I'll Be There For You, sung by Mr. Richie Sambora
 

I know lots of you would prefer his solo stuff to this song, but why is everyone so negative towards it. I think Richie's version tops the whole bands version tenfold. I know it is often sung by him, but wow. When he sung Stranger when I saw him, I was shitting my pants, but the crowds reaction was completely dull.

MSG Night 2 (Good Quality) .... sent shivers down my spine. The crowd sang louder than Richie!!!

This for an example.... watching all these youtube performances of him doing live shows, I would say it is better than most of his own songs.... (IMO)

I've been avoiding most MSG clips and footage but man, this is killer.

Yes it is. And in my opinion the Central Park concert (only a few days before) was even a bit better. They were all a bit stiff at MSG - probably due to the filming. Central Park was a bit more relaxed.

Agreed.
And I like Richie's version. But, like any band song, I prefer it in it's original format.

I actually included the central park version as one of my examples, but edited it out ecause I thought the MSG one was wayy better.

Here it is anyway (It's in HD and way better quality than the MSG one):

It´s been only recently that I´ve realized that some of these BJ classics must be merely Richie´s songs, not Jon´s to begin with. For example, IBTFY or These Days.

Am I right?

I think that Richie does a great job of it, but I'd much rather him do something from his own albums.

I love Richie's version of IBTFY, and I'd hate to see it go away completely. But he really needs to mix things up more. On the LH tour, he did These Days at my first show, IBTFY at my second, and Stranger at my third. That was great. But after that, it was IBTFY at every show I saw (9) -- even when they were doing 2 shows in the same city (3). I understand that it turns into a bathroom & beer break if Richie does something that casual fans don't know, but frankly, that happens anyway. You can't make people stay in place if they're only there to see JBJ. Richie might as well do his own material . . . or "steal" another band song (like TAALS - I still think Richie could do a killer version of that).

Yeah, I love his version of the song. He does a great job IMO. I don't think they should get rid of it all together, but I agree it would be nice to see it be more of a rare thing, and have him sing one of his solo's. That would be awesome. I'd be sad to see it go full stop, I must admit.

Yes, he is good at it. I like the version.
But I think that playing this since 2003 is too much. Let Jon do it more regularly!
And let Richie do "Stranger In This Town", "Hard Times Come Easy", "In It For Love", etc, more times! :D