SLIPPERY WHEN WET

But with PolyGram tugging on the financial reins, Jon reluctantly agreed to meet some of the writers the company had in mind and at the very least play them some of the songs on which he and Richie were now pinning their hopes. Fortunately, Jon's blushes were spared when practically the first meeting he had, with a young songwriter named Desmond Child, began to bear fruit almost immediately.

Who of the three-man hit-writing alliance can accurately lay claim to which part they wrote, and at which point in the proceedings. has since been one of the most disputed points of Bon Jovi's collective career. The fact is that from here on in all the biggest. most important singles of Bon Jovi's career for at least the next eight years would be credited on the sleeve to Jovi/Sambora/Child. Jon has always claimed that he and Richie were "two thirds" of the way through finishing the key songs on what became the 'Slippery When Wet' album long before he got together with Child to see what he could add to them, while Child himself insists that without his help Bon Jovi would have stayed where they were as a second-rate rock band destined to support bigger names out on the endless road for we rest of their lives.

But what is certain is that together. the Jovi/Sambora/Child songwriting credit wouk1 ensure that 'Slippery ... ' became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time - by anybody Child had had his own shot at solo fame ,n Desmond Child & Rouge, a mainstream avant­-rock boy-girl group that singed the US charts but never really made them catch fire. These days, however, Child was employed as a time songwriter by whoever could afford to offer him a deal. The songs he co-wrote with Richie and Jon on 'Slippery ... ' were 'You Give Love A Bad Name', 'Livin' On A Prayer 'Without Love' and 'I'd Die For You'.

Originally titled 'Sons Of Beaches' (it was changed at the last minute at the behest of the record company, who thought the title “too metal”), 'Slippery When Wet' wasn't just the best, most successful album Bon Jovi would ever make. It was, in the words of Trevor White, programme director at Virgin Radio, the UK's only national rock station, “the ternplate for how every classic rock album should be constructed” . Two or three absolutely clas­sic hit singles, surrounded by absolutely killer all-out rock and roll tracks and a couple of flag­waving ballads. All of them absolutely brilliant to play on the radio.

“You just dont get a rock album as perfectly put together as that every day of the week, “White explains. "Not even Bon Jovi can come up with something like that every time. It's just a one-off, I think, really."

Production this time was by Canadian Bruce Fairbairn, who was on something of a winning streak himself having recently worked the levers on modest Top 20 albums in the US for Krokus, Loverboy and Quarterflash. Recording took place at the producer's favoured studio, Little Mountain Sound, in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the spring of 1986. The work was done" quickly but not in a hurry,“ as Jon later remarked enigmatically.

"What I mean is, the time went by very quickly. We worked real hard but it was like we were done before we started almost. But not like before where we were rushing it, this just flowed naturally. We were kinda beyond caring, we just went for it. “