Bon Jovi – Bad Medicine

“Bad Medicine” – Single by Bon Jovi from the album New Jersey
B-side: “99 in the Shade”
Released: September 12, 1988
Label: Mercury
Songwriters: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child
Producer: Bruce Fairbairn
Charted No.1 in US, No.17 in UK, No.54 in West Germany, No.5 in Canada

There are two videos for the song, one with the band live in concert, and a more well-known live video which begins with a crowd of young people waiting in line to get into the video shoot. Before being let in, one of the security guards asks if there are any questions, and Sam Kinison asks if the video will “be the same of video slop that we get from these glam rock pretty boys”. When he answers “yes”, Kinison rallies the crowd to hijack the cameras and “make a better Bon Jovi video than these guys can.” The members of the crowd are given hand-held cameras and invited onstage to help shoot the video.

Bad Medicine (version 1)

Bad Medicine (Version 2)

This song compares a love affair to a drug addiction and contains many tongue-in-cheek medical analogies (“There ain’t no paramedic gonna save this heart attack”). It was the third #1 that Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote with Desmond Child.

This song was released as the lead single from Bon Jovi’s fourth album, New Jersey. It was one of the band’s most successful songs, their third #1 in America, following “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Livin’ On A Prayer.” Before they settled on the name of their home state for the album title, New Jersey, the band considered Sons Of Beaches and 68 And I Owe You One, which they declined because they didn’t want to be seen as comedians.

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