You Give Love a Bad Name
song by Bon Jovi
"You Give Love a Bad Name" is a song by American rock band Bon Jovi, released as the first single from their 1986 album Slippery When Wet. Written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Desmond Child about a woman who has jilted her lover, the song reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on November 29, 1986, and became the band's first number-one hit. In 2007, the song re-entered the charts at No. 29 after Blake Lewis performed it on American Idol. Despite the lyrics of the chorus, the song should not be confused with "Shot Through the Heart", an unrelated song from Bon Jovi's 1984 self-titled debut album.
Composition
The chorus tune of "You Give Love a Bad Name" was originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler under the title "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)" with different lyrics commissioned by its producer Jim Steinman. Dissatisfied with its success in the US and the UK (which he attributed to reticence on the part of her label in promoting it), Desmond Child re-wrote the song with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.
Upon the release of the Ava Max song "Kings & Queens" in 2020, comparisons were drawn with that song, "You Give Love a Bad Name", and Bonnie Tyler's "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)", and reviews highlighted Desmond Child's credit as a songwriter for "Kings & Queens".
Reception
Cash Box called it a "jackhammer single" that could push Bon Jovi to massive success and said that "Jon Bon Jovi’s grinding vocal and the anthemic production spell A-O-R." Billboard called it "hard rock, raspy and aggressive." In a retrospective analysis, Chris Molanphy expressed his disgust at the song, calling its lyrics "sub-Meat Loaf" (Meat Loaf being best known for his work with Steinman).
The public source identifies “You Give Love a Bad Name” as song by Bon Jovi. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Give, Love and Name.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2080295. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 2007, 1984 and 2020.
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This entry incorporates text from “You Give Love a Bad Name” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.