Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ Hits Two Billion Streams
Originally featured on the New Jersey rockers’ 1986’s ‘Slippery When Wet,’ Bon Jovi’s chart-topping single single has a reached a new milestone on Spotify.
Bon Jovi has reached a major milestone: “Livin’ On a Prayer” has been played on Spotify two billion times.
The song first appeared on the New Jersey rockers’ third studio album, August 1986’s Slippery When Wet. “Livin’ On A Prayer” topped the charts for four weeks in February 1987. A motivational anthem for the working class, the song follows a fictional couple, Tommy and Gina, as they try to retain their faith while struggling to make ends meet. The band was initially lukewarm on the soon-to-be mega-hit.
“I remember walking out of the room with Richie and I said, ‘Eh, it’s okay. Maybe we should just put it on a movie soundtrack,’” Bon Jovi told The Irish Times. “Richie looked at me and said, ‘You’re an idiot. It’s really good.’ I said, ‘I just don’t know where it’s going.’ But it didn’t have that boom-boom-boom bassline yet, so it sounded more like The Clash.”
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The demo version of the song, which was featured as a hidden track on the 2004 box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong, was less robust than the final product.“We had sort of written it like this spooky, moody, sensitive thing,” co-songwriter Desmond Child recalled on a podcast in 2019. “Jon didn’t think it was going to be right for the direction that they were going into, which was like, hard rock, stadium rock. The song was so good that Richie Sambora and I literally got on our hands and knees, half-joking, half-serious, and begged him to record it.”
“Livin’ On a Prayer” became their second consecutive No. 1 single following “You Give Love A Bad Name.” Bon Jovi were the first hard rock band to ever top the Hot 100 with back-to-back singles.
Earlier this year, Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” reached one billion streams on Spotify. It was the third of the band’s classic hits to achieve this milestone, following on from “Livin’ On A Prayer” in January 2023 and “You Give Love a Bad Name” in June 2024. “It’s My Life” was originally released as the lead single from Bon Jovi’s multi-platinum seventh album Crush in June 2000.
