With the summer fast approaching, New Jersey stalwarts Bon Jovi are celebrating their 30th anniversary by, 25 years later, revisiting one of their biggest hits: fourth album New Jersey.
Released in the fall of 1988, New Jersey was the follow-up to 1986's Slippery When Wet, the band's commercial breakthrough which spun off the No. 1 hits "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer," plus the Top 10 stadium classic "Wanted Dead or Alive." Working again with producer Bruce Fairbairn and songwriters Desmond Child, Holly Knight and Diane Warren, New Jersey - originally conceived as a double album called Sons of Beaches - was an expert repetition of the emotional and musical beats that made its predecessor such a touchstone of '80s rock. And the results were even more stellar: the album spawned five Top 10 singles - "Bad Medicine" (No. 1), "Born to Be My Baby" (No. 3), "I'll Be There for You" (No. 1), "Lay Your Hands on Me" (No. 7) and "Living in Sin" (No. 9) - and was certified seven times platinum.
To commemorate this milestone, New Jersey is being remastered and expanded in two different formats: a standard double-disc deluxe edition includes three original B-sides and 13 unreleased demos and outtakes from the Sons of Beaches sessions, and a super deluxe box adding expanded book packaging and a DVD of two rare features: Access All Areas: A Rock & Roll Odyssey, a Wayne Isham-directed feature on the band from 1990, and seven promo videos, including a live version of album cut "Blood on Blood" and two versions of "Bad Medicine." (A single-disc straight remaster will also be available.)
The New Jersey celebration kicks off July 1. Hit the jump to check out the track list and pre-order your copies!
New Jersey: Deluxe Edition (Mercury/UMe, 2014)
1CD remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD/1DVD Super Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Disc 1: Original LP (released as Mercury 836 345-1, 1988) and bonus tracks
- Lay Your Hands on Me
- Bad Medicine
- Born to Be My Baby
- Living in Sin
- Blood on Blood
- Homebound Train
- Wild is the Wind
- Ride Cowboy Ride
- Stick to Your Guns
- I'll Be There for You
- 99 in the Shade
- Love for Sale
- The Boys Are Back in Town (from Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell - Mercury 842 093-1, 1989
- Love is War (B-side to "Living in Sin" - Mercury 876 070-7, 1988)
- Born to Be My Baby (Acoustic) (B-side to "Lay Your Hands on Me" - Mercury 874 452-7, 1989)
Disc 2: Sons of Beaches Demos (previously unreleased)
- Homebound Train
- Judgment Day
- Full Moon High
- Growin' Up the Hard Way
- Let's Make It Baby
- Love Hurts
- Backdoor to Heaven
- Now and Forever
- Wild is the Wind
- Stick to Your Guns
- House of Fire
- Does Anybody Really Fall in Love Anymore?
- Diamond Ring
Disc 3: DVD (all content previously unreleased on DVD)
- Access All Areas: A Rock & Roll Odyssey (released as Mercury/Polygram laserdisc 082 767-1, 1990)
- New Jersey: The Videos (released as Mercury/Polygram laserdisc 081 325-1, 1989)
- Bad Medicine (1st Version)
- Born to Be My Baby
- I'll Be There for You
- Lay Your Hands on Me
- Living in Sin
- Blood on Blood (Live)
- Bad Medicine (2nd Version)
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I have always liked New Jersey. With hindsight I think it ended up being their best album.
I very much want this box set. There's a lot of material that I only have on poor sounding bootlegs. There are other things I don't have at all.
Correction -- 1 song I don't have at all. Born to be My Baby acoustic version. But the Sons of Beaches, I only have that on CD bootleg.