
9. Stranger In This Town
10. In These Arms
11. Tokyo Road
12. Blood On Blood
13. Good Guys Don't Always Wear White
14. Never Say Goodbye

Take off Only Lonely, Good Guys, and Stranger. Replace with two more new songs and rework Runaway like initially intended. My guess is Runaway 2000 was the initial intention.

I also think Raise Your Hands could have made a hits album... I mean it was the opening song in Spaceballs.

I don't think so. If that had been the case, the 1996 tour would have been the perfect opportunity to play it. But they reworked I'd Die For You instead and waited another 4 years for the piano driven version of Runaway.

Only Lonely and Blood on Blood were the two that I was unsure about.

I think Good Guys would have been a great additional "new track" as there has been a video for it, but no single release, and not previously put out on a BJ release, only a soundtrack.

I think Stranger should have been on there, has Jon always made it clear that it was the intention to include Stranger until he realised he could only have 80 mins...

A lot of the stuff I included was released as B-sides from Cross Road singles and on the VHS Cross Road video, so their inclusion makes sense to me.

Jon hates those first two albums and just having both Tokyo Road and Only Lonely seems to be a bit of a stretch.

I don't believe Jon when he said Stranger would have been on there. I think he was just pacifying interview questions. Jon's always one step ahead and knew that Blaze might get questioned and then "why not a Richie song"




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The original track listing for the second Sound & Vision disc made sense originally. When it first came up for pre-order all the tracks were the B-Sides of the singles featured on Cross Road, in the order that they appear on Cross Road (I've listed it below). For some reason they decided to change that Idea at some point, so that it made no sense whatsover, maybe to include songs from the Box set/Bounce eras. But I loved the original idea. It explains why some of the tracks were featured though!

1. Wild In The Streets (Livin' On A Prayer B-side)
2. I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas (Keep The Faith B-Side)
3. Good Guys Don't Always Wear White (Someday I'll Be Saturday Night CD Single)
4. The Boys Are Back In Town (Always 12" Single B-Side)
5. Shot Through The Heart (Wanted Dead Or Alive B-Side)
6. Blood On Blood (Live at Wembley) (Lay Your Hands On Me B-Side)
7. Let It Rock (You Give Love A Bad Name B-Side)
8. Starting All Over Again (Bed Of Roses 12" Single B-Side)
9. Blood Money (Blaze Of Glory B-Side)
10. Save A Prayer (In These Arms CD Single)
11. 99 In The Shade (Bad Medicine B-Side)
12. Homebound Train (I'll Be There For You B-Side)
13. Roulette (Live) (In & Out Of Love B-Side)
14. Breakout (Live) (Runaway B-Side)
15. Raise Your Hands (Never Say Goodbye 12" B-Side)

Interestingly the B-sides were all from the UK or Euro editions of the singles, so it was obviosuly something put together from the label this side of the atlantic.

That was the plan... Are you saying no just to say no?

I'd Die For You wasn't a hit, Runaway was. Very similar intros too. Maybe they weren't ready to remove the original hit from the set and decided to go with the reworked rarity.

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yeah, I agree, but Tokyo Road was featured on the Jap version, so I thought it's inclusion here made sense. I almost replaced Only Lonely with Wild In The Streets.

Maybe, but I'm going to take him on his word. The question wasn't about Blaze inclusion at the time. It was from the UK press and he was talking about choosing tracks and he mentioned including some of the other hits like "Born To Be My Baby" and "Living In Sin" and "Stanger" from Richie's Solo album. So he had no real eason to bring it up at the time. But you could be right, who knows. I think it's an important track and one that was featured in many Bon Jovi shows from that era, so I think it's inclusion makes total sense.

I'm saying no because your guess doesn't make sense to me.
And I'd Die For You wasn't a rarity either. Since it got introduced during the Slippery tour it's been a setlist staple up until Crush.

But we will never find out the truth unless the band reveals what was happening back then. And since they probably don't remember it, we will keep on guessing.

You think I just made that up?

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I only remember reading that quite with the Stranger inclusion coming from Richie, not Jon. Not sure Jon had really said that.

To use one of your favourite sentences - can you give us any proof of this?
In 1996, they were playing I'd Die For You because they had been experimenting with it just for fun in the studio some time before - Jon said that during one of the European shows before playing it.
In 2000, the initial idea had been to keep the acoustic set and hence they were probably looking for a halfway-known song to fit in there in a different fashion. However, the acoustic section was axed after 4 shows on the tour, but Runaway survived.

This is all I could find immediately with a simple search... Wikipedia.

"Runaway" was never recorded with the current band, though at that time there were plans to put a "Runaway '94" on the album but it was never recorded.

One other point. I always assumed it was acoustic style because of Prayer 94 and Runaway 2000 but it was never really stated... It could have been a one to one updated copy too.

Discover Music also talks about it. I'm surprised this is new info for everyone.

He 100% did. It was in the UK press, I remember reading it clearly. Probably either Kerrang! or Raw magazine.

It's not really hard to believe that they would have included Stranger, when you consider that Ballad Of Youth was included on the Keep The Faith videos, and Every Road was on deluxe editions of WAN many years later. So Jon was not adverse to using Richie solo tracks on band releases. Stranger was a staple in the setlist around the time and Jon has been quoted saying that he wishes Richie would have saved the song for Bon Jovi....so this was a way of getting it on a Bon Jovi album.

I have to confess, I've never heard this before either and I was very well read up on the band in the 90s. Interesting find, I wonder where this info comes from?

It's not that it's new info, it's that it's never been properly attributed to when and where it was said. It's been a rumour for awhile that someone put into Wikipedia, doesn't really make it fact until someone can point out who said it and when.

I remember there being talks about the band re-recording Runaway for Crossroad because no one bar Jon and Hugh were on it, but I always assumed they would've re-done the original version at best :D

It isn't, we mention it on our site as well (Crossroad got added in late 2018 ).
It's just that there's no evidence for it being a stripped down version.
Like you said yourself, you "assume" it - so yes, you make it up.

I'm not claiming to be right either, I'm just telling my thoughts on this matter.
And I don't think it's very likely.
And furthermore I miss a reliable source for that info as well. It's been a rumour for years with nobody clarifying where it's coming from.

Wikipedia copy and pasted it from other online music publications... So it's not someone self made Wikipedia thing.

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https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stori...st-hits-album/

Plans to record an updated, full-band version of the Jon Bon Jovi solo hit ‘Runaway’, were, however, scrapped during lead up to Cross Road’s release.

Even though nobody cares about my tracklist, I'm happy to stir up a debate about golden old times.

It amazes me, that I have used the title worng for two decades. I've always thought the name of the album was Crossroad and it seems to be Cross Road. The space between the words on the cover is not that promiment, it could be the font style thing.
Doesn't it change the meaning of the album a bit?

I didn't realise when I posted it but my tracklisting is verytsimilar to yours albeit in a different order!

I'm still very on the fence about this Runaway '94 thing to be honest. A retrospective review of an album from 2019 from someone not involved with it still isn't really enough. But he's pulling quotes from SOMETHING. I'd like to track down the original interview for a project I'm working on, if anyone knows where this came from lemme know.

I have a question. Is Always on the box the original recording? Or just the demo? I know the song was recorded twice.

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Lol.......

I'm answering my own question and going with the final version of the first recording... Maybe not mixed and mastered but definitely too much going on to just be a demo.

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Jon said the title was because the band had reached a crossroads or cross road in their career. They knew These Days would sound much different to previous releases.


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