Bon Jovi tops Billboaed Country Chart
Ed Varner
Reuters
Bon Jovi has reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 four times in its
hit-studded career. But recently, it notched a first - not just for the
band, but for music history. The hit "Who Says You Can't Go Home" made
Bon Jovi the first rock band to land atop Billboard's Hot Country Songs
chart - a position it now holds for a second week.
The road to its first country hit began when the band's Jon Bon Jovi
and Richie Sambora created two versions of the song, both of which
appear on their current album "Have a Nice Day" (Island). The band-only
version is a hit on the adult top 40 and adult contemporary charts. The
country version features Jennifer Nettles, lead singer of country act
Sugarland.
At the time the duet was recorded, Sugarland was little known. Since
then, the band's album "Twice the Speed of Life" (Mercury) has sold 1.9
million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and the group has
landed three other top 10 songs.
But it was Keith Urban, not Nettles, whom the band initially approached
as a duet partner. Jon Bon Jovi asked Urban to sing and play banjo on
the track. The collaboration wasn't what either artist had in mind,
however. "Our voices were too similar," Bon Jovi says. "A banjo wasn't
really the way to go. But I now had the idea that this could really
work."
Bon Jovi says he didn't want his group seen as "carpetbaggers who were
going to say they're a country band suddenly." In fact, Bon Jovi
already had some familiarity in Nashville. Jon Bon Jovi has made
multiple trips to Music City for songwriting collaborations, and the
group has recorded and performed there many times, including laying the
tracks for the "These Days" album.
Jon Bon Jovi even spent five weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart in
1998 on a duet with Chris LeDoux, "Bang a Drum," and Bon Jovi's hit
"Wanted Dead or Alive" was recorded by country artist Chris Cagle on
his 2005 Capitol Records Nashville set, "Anywhere but Here."
"Who Says You Can't Go Home" is available as a digital download.
Starting May 23, the single and video will be available exclusively
through Target as a CD shrink-wrapped with Sugarland's album, "Twice
the Speed of Life."
wachov...@yahoo.com
A little bit of trivia: Bon Jovi and Diamond Rio are the only groups
who topped the country charts with their first country singles (I
think).
Ed Varner
wachov...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Who'da thunk it. (or however you spell that)
>
> A little bit of trivia: Bon Jovi and Diamond Rio are the only groups
> who topped the country charts with their first country singles (I
> think).
>
What about Lonestar? I believe "No News" was their first single,
although they may have released an earler single that didn't chart.
Ed