Livin' On A Prayer

The follow-up to Bon Jovi's #1 hit "You Give Love A Bad Name," "Livin' On A Prayer" tells the story of Tommy and Gina, two kids working to make it on their own despite constant hardships. It struck a chord with America's youth, especially those from New Jersey. The characters in the song relate to the working-class fans Bon Jovi played to: Tommy works on the docks while Gina works in a diner (there are lots of them in Jersey).

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, the main songwriters in the group, wrote this with Desmond Child, a prolific songwriter who was brought in by the record company to give them a more commercial sound like he did for Kiss on "I Was Made For Lovin' You." The characters Tommy and Gina were based on a real-life situation Desmond encountered in the late '70s with his then-girlfriend, Maria Vidal, whom he was living with. According to the notes in his Desmond Child & Rouge: Runners In The Night album, Desmond was a New York taxi cab driver and Maria was a singing waitress in a diner. Vidal used the name "Gina Velvet" - she was nicknamed Gina by her fellow employees because she looked like the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida. "You Give Love A Bad Name" was also co-written by Child, who went on to write several more hits with the band, including "Born to Be My Baby" and "Bad Medicine."

"Livin' On A Prayer" is a musical descendent of the 1979 Kiss hit "I Was Made For Lovin' You," written by Desmond Child and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley. In a Songfacts interview with Desmond, he said: "Paul Stanley taught me how to write stadium anthems the Kiss way, in which the protagonist is always the winner. There's always victory. And the music is also lifting constantly upwards. I used those kinds of ideas or feelings in my collaborations with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora for the band Bon Jovi. The most perfect example of that is 'Livin' On A Prayer.'" Bon Jovi was a support act for Kiss in 1984 and saw firsthand how a big stadium anthem could change the fortunes of a band. Kiss had several, including "Rock And Roll All Nite."