11 June 2025
You can check the new playlist here:
Rolling List of Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – current day

And can find what I changed at the bottom of this post, in the “work done on THE LIST” section

—

Yes, it’s episode 2. But I didn’t have much more for you in episode 1 than a conclusion that obviously if I was serious about cataloging all unknown Bon Jovi songs?
Then my 2021 blogpost✏️ 102 Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – 2020 and its original playlist on YouTube, both required an update.
Or more likely;
A lifelong commitment.

I don’t think I even said that, I didn’t even get that far. I was still in denial in episode 1. But just mentioning that there was a list, and something needed to be done- well, that was simply all I could bring myself to do.

Now, honestly, I still have no idea how I ended up calling myself Rock Star Writer because if you’ve ever seen the extensive knowledge other Bon Jovi fans have, the commitment they bring to their fan art, the connection they create with the rest of the community, their level of expertise and maybe they do not suffer from what I’ve started calling “musical dyslexia” either;
Well, then it is not difficult to see I’m at least figuratively speaking not the sharpest pencil in the box.

Even the entire catalog itself, including the outtakes (unreleased songs) that were collected on the 2004 box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong, have already been reviewed AND kept up to date by Anthony Kuzminski in the article
All 359 Bon Jovi Songs Ranked Worst to Best
Which has been online since 2018, but has stopped featuring publishing date as well as fails to acknowledge the author. At least in the browser I am using. I’d advice VCR magazine to include them again, as authenticity and reliability are the new gold in the age of AI.
Kuzminski’s article is a prime example of the level AI will never be able reach.
(Amen)

However, it is also a level I will never reach either. And I will not even come close to AI’s attempt at recreating it, either.
So what will I have for you, in the upcoming years?
With my skills obviously lacking and my commitment ranging from erratic to absent.

I will give you depth.
I will give you meaning.
I will move you and I will rock you, and will leave no song unturned and let whatever we find there shock us, delight us or let it blow up in our face.

Together, we will uncover the deepest layers, hidden beneath deceivingly simple lyrics, and we will hunt the most remote and desolate lands of the Bon Jovi Universe.

Or, as Tony Kuzminski said it in his review of Wanted Dead or Alive, which he granted the honor of being the best Bon Jovi song at number 1;

“There’s something hidden in each of their psyches, where the fear of never being good enough drove them to be one of the biggest bands in the world.”

Bon Jovi is always hailed for being positive and inspirational, but that’s a hairspray and bubblegum version of a deeper truth.
It’s not about believing in yourself.

Your pain, your troubled past and your chronic self-doubt are not just what sets you apart from AI.
They’re more than flaws that do not make you any less lovable.

It is your deepest pain, that makes you great.
That, is Bon Jovi.

~Suzanne Beenackers
🇳🇱 Tikkie
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Subscribe to this blog for updates on THE LIST
and to my YouTube for the video series Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs

work done on THE LIST

In this 1st session, updating and refining the list with unknown Bon Jovi songs, I threaded lightly and limited myself to three actions:

1.removing cover songs

The songs I recognized as covers, and removed, were: “With a little help from my friends”, “Brother Louis”, “Fever”, “It’s my life – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”, “Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “I Don’t Like Mondays”, “Crazy”, “Tumblin’Dice”, “Heaven Help Us”, “Sylvia’s Mother”, “Hallelujah”, “Have A Little Faith In Me”
It’s possible I missed a few, which I’m sure will surface at a later and probably highly inconvenient date 😉
Cover songs will be getting their own playlist in the future. 

2.check if there were any new outtakes from their latest album Forever (2024) 

Yes!
“That Was Then This Is Now” was added to the list

3. Did I miss any? First 3 albums (BJ TOURS WEBSITE)

I went over their pages covering the first three albums, to see if there were any songs I’d missed. The first two albums only had one outtake (We Rule The Night) which was already on the list. But about the third album they write:
“Early songs that were either dropped during the recording process or never released with full production were: Stand Up, Deep Cuts The Night, Right Side, The Promise, Lonely Is The Night, Take Me Home, Never Enough, Game Of The Heart” 

Game Of The Heart as well as Deep Cuts The Night, are already on the list.
Neither Stand up nor Right Side could be found.
But the demo versions of The Promise, Lonely Is The Night, Take Me Home, and Never Enough were found and added to the list.

 

4. Brought to my attention

These welcome additions were given to me by a reader:

“We All Sleep Alone” live 1990, by Richie Sambora
“Mister Big Time” Jon Bon Jovi solo Armageddon soundtrack (1998)
“Nothing (2024 remaster by hAnD90)” (Have a Nice Day outtake, 2005)
+
A better version of “Starting All Over Again“.
The list contained the 2004 Box Set version, and now has one closer to the release date (prob. B-side to Keep the Faith single)

—
Those were the alterations for this first episode.

You can check this new shortened list here:
Rolling List of Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – current day

Foundational post (2021):
102 Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – 2020
Including highlights of The Best Bon Jovi Songs you’ve never heard of! 

Or go listen to the original 102 songs-long playlist here:
Bon Jovi 1985 – 2020 Hidden Gems In Chronological Order
Created in January 2021