"Bad Medicine" is a number-one single by American rock band
Bon Jovi. It was written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and
Desmond Child. It was released in 1988 as the lead single from
the band's massively successful album
New Jersey. The song is 5 minutes and 17 seconds
long.
The song climbed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the
Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, #17 in the UK and #15 in
Australia.
The song compares a love affair to a drug addiction ("now
this boy's addicted cause your kiss is the drug", "your love is
like bad medicine, bad medicine is what I need") and also has
many tongue-in-cheek medical analogies ("Let's play doctor,
baby cure my disease"; "There ain't no paramedic gonna save
this heart attack"; "I need a respirator cause I'm runnin' out
of breath").
The song is highlighted by a near constant keyboard playing
by David Bryan that is well defined in the beginning of the
song and at several interludes, as well as loud guitar playing
by Richie Sambora, background singing in the bridge and chorus,
and a loud fast-paced delivery of lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi. It is
one of the more upbeat and hard rocking songs on
New Jersey.
Towards the end of the song, Jon says he's got to go and
he's running out of breath, but then says "I'm not done...one
more time, with feelin'" and the band finishes out the song
with another repeat of the chorus.
There are two videos for the song, one with the band live in
concert, and the more well-known live video in which a crowd of
young people waiting in line to get into the Bon Jovi live
video shoot is asked by Sam Kinison if they (the public) "can
make a better Bon Jovi video than these guys can." The crowd
gives a very enthusiastic response, and members of the crowd
are given hand-held cameras and invited onstage to help shoot
the video.
The video was very groundbreaking at the time for using such
a fan-inclusive approach to making a music video, and captured
live shots not often captured by regular video crews.
The video was in color, although the quality given by the
hand-held video cameras was not as superb.,
"Bad Medicine" continues to see considerable airplay on many
rock radio stations and has always been a live staple at Bon
Jovi concerts. In concert, an approximately 1-minute interlude
of the classic "Shout" is incorporated into the middle of the
song.
The song was featured on the band's compilation album
Cross Road, the live album
One Wild Night: Live 1985-2001, the acoustic collection
This Left Feels Right, as well as several concert videos
including
Live From Londonand
The Crush Tour.
The song was covered by the post-punk band Allah & The
72 Virgins on their 2002 album
Name Me With My Title.