Richie is the sole reason for Bon Jovi world acclaim.
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livin'_...r#Song_history

Well we all know this i'm sure. But didn't Richie convince Jon to have Livin' On A Prayer on Slippery? Jon hated the song, but Richie knew it'd be a hit so he convinced Jon boy to include it on the album. Probably at the expense of Edge Of A Broken Heart.

The song was a massive hit world wide and is still played in bars and clubs world wide 28 years later.

It is their anthem. But without Livin' On A Prayer would Bon Jovi have had the massive success they have had? I would say probably not. Certainly not on the worldwide scale anyway. And this is due to Richie. Solely him. Its a shame that his actions of recent has tarnished this interesting fact, but perhaps us Richie "haters" should give him more credit of his past glories.

This is just my opinion, but does anyone echo what I think? Its an interesting moral dilemma.

If (!) that Wikipedia info is correct, and it was only because of JBJ's reluctance that they reworked the song with a new bassline, then Jon deserves just as much credit. It was the version of the song we all know that wound up being a worldwide megahit, not the one from the original demo.

I agree.I saw on youtube a guy saying that the demo version of LOAP sounded like intro music from 80's porn :)) and I agree with that too.

They still would've been successful with Bad Name,and later on with Bad Medicine,ILBTFY,BTBMYB,BOR,Always etc. but clearly they wouldn't have been so succsseful and known as they are.
Even though it's their biggest hit I rarely listen to it,maybe cause when I started listening to BJ all I listened to was It's My Life,LOAP,Bad Name and Have a Nice day.Lately I've been listening to alot of live covers they made and demos.

All of them are the reason, and for people to put one of them as the sole reason for world wide acclaim is just ignorant and childish. It's Richie's actions as of late that have gotten him some criticism from fans and deservedly so, Richie from the 80's until 2005/6 is one thing, Richie from now is another. Plenty of people have caught on with that, but there are already a couple of threads discussing this.....

Yes, back then Richie believed in this song when Jon didn't and he was correct.

What's the point of this thread?

Just putting it out there. There is no-one more angry than me than Richie's behavior of late. But i'm just trying to portray a key moment in history, that will perhaps make the "haters" like me realise that he is indispensable as the guitarist of Bon Jovi

Your thread title is still a load of bollocks. The "sole reason"? He didn't sing lead on the track. He didn''t play keys. He didn't play the drums. He didn't play bass. He didn't produce it. He didn't engineer it. He didn't mix it. And he didn't even write it all by himself.

He co-wrote it, and fought for it to be on the record. Producers do that stuff all the time, and they're hardly "the sole reason" a band blows up.

I think they would have been just as successful but Slippery wouldn't have been as massive. I still think NJ would have had the same success and so forth on going.

When Bon Jovi mania hit, it hit hard. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Jon's looks and the videos played into all of it too. With Bad Name being the first, a second single with Jons looks and a cool video would have still worked but maybe just not as well.

I can't speak for everyone, but his past glories are last thing I need help remembering.

His work on These Days, both harmonies and guitar work, are roughly 50% of what I love about that album, thus he's roughly 50% of why I love this band.

If it weren't for his past glories, I wouldn't give a shit about RS.

I think any song from SWW could have been the second single and it would have been huge based on the unreal popularity they achieved with Bad Name.