In Theory: 'You Give Love a Bad Name' by Bon Jovi

"You Give Love a Bad Name" became Bon Jovi's first number one hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 on November 29th 1986. And depending on how much you listened to the radio in the mid-80s, it might have sounded familiar – its creator, "Livin' on a Prayer" composer Desmond Child, also wrote Bonnie Tyler’s "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)," which came out a few months earlier. Tyler's single only charted at number 77, but Child believed in the anthem and reworked the song into the Bon Jovi hit we all know and love. For comparison, here's the Tyler track:

Since the chorus' chord progression was good enough to be released twice in the same year, let’s take a closer look. None of our chords have a third to give them any major or minor character, but it’s pretty clear they all being drawn from the key of C minor, so let’s assign them their appropriate Roman numerals.

i – VI – VII – i

VI – VII – III - i

C minor serves as the home from which we travel to all of these other power chords. The III to i movement is strong enough for C to feel like the tonic, but what is it that really drives this chorus forward? To answer this, listen closely to the bass part from Alec John Such:

In Bon Jovi's early tracks, Such's bass parts add tension and urgency to the material, propelling the listener along with the melody. While the bass largely follows the guitar on this song, it notably deviates underneath the sustained C5 chord. After the bass hits the low C, Alec jumps up to his high string and plays Bb, B and C. This introduction of the note B – the leading tone in the key of C – pulls strongly towards C. It goes by quickly, but subtleties like that can define songs. When that B resolves to C, for that brief moment, all is right with the world.

Such later parted ways with the band, but there’s a valuable lesson to be learned here: If you write a song and it fails to chart as high as you had hoped, just take a trip to New Jersey to some guitarist’s mom’s basement and try again. And don’t forget to ask your friendly bass player to help resolve your harmonies!

Brian Poedy has served as a notetracker and audio designer for Ubisoft San Francisco since 2013. In his scant free time, he also builds custom instruments, pickups, amps, and pedals from scratch at Poedy Guitars.

Bon Jovi historical promotional photo from Mercury/PolyGram Records/UMG