Although he struggled for years to make it, Jon Bongiovi had a lot of help getting to the top of the rock world. As a teenager growing up in New Jersey, he played in a number of basement bands with his good friend, David Rashbaum, an aspiring keyboard player. His cousin, Tony Bongiovi, was a world-class studio owner, engineer, and producer (Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix), who owned the popular Power Station recording complex in Manhattan. Jon Bongiovi had been hired as the studio manager, and was told he could cut demos when the studio was dark. He assembled the core of what would become the…entire summary

Jon Bon Jovi - vocals, guitar
David Bryan - keyboards, vocals
Richie Sambora - lead guitar , vocals
Alec Such - bass, vocals
Tico Torres - drums, vocals

Bon Jovi was just getting started on what would be a meteoric rise to the top of the rock world when they recorded this 1984 show at Ripley’s in Philadelphia for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. It remains the first national radio broadcast of a live performance by the band. The group, spearheaded by vocalist Jon Bon Jovi, had released its debut album, which in retrospect merged the working-class sensibility of Bruce Springsteen with formulated pop metal of bands like Def Leppard and Journey. The early songs recorded for this show are formulaic and seem to follow many of the hair metal cliches, but it does show the promise of the band, and Jon Bon Jovi as a rock ‘n’ roll frontman.

Although he struggled for years to make it, Jon Bongiovi had a lot of help getting to the top of the rock world. As a teenager growing up in New Jersey, he played in a number of basement bands with his good friend, David Rashbaum, an aspiring keyboard player. His cousin, Tony Bongiovi, was a world-class studio owner, engineer, and producer (Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix), who owned the popular Power Station recording complex in Manhattan. Jon Bongiovi had been hired as the studio manager, and was told he could cut demos when the studio was dark. He assembled the core of what would become the band and changed his named to Bon Jovi to downplay his Italian-American roots.

With help from Roy Bittan, keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street band, he cut a song called “Runaway.” When he placed it in a New Jersey radio station’s homegrown and unsigned band competition, it soon started getting airplay. Other stations added the song, and within weeks Bon Jovi (now a full-fledged band headed by Jon Bon Jovi) was the center of a record company bidding war.

The group signed with Mercury/PolyGram Records who took “Runaway” to the Top 10. The debut album went gold, and Jon Bon Jovi never looked back. Today, he has released nearly a dozen gold or platinum albums; starred in several feature films; and sold out huge arenas around the world since shortly after this show was recorded.

 collapse