Talk about way more than halfway there! The music video for Bon Jovi‘s classic single “Livin’ On a Prayer” officially crossed the billion view milestone on YouTube Wednesday (Feb. 1).
As the second single off the band’s 1986 breakthrough album Slippery When Wet, “Living On a Prayer” followed “You Give Love a Bad Name” as the New Jersey rockers’ second consecutive No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and dominated the chart for four consecutive weeks in February and March of 1987, sandwiched between Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” and “Jacob’s Ladder” by Huey Lewis and the News.
The music video, meanwhile, was filmed at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles and finds frontman Jon Bon Jovi belting out, “Tommy used to work on the docks/ Union’s been on strike, he’s down on luck/ It’s tough, so tough/ Gina works a diner all day/ Working for her man/ She brings home her pay for love, for love” as his bandmates flail above the stage on a fly system.
According to YouTube, the black-and-white visual filled with pyrotechnics becomes Bon Jovi’s second video to achieve the nine-digit viewership feat after 2000’s “It’s My Life.”
Last June, Alec John Such, Bon Jovi’s founding member and bassist from 1983 to 1994, sadly passed away at the age of 70. At the time, his former bandmates paid emotional tribute to him on social media, writing, “He was an original. As a founding member of Bon Jovi, Alec was integral to the formation of the band. To be honest, we found our way to each other thru him – He was a childhood friend of Tico and brought Richie to see us perform…Today those special memories bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. We’ll miss him dearly.”
Revisit Bon Jovi’s music video for “Livin’ On a Prayer” in the video above.
