The Five Albums a Non-JoviFan-Butisamusicjunkie Ought To Have
 

You have a friend who isn't a Bon Jovi fan but tolerates/is curious about/likes their work. He also happens to be a music junkie and is amassing many bands for his mp3 collection. He wants you, his friend who he knows to be a hopeless Jovi Nerd, to recommend the albums he should have for his collection. For the sake of a good list, let's say he wants 5 albums. What do you pick?

I'm going to be controversial here and say Slippery is not essential. I know Jon, I know, it's your Thriller and all that, arguably one of the most iconic rock albums of all time. The bottom line is, outside of the Holy Trinity, its a pretty mediocre album with a lot of artifacts from their first two records. Yeah, Raise Your Hands and Never Say Goodbye are good songs. I'd Die For You is a fan favorite, I get that. But you want your friend to get a TOTAL representation of Bon Jovi, at their best. Does Slippery When Wet, the album that some inaccurately call their peak, qualify as one of the best? I don't think it does.

If you put Crossroads on this list, your pal gets Prayer, Wanted and Bad Name. He gets Runaway and In and Out of Love. Maybe Blaze or Never Say Goodbye, depending on what version. You get the essentials, while also getting the two artifacts from the fledgling days worth holding onto. Besides, how can you not give them Always and Saturday Night? Crossroads seems like a logical choice.

I think the only album of the 80s that needs to be in this friend's collection is New Jersey. From a technical standpoint, I think it can be confidently argued to be a superior album, one of the best albums of the decade. It has the gloss of Hair Metal while at the same time signaling the band had firmly found its voice. You get all the hits from it, while at the same time getting quality album tracks like Blood on Blood and Homebound Train. I'd rather get that then the second half of SWW. So NJ is in my compilation.

Next is Keep the Faith. This was the breakthrough album, and though some of you will argue Slippery deserves to be here instead, I want my friend to hear Dry County. I want him to see this band's epic. I also want him to hear quirky gems like I Believe and If I Was Your Mother. Yes, I know, in addition to NJ, several tracks repeat from Crossroads. But I see no problem having Keep the Faith show up twice. God knows it's worth the extra listen.

So were at 3. For number 4, there's absolutely no way in hell I'm not putting These Days on here. No, it's not completely perfect. But I truly believe it's their best album on all levels, and as close to perfect as most bands can get. Now your friend will see this band brood. Hey God, These Days, My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms, Something To Believe In... songs that are in the upper echelon of their catalog. The most complete album they've ever penned. By now, you've painted a pretty fresh picture for Bon Jovi: not as arena glam fossils, but as a band of many colors.

You got one slot left. You have to show them something to demonstrate the band's still going. Something from this decade. A week ago I'd be seeing Have A Nice Day, because, lukewarm as parts of it are, it was the best album of the decade, and has some very strong points. Obviously right now, a newcomer in the form of The Circle has become the prime choice. The Circle is the true heir to where THese Days and KTF left off. It shows the band has aged, but not lamely, as Lost Highway or Bounce would so profoundly suggest. It certainly caps off a compilation nicely.

So there you have it. Some of you will croon for Slippery, others who may not care for the 90s as much may use Tokyo Road or something like that. That's fine; for me this is the best representation of the band's studio work. Though I am missing two songs that I think are fairly essential: It's My Life and Whole Lot of Leaving (still a favorite of mine, I don't care what anyone says). So maybe I'll edit the Circle, throw out WWBTF and Fast Cars, and put those two on it instead :p

1. Crossroads
2. New Jersey
3. Keep The Faith
4. These Days
5. The Circle

Now, to do homework...

whole lot of leavin was my favourite song and was the best song on lost highway

excellent choice mate

p.s when you mentioned these days songs you left out something for the pain, this aint a love song and hearts breakin even......they would turn any non fans head!!

Don't leave out Fast Cars. It's a grower!!!!

Obviously the holy trinity:
SWW
NJ
KTF

(the above album contains the holy trinity songs: LOAP and BOBITA)

Then, Crush (to show the 'pop' side of the band)

Then I'm not sure about the fifth spot. It will definitely be NOT These Days, Lost Highway and Bounce coz some of the worst songs in those albums make me very angry and want to kill people.

Maybe it's not 7800 F either.

So it's either HAND or the first album. Maybe I'll pick HAND because it has a song that represents the country side of the band.

So there you go. Once I buy the Circle maybe my list will change. Or maybe not.

Slippery
New Jersey
Keep The Faith
Crush
Blaze Of Glory single

We keep These Days for us diehard fans ;-)

Good question.

It's true what you say about "Always" and "Saturday Night", but I'd rather stick to albums, not compilations here.

