‘I’ll Be There for You’: Bon Jovi’s Triumphant Power Ballad
Anthemic and yearning, this stadium-sized hit remains one of the New Jersey band’s key songs.
Cover: Courtesy of Island Def Jam Group
Classic Rock once described “I’ll Be There For You” as “a true power ballad as only Bon Jovi can write them,” and that’s certainly a claim that’s difficult to refute. After all, the enduring New Jersey rockers’ catalog boasts its fair share of evergreen, stadium-sized tearjerkers, with the likes of “Never Say Goodbye,” “Living In Sin,” “Thank You For Loving Me,” and “This Ain’t A Love Song” also more than deserving of a mention.
However, there’s always been something about “I’ll Be There For You” which sets it apart. A staple of romantic mixtapes, this epic, almost six-minute opus co-written by Jon Bon Jovi and original lead guitarist Richie Sambora is still as anthemic as they come, with Bon Jovi’s imploring lyric (“I’d live and die for you/I’d steal the sun from the sky for you”) all too capable of tugging at the heartstrings of anyone who’s ever loved and lost.
Distinguished by a dynamic musical backdrop featuring Sambora’s blues-y guitar licks, some superior harmonies, and a slow-burning build to the song’s widescreen chorus, “I’ll Be There For You” quickly earmarked itself as a possible smash hit.
It was duly chosen as the third of four singles from Bon Jovi’s fourth album, 1988’s New Jersey: one of the band’s cornerstone releases which remained at the top of the Billboard 200 for four consecutive weeks on the way to going seven times platinum in the U.S. alone.
“I’ll Be There For You”s striking, MTV-friendly video also helped raise the song’s profile. Directed by Wayne Isham (whose credits also include promos for Def Leppard, Janet Jackson, and The Rolling Stones), the clip memorably featured Bon Jovi performing on a dark stage illuminated by monochromatic blue lights before dramatically cutting away to black and white onstage footage filmed during the band’s recent three-night stand at London’s Wembley Arena.
The “I’ll Be There For You” visual captured Bon Jovi at the absolute peak of the band’s imperial late-80s glam-metal phase and it also helped the song’s irresistible rise up the charts, where it followed its immediate predecessor, “Bad Medicine,” to the No. 1 spot on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the Cash Box Top 100 in the spring of 1989.
Cementing its place in Bon Jovi folklore, “I’ll Be There For You” also became a permanent fixture during the band’s live show during its exhaustive Jersey Syndicate Tour in support of New Jersey.
An historic, two-year global trek which saw Bon Jovi becoming one of the first North American bands to play in Soviet-era Russia, the Jersey Syndicate set list included “I’ll Be There For You” each and every night and – to the delight of subsequent generations of fans – it’s remained a regular on-stage favorite ever since.
