Bon Jovi

For almost three decades, Bon Jovi have earned their reputation on the road as ambassadors of American rock ‘n' roll, performing for more than 34 million fans around the globe. Along the way, the New Jersey-based quartet – lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, and drummer Tico Torres - have racked up a stellar resume of career highlights and accomplishments worthy of acclaim and pride. That's reason enough to release a greatest hits collection, right? Wrong.

Bon Jovi Greatest Hits celebrates time travel.

Songs mark moments in time. Ask band members to listen to the songs on this collection and they might reflect on where and when a song was written. But ask Bon Jovi fans to listen to these songs and you'll witness as they're transported to another place and time, reminiscing about the Bon Jovi song that blared on the radio in their first car, at their prom, their wedding… or what it felt like to stand under a starry night sky and sing in unison with 50,000 other fans at a Bon Jovi concert.

"Music marks milestones in all our lives," observes Jon Bon Jovi. "It's humbling to know that people associate our songs with some of the most meaningful moments in their lives."

Through the years, as Bon Jovi have become a part of the fabric of American popular culture, they've emerged as a soundtrack for the lives of millions of fans of all ages around the world.

"We've been blessed," says Bon Jovi. "We now have a multigenerational fan base that has crossed both language barriers and cultural differences."

Bon Jovi Greatest Hits, a standard single disc featuring 16 of the band's classic smash hits and two new tracks – "No Apologies" and "What Do You Got?" will be released in the U.S. and Canada on November 9th.

Bon Jovi Greatest Hits - The Ultimate Collection, a 2-CD deluxe 28-song package featuring fan favorites alongside two more new songs – "This Is Love, This Is Life" and "The More Things Change" – will be available in the U.S. and Canada on November 9th as well.

Four new songs make their debut in this collection and each of them – "No Apologies," "This Is Love, This Is Life," "The More Things Change," and the first single, "What Do You Got?"– nestle neatly into the portfolio of Bon Jovi creations bridging the past to the future.

All of the band's biggest chart-topping singles are included in this collection; the balance of songs are those designated as the most popular among the band's dedicated fan base. Each of the quintessential Bon Jovi tracks share recurring themes of faith, hope, love, and the belief that anything is still possible.

This ultimate greatest hits collection represents the band's success as statistics and chart positions would measure it, but it is the immeasurable impact Bon Jovi have made upon the lives of those touched by these songs that will remain the band's legacy.

Few bands embodied the era of pop-metal like Bon Jovi. By merging Def Leppard's loud but tuneful metal with Bruce Springsteen's working-class sensibilities, the New Jersey-based quintet developed an ingratiatingly melodic and professional variation of hard rock -- one that appealed as much to teenagers as to housewives. Bon Jovi skillfully employed professional songwriters to give their songs, especially their power ballads, an appropriately commercial sheen, inaugurating a trend that dominated mainstream hard rock and metal for the next decade. They also made simple performance videos that emphasized lead singer Jon Bon Jovi's photogenic good looks, and these clips helped propel 1986's Slippery When Wet and 1988's New Jersey into multi-platinum status around the world. Both records were criticized for being more pop than metal, as well as being targeted toward teenyboppers, yet the group managed to subtly change its image in the early '90s, moving away from metal and concentrating on straightforward arena rock and big ballads. The shift in style worked, and Bon Jovi was the only American pop-metal band of the '80s to retain a sizable audience throughout the following two decades.

Jon Bongiovi spent most of his adolescence ditching school to play rock & roll, usually in local bands with his friend David Rashbaum. Bongiovi's cousin Tony owned the famous New York recording studio the Power Station, which was where Jon hung out. He was hired as a janitor, and soon he was recording demos at the Power Station with several famous musicians, including members of the E Street Band and Aldo Nova. One of these demos, "Runaway," became a hit on local New Jersey radio, and Bongiovi formed Bon Jovi to support the song, recruiting not only Rashbaum, but also guitarist Dave Sabo, bassist Alec John Such, and drummer Tico Torres. Soon, Bon Jovi was the subject of a major-label bidding war, and the group -- or, according to some reports, just Bongiovi -- signed to Polygram/Mercury in 1983. Upon signing, Jon changed his last name to Bon Jovi in order to de-emphasize his ethnic background, and Rashbaum adopted his middle name, Bryan, as his last name. Before the group entered the studio, Bon Jovi replaced Sabo with Richie Sambora.