The three must-have albums are "New Jersey", "Keep The Faith", "These Days". There's no way without them. While "Slippery" might not be my favourite album of theirs, it IS their milestone, and it is damn good. It defined their sound, so it'll be in the list too. That leaves the last spot... something from this decade. I haven't heard "The Circle" yet - that might be an option.
Otherwise it might be "Crush" - I really like the album for it diversity and great songs (yes, you heard me). It was a reinvention, and while I wasn't happy with the pop-sound at that time, it still features some of their finest moments in this decade, and it's a bridge between the old and the new BJ. The last album with 5- and 6-minute songs, ad lips and all that stuff. Every song here has its own character, its onw style, its own sound - more than on the following records.
HAND would be an alternative, I'm really fond of it lately, and I learned to like even "Story Of My Life" and "I Am". It has gems like "Last Man Standing", "Novocaine" and "I Want To Be Loved". Definitely not "Bounce" or "Lost Highway".

So, that would be my list:

1. Slippery
2. New Jersey
3. Keep The Faith
4. These Days
5. Crush / (HAND) / The Circle

I'd choose the same 5. Definitely. (BTW, the Cross Road I'd include would definitely have Never Say Goodbye on it.)

So is this just a different way of asking what are your 5 favourite albums?!

I'd go with

7800
Slippery
Jersey
Faith
These Days

IF I could do a best-off the box-set, I'd replace 7800 with that.

No, this is just recomending someone 5 albums so they can hear them andpossibly like them. I would never give 7800 to a person who only knew prayer and it's my life. That probably would turn them off.

Although, if I was recomending some of my friends a Bon jovi album, I would probably choose

Crossroads
Crush
Bounce
HAND
The Cirlce (was debating this album, as I haven't heard it yet.. Probably a better choice than lost highway for mainstream music fans)

Simply because most of them listen to mainstream, and that's about as mainstream as your gunna get when it comes to jovi. But if someone actually appreciated music, I would go with wrath manias exact list. **** slippery. Good starter record with good hits, but that's about it for that album.,easily the worst album of the 80s for me.

This is a tough one.
Only BJ studio albums:
1. New Jersey
2.These days
3.Keep the faith
4.Slippery when wet
5.HAND
The Circle is still too "fresh" to go on the list.Maybe in a year or so.

Studio albums & compilations:
1.Crossroad (without a competition!!)
2.New Jersey
3.These days
4. Slippery when wet
5.100 mil fans can't be wrong (it's toooo big and has atleast 12 great songs that would make a BIG album).

Now,
Lost highway has two songs that are really dear to me Whole lot of leaving and Memory.All in all now, 2 years after it's realise, i see that it's a good record. Searious/mature BJ record.
Bounce is not on this list cos it is not BJ's best work. But still there are few really good songs: Undivided, The distance and one of my favourite outtakes No regrets.
HAND is a good record. It has some poor songs, but there are couple of good one's: HAND, Wildflower, Dirty secret and Nothing (that should've been on the record!!)
TLFR-what to say 'bout this one.....
For the better part of the 2000 Crush wasn't leaving my cd player. Now 9 years on, i see that it' s not so good as i thought back then.Don't get me wrong , Captain crash, One wild night, Older, Save the world, Two story town are great songs....just some how it was a trendy record. One that i don't listen these days.
7800 F is a fine, fine record!I think we all foget that sometimes. There is one of my all time favourites Hardest part is the night. It's definetly a victim of the 80's and bad production. Shame cos thos are good songs, songs that when you hear BJ perform them live you can't recognize.That's how poorly is the production of that album.
Bon Jovi-as they say „oldy-goldy!“ and that's true. Good first record from the future rock stars.Breakout is the one that when i hear it still makes me smile and boogie.

When we talk about solo record:
1.Blaze of glory
2.Stranger
3.Destination
4.Undiscovered soul

I never heard any of David's albums so ....

One wild night – it's a shame they didn't make this a double album (like G'N'R Live era). Cos there are tooooo many good songs to fit on a single cd.
Powerstation years- it's great to hear how Jon developed as a musician.There is one song that is the best pop song, in my opinion, Jon ever wrote, and it's called What you want.

And that's it!
You'd like to hear top 10 of BJ songs?
I'd say this is it (out of studio albums):
1.Livin' on a prayer
2.Stick to your guns
3.These days
4.Dry county
5.Bed of roses
6.Whole lot of leaving
7.Born to be my baby
8. Wanted dead or alive
9.I'll be there for you
10.Living in sin

Top 10 of outtakes (one's that HAD to make the records).
1.Radio saved my life
2.Love hurts
3.Starting all over again
4.Love ain't nothing but 4 letter word
5.Nothing
6.No regrets
7.River of love
8.Walk like a man
9.Miss 4th july
10.Every beat of my heart
11.Nobody's hero
12.Temptation
(yes i know there are 12 songs on top 10 list!!)

My all time favourite BJ songs:
1.Livin' on a prayer
2.Radio saved my life
3.Stick to your guns
4.Love hurts
5.These days
6.Dry county
7.Bed of roses
8.Every beat of my heart
9.Born to be my baby
10.Wanted dead or alive

+top 5 solo songs:
1.Blood money
2.Father time
3.Miracle
4.Church of desire
5.Blaze of glory

There are tons of others songs.But at this time i 'd say that these are my favourites.In a year maybe there will be some new entries from Circle ( WWWB, Brokenpromiseland and Thorn in my side are strong candidates).Let me hear what do you think, or make your own list.