Recorded from January through July 1986 at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver, Canada, the album was the result of a remarkably deliberate combination of songwriting, production, engineering, and performance. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn and engineered by a then-unknown Bob Rock, it took the band’s existing strengths and expanded them into a huge, polished sound designed for arenas and radio. At the same time, the addition of outside songwriter Desmond Child helped Bon Jovi sharpen its knack for turning working-class stories and relationship dramas into instantly memorable anthems.

Commercially, the results were extraordinary. “Slippery When Wet” spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was named by Billboard as the top-selling album of 1987. At last count, it had sold 15 million copies in the United States alone. Yet while Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora understandably became the faces of the phenomenon (keyboardist David Bryan, bassist Alec John Such, and drummer Tico Torres rounded out the band’s lineup), three men working behind the scenes played crucial roles in transforming a promising young band into an arena-rock machine.

Watch behind-the-scenes video footage of Bon Jovi from this era here:

Desmond Child’s Songwriting Sharpened Bon Jovi’s Biggest Hits

Desmond Child’s contribution to “Slippery When Wet” was arguably the most immediately obvious. Bon Jovi already had Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora as a formidable songwriting team, but bringing in Child gave the band another songwriter who understood how to take a good rock song and make it feel enormous. Child co-wrote four songs on the album with Bon Jovi and Sambora: “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Without Love,” and “I’d Die for You.”

The first two, of course, became defining Bon Jovi songs. “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” weren’t simply hard-rock tracks; they were enormous sing-along records built around instantly recognizable hooks and characters who seemed to have stepped out of everyday life. In a 2024 interview with Songfacts, Child pointed out: “When we had the success with ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ and ‘Livin’ On A Prayer,’ it changed the course of popular music.” He also added that bands began moving away from the typical “‘she’s hot’ kind of songs” toward more story-driven material.

Desmond also understood something fundamental about Bon Jovi’s appeal: the band could turn those stories into something aspirational. Asked by Songfacts what Bon Jovi could bring to a song that other artists couldn’t, Child answered, “Star power,” before describing the group’s “singular vision of being working-class heroes.” He pointed specifically to “Livin’ on a Prayer” and its message of refusing to give up despite failure. That perspective helped explain why Bon Jovi’s songs connected far beyond the traditional hard-rock audience: the characters weren’t impossibly wealthy rock stars; they were people trying to make something of themselves.

The music video for “You Give Love a Bad Name” can be viewed here:

How Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock Built the Sound of ‘Slippery When Wet’

If Child helped make the songs bigger, Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock helped make the record sound bigger. Fairbairn was already an established Vancouver producer, and Little Mountain Sound had become a significant recording destination. But “Slippery When Wet” represented a major opportunity to take Bon Jovi’s developing sound and give it the scale that its songs demanded. Fairbairn wasn’t simply trying to make a loud rock record; he was trying to capture a band that was playing at a high level and make that energy translate through speakers everywhere.

In a 1998 interview with The Georgia Straight, later reposted by Ear of Newt, Fairbairn remembered that the expectations surrounding the project were initially modest. “All we were hoping for was just to get a good-sounding record,” he recalled, explaining that he and Jon had discussed a goal of selling 500,000 copies. Fairbairn also revealed that he nearly lost the job during the rehearsal process. After listening to the songs for several days, Jon told him, “Bruce, you’re not doin’ it,” because Fairbairn wasn’t contributing enough. Fairbairn’s response was essentially that he wanted to understand the band before trying to change it.

That patience ultimately proved invaluable, while Bob Rock’s role was equally important to the record’s sonic identity. Rock was working with Fairbairn at Little Mountain as an engineer, and “Slippery When Wet” became a crucial stepping stone toward the career he would eventually build as a producer. In a 2017 interview with Decibel, Rock recalled that he had been promised a production point for his work with Fairbairn, only for the arrangement to change after Bon Jovi became successful. The experience ultimately convinced him that he could produce records himself. “So the boot from Little Mountain was the greatest thing that happened to me,” Rock said.

The fascinating thing about Slippery When Wet is that none of these contributors overshadowed Bon Jovi. Instead, they amplified what the band already had. Child supplied songs that could reach far beyond the band’s existing audience, Fairbairn provided the production vision and discipline, and Rock helped create the enormous sonic architecture underneath it all.

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora may have been the principal faces and creative forces of Bon Jovi, but Slippery When Wet was not created by two people working in isolation. It was a carefully assembled team effort that took a young New Jersey band and gave it the songwriting, production, and sonic firepower necessary to conquer the world.

And lastly, you can enjoy the music video for “Livin’ on a Prayer” over here: