How Bon Jovi’s Persistence Paid off in His First Top 40 Hit

Folks love the music made by Jon Bon Jovi for a lot of reasons. Authenticity has to rank way up at the top of that list. Even as he’s become one of the biggest superstars in the business, he comes off like an Everyman, with all the struggles and concerns that go along with that title.

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Maybe that stems from the fact that he had to scratch and claw for success. His first Top 40 hit was a fine example. It came before he even had his band in place. And it might not have happened had he not been so persistent.

A Humble Start

Jon Bon Jovi was adjacent to music superstardom even before he could claim that elite status. As a young man, he dreamed of rock and roll success, forming bands and writing songs like millions of other dreamers. To give himself a leg up, he started at the bottom of the industry.

Bon Jovi’s cousin Tony Bongiovi worked in the record business. He had even helped to found The Power Station, one of the hottest recording studios in New York City in the 80s. (A supergroup even took its name from it.) To do his cousin a solid, Tony hired Jon as a janitor.

In between sweeping floors and cleaning toilets, Jon Bon Jovi would occasionally throw together a demo. And his cousin’s place in the business helped him attract some top talent to record those demos. On one occasion, the cast included Roy Bittan, keyboardist for none other than Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

“Runaway” Success

Bittan’s keyboard played into the song that would become Bon Jovi’s breakthrough. Whenever he traveled into New York City from Jersey, he’d note the folks hanging out on the streets, many of whom seemed to be in the same spot every day. He imagined how they might have ended up there. With his co-writer George Karak, he penned “Runaway”.

For an early songwriting effort, “Runway” is quite accomplished and empathetic. Bon Jovi and Karak note how the title character thinks she’s escaping her distressed home life by going to the big city. But she only finds herself in a different kind of prison.

Coupled with the intensity of the arrangement put together by Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn, the song seemed like a natural for early 80s rock radio. But the demos sent out by Bon Jovi were uniformly returned with rejection letters.

Luckily, Bon Jovi proved to be as savvy as he was talented. He honed in on a new rock radio station in NYC called WAPP, nicknamed “The Apple”. Since the station was just starting out when Bon Jovi visited in 1982, they didn’t even have a receptionist to run interference. The artist walked right in and handed his demos to the folks who had a chance to put them on the air.

A Star in Need of a Band

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before WAPP started playing “Runaway” on the regular. They also included it in a compilation of local artists. The former janitor suddenly was getting contacted by the same labels that had turned him down. He scored a major label deal.

The only problem was that he didn’t have a band. He quickly threw one together to release the Bon Jovi album in 1984. “Runaway”, the same version made with the session players, was officially released as the lead single. In early ’84, it squeaked into the Top 40 at No. 39.

Obviously, much bigger hits were on the way for Jon Bon Jovi and the band named after him. But one wonders if they ever would have been afforded that chance if their leader hadn’t been such a pest about peddling “Runaway”.

Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns