Underrated Bon Jovi Songs That Aren't As Overplayed As Livin' On A Prayer

"Livin' on a Prayer" is an '80s classic rock song worth an astounding amount of money, but its enduring popularity since its release in 1986 has left it overplayed. Bon Jovi, led by Jon Bon Jovi for more than 40 years, has a vast catalog of more than a dozen albums and has sent a whopping 17 singles into the Top 40. While a lot of those past hits still garner plenty of radio play and streaming spins all these decades later, none have saturated our ears to the point of "that's enough" like "Livin' on a Prayer."

We're not saying that "Livin' on a Prayer" is a bad song. There's a lot to like: earth-shaking riffs, shimmering keyboards, that talking-guitar effect, and Mr. Bon Jovi wailing a tale of an economically unfortunate but romantically devoted couple. Those elements can be found in plenty of other Bon Jovi songs from across its history. There are so many, in fact, that Bon Jovi fans can put "Livin' on a Prayer" aside and check out some lesser-known cuts by the biggest band to ever emerge from New Jersey. Here are some great Bon Jovi songs you may not have heard that we think rival "Livin' on a Prayer."

Bon Jovi was once strongly considered a hair metal band, but the group predated that rock era by several years. Before it found that sound in the late 1980s, Bon Jovi was more of a new wave act, meaning it was highly reliant on electronic drums and keyboards with a mere through-line of hard rock guitar. That vibe can be heard on "Runaway," Bon Jovi's first Top 40 hit in early 1984, and in the follow-up flop, "She Don't Know Me."

A few years before it would unleash the bombastic "Livin' on a Prayer," Bon Jovi hinted at its flair for the dramatic with "She Don't Know Me." It's got a slightly melancholy, just-off melody that's still very catchy, indicative of a lot of pop-rock coming out in the early 1980s. That little bit of heartbreak to go along with the upbeat riff — which sounds a lot like the rapid-fire building one from Journey's "Don't Stop Believin', also of that era — serves the romantically forlorn lyrics. That combo makes this sound like the kind of thing that could've been used for a montage on a light TV drama of the day, like "Magnum P.I" or "Simon and Simon," or that one would hear blasting from a boombox at the beach.

This 1985 track should be of interest to '80s rock fans who want to hear how a band's sound can palpably evolve in a relatively short period of time. "The Hardest Part is the Night," a non-charting single from Bon Jovi's second album, "7800° Fahrenheit," acts as a bridge between the group's early '80s hard-new-wave phase and its later, definitive hair-metal era. The song is pure, fist-pumping, crowd-pleasing, arena rock that reaches for the stars and gets there.

"The Hardest Part is the Night" rocks good and hard with some heavy drums and guitar riffs, but with numerous fills from both sections and some ambitious keyboard work, too. The hooky chorus on this whole band effort also makes for great crowd-sing-along material. It plays like a warm-up for "Livin' on a Prayer," as it's similarly an anthem about hanging in there and trying to live authentically from the inside of a desperate situation.

By the 1990s, it was common music industry practice to throw a couple of brand-new songs onto a greatest hits album — thus enticing a band's biggest fans to purchase a collection of tunes they probably already owned otherwise. The 1994 disc "Cross Road: The Best of Bon Jovi" featured two new singles: the Top 5 smash hit power ballad "Always" and the completely ignored "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night." General audiences missed out on a Bon Jovi song that moved the band in a new musical direction, while also taking another look at some ideas it explored back in its hair-metal heyday.

A gently inspiring roots rocker that presaged the band's dabbling in country music, which won Bon Jovi its only Grammy in 2007, "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" is a spiritual successor to "Livin' on a Prayer." It's a sobering, empathetic story-song about hard-luck individuals. Like Tommy and Gina in "Livin' on a Prayer," the characters in "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" are just trying to get by against long odds. The track calls out society's ills while also offering hope; this one is for the survivors, and the awkward title makes that clear.

All of those famous hair metal bands from the '80s broke up or faded into obscurity — but not Bon Jovi. When the grunge movement began in the early '90s, Bon Jovi didn't disappear but rather remained savvy enough to continue to evolve. By 1995, Bon Jovi had ditched the hair-metal trappings in favor of a more straightforward rock sound that wasn't too different from that of radio-friendly alternative rock bands of the era, mixed with the blues-sampling flavor of a then-resurgent Aerosmith. Still, "Something for the Pain," a single off the 1995 album "These Days," failed to penetrate commercially, peaking at a lowly No. 76 on the Hot 100. 

The tune is powered by a soaring, sliding, bluesy-country riff. While the music represents Bon Jovi's attempt at '90s alt rock, the lyrics self-consciously rib that genre's generally downbeat nature. In his vocals, Jon Bon Jovi calls out for — and subsequently provides — a balm for all the bad news and bad attitudes he's grown tired of encountering.