Bon Jovi's eponymous debut album was released in 1984, and "Runaway" became a Top 40 hit. Following its success, Tony Bongiovi sued the band, claiming he developed their successful sound; the group settled out of court. The following year, 7800 Fahrenheit was released and went gold. Despite the band's respectable success, Bon Jovi weren't becoming the superstars they had hoped, and they changed their approach for their next album, Slippery When Wet. Hiring professional songwriter Desmond Child as a collaborator, the group wrote 30 songs and auditioned them for local New Jersey and New York teenagers, basing the album's running order on their opinions. After ditching the original cover of a busty woman in a wet T-shirt for the title traced in water on a garbage bag, Slippery When Wet was released in 1986. Supported by several appealing, straightforward videos that showcased the photogenic Jon, the album eventually sold nine million copies in the U.S. alone, helping usher in the era of pop-metal. Two songs, "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer," reached number one, while "Wanted Dead or Alive" reached the Top Ten, and Bon Jovi were established as superstars.

Bon Jovi replicated the Slippery When Wet formula for 1988's New Jersey, which shot to number one upon its release. New Jersey was only slightly less successful than its predecessor, selling five million copies and generating two number one singles, "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There for You," as well as the Top Ten hits "Born to Be My Baby," "Lay Your Hands on Me," and "Living in Sin." In 1989, the band supported Cher, who was then dating Sambora, on her Heart of Stone album, which was recorded while the group was in the midst of an 18-month international tour. Following the completion of that tour, the band went on hiatus. During their time off, Jon Bon Jovi wrote the soundtrack for Young Guns II, which was released in 1990 as the Blaze of Glory album. The record produced two hit singles in the number one title track and the number 12 "Miracle," as well as earning Grammy and Oscar nominations.

The following year, Bon Jovi reunited to record their fifth album, Keep the Faith, which was released in the fall of 1992. While the album didn't match the blockbuster status of its predecessors, largely because musical tastes had shifted in the four years between New Jersey and Keep the Faith, it was nevertheless a big hit, and its more straightforward, anthemic sound produced the hit single "Bed of Roses." A hits collection, Cross Road, followed in 1994, and in the fall of 1995, they released These Days, which proved to be a bigger success in Europe than America. After appearing in the 1996 film Moonlight and Valentino, Jon Bon Jovi released his first official solo album in the summer of 1997.

Three years later, Bon Jovi regrouped and released Crush. "It's My Life" and "Thank You for Loving Me" were a chart hits, and Bon Jovi's star power soared beyond their wildest dreams. Crush eventually went double platinum in the U.S. and sold eight million copies worldwide, but Bon Jovi stayed focus. Within a year they returned with an eighth studio effort, Bounce, which appeared in fall 2002. Tours across the globe as well as dates with the Goo Goo Dolls fared well. In 2003 Bon Jovi re-recorded many of their most well-known songs for the release This Left Feels Right and followed it in 2004 with a DVD companion of the same title. The ambitious 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong four-CD/one-DVD box set of rarities arrived later that November, followed by the all-new Have a Nice Day and a greatest-hits anthology called Cross Road in 2005. The band spent the following year in the studio, putting the finishing touches on a collection of pop-infused heartland country anthems. The resulting Lost Highway, which featured duets with LeAnn Rimes and Big & Rich, arrived in the summer of 2007 and grabbed the band a healthy, new country music fan base in the process. Lost Highway's cross-genre formula proved to be quite potent indeed, securing the band its third number one album in the U.S., as well as topping the charts in Japan, Australia, Europe, and Canada. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide