Slippery When Wet (1986)
Sold 12 million copies
Includes the #1 singles "Livin' on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name" as well as the other hits "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Never Say Goodbye".

New Jersey (1988)
Sold 7 million copies
Includes the #1 singles "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There for You" as well as the other hits "Born to Be My Baby", "Lay Your Hands on Me", and "Living in Sin"

Slippery When Wet is one I know more about. So I went for that.

I am a HUGE Bon Jovi fan.....I have all their albums....

"New Jersey" is a great album, But "Slippery When Wet" was what made me a life-long Jovi fan!

That entire album is good........"Love is a Social Disease", "Raise your Hands", "Wild in the Streets", as well as the traditionals "Livin on a Prayer, You give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Never Say Goodbye" 

Rock On! 
BON JOVI ...a "Rock N Roll Hall of Fame" Hopeful.....eligible in 2009!

"Slippery When Wet"  8)

New Jersey, but just barely.

Slippery When Wet! I loved Living in Sin from New Jersey. Hell, I still have them on tape!

Tanya

I dig everything they did up until Keep The Faith.

These were both great albums, but my fave of the bunch is still the self-titled debut.

"Never Say Goodbye" also happens to be the last song that was played at my prom (class of '94).

I really wanted to have that song played at our prom, but was worried that the DJ wouldn't have it, so I brought my copy from home.

Rock.

Slippery When Wet :)

Slippery When Wet.




Cat

I like all 4 of their 80's albums, but I've got a sentimental attachment to Slippery When Wet - that was the album that introduced me to "metal" back in '87 at the age of 5! :)

(I admit it's soft compared to, say Metallica, but it helped get me used to the overall sound of metal.)

Even though it's considered hair metal, to me it's closer to Night Ranger or Van Halen than to Warrant and other copycay hairbands.

"You Give Love a Bad Name" was a pumped up pop/metal anthem, as were album tracks like the dramatic "I'd Die for You" and "Wild in the Streets". The huge "Livin' on a Prayer" was more on the melodic rock side, while "Never Say Goodbye" is one of the best love song/power ballads of this genre too. "Wanted Dead or Alive" is a very unique cowboy anthem-type ballad.

(That song reminds me of 1885 in Back to the Future Part 3!  8) )

Their debut was almost as good (I love "Shot Through the Heart" and "Runaway"), even if it didn't have any real ballads. 7800* Fahrenheit was a little uneven, but had some great rockers and power ballads too - some with a slightly darker edge.

New Jersey is probably my least favorite - the singles "Bad Medicine" and "Lay Your Hands on me" were the best. Other than a couple other Slippery-esque album tracks, it was veering too much in the vein on Jon's later 90's work, which while I give him credit for expanding past the Def Leppard/Night Ranger sound, just is far less catchy to me.

I knew I'd be in the minority, but I liked "New Jersey" better. 

"Slippery When Wet" came out the year I turned 14, and my brother, then 11, played the thing to death.  An overplayed song, no matter how good, grows stale eventually -- and unfortunately, that happened for me with "Living On A Prayer," "You Give Love A Bad Name," and "Wanted Dead Or Alive." 

It DIDN'T happen with "Never Say Goodbye" because he tended to fast forward through that song!  ;D

When "New Jersey" came out, I was entering a rebellious stage, cutting class, smoking, etc., and the songs just hit me in the right place.  Plus, by that time, my brother had moved on from hair metal to thrash, so he didn't overplay this one!  ;D

Rock On! 
BON JOVI ...a "Rock N Roll Hall of Fame" Hopeful.....eligible in 2009!



I hope so!  I think he's earned it!

"Never Say Goodbye" also happens to be the last song that was played at my prom (class of '94).

I really wanted to have that song played at our prom, but was worried that the DJ wouldn't have it, so I brought my copy from home.

Rock.




That song was gonna be the theme of our ninth-grade dance (I went to a junior high: 7/8/9), but it was replaced by Atlantic Starr's "Always" after the teachers heard the lyrics about skipping school and "losing more than that in my back seat."

They're both great albums but I chose Slippery When Wet.

I have locked voting now, as Slippery When Wet is the clear winner.  It is the album that defined 80s pop-metal and really broke the band into the mainstream.  New Jersey, IMO, had better music quality and songwriting, but SWW was just pure fun and pure pop-metal...and very catchy.  And the songs on SWW are legendary.

So, there you have it.

Slippery When Wet: 9 votes (75%)
New Jersey: 3 votes (25%)