86听|听Top 100 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' Bon Jovi This fourth chart entry for the New Jersey 鈥榟air-metallers鈥 came straight after their smash hit Livin鈥 On A Prayer. It also started the Western theme that would crop up in later songs culminating in the soundtrack to Young Guns II
Song facts
Composer
Richie Sambora/Jon Bon Jovi
Genre
Rock听
Album
Cross Road
Year of release
1987
UK Chart Position
13
that Jon Bon Jovi worked on. Like fellow Jersey singer Bruce Springsteen, the band often sung about people living on the fringes of society such as the 鈥榮teel-horse(d) cowboy鈥 in this track.
鈥淲anted Dead Or Alive鈥 is taken from 1986鈥檚 Slippery When Wet which Desmond Child helped out on. Child had written for groups like Aerosmith and although only Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi are credited for the song you can be sure that Child had a large part in it.
The song has had a long-standing relationship with MTV as is the longest-running number one video of all time on the channel. The very successful 鈥楿nplugged鈥 series was also inspired by a 1989 appearance of Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora who played two acoustic tracks: Livin鈥 On A Prayer and Wanted Dead Or Alive.
Jon Bon Jovi on听writing Wanted Dead Or Alive
Jon Bon Jovi talks about the illegal activates that inspired the writing of Wanted Dead Or Alive
听New York City ska revivalists The Slackers featured a cover of Wanted Dead or Alive on their Wasted Days album in听2001.
This is, to me, a real classic song....it has never dated, is loved by old and young, and relates the real feeling the band had at that stage in their career
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