1984 · Behind the Songs
A song about a girl lost in the city, recorded before the band even existed.
A studio gopher’s demo
In 1982, Jon Bon Jovi was still a kid from Sayreville working odd jobs at New York’s Power Station studio, where his cousin Tony Bongiovi was a co-owner. When studio time opened up, Jon cut a demo of “Runaway” — a song about a young girl running wild through the city nights — using hired session musicians. Keyboardist Roy Bittan, bassist Hugh McDonald, guitarist Tim Pierce and drummer Frankie LaRocka played on the track. The band called Bon Jovi did not yet exist.
The demo found its way to WAPP, a New York rock station, which put it into rotation and included it on a compilation of local talent. Listeners called in, the song became a regional hit, and Mercury Records came calling. By the time the band Bon Jovi was assembled in 1983, “Runaway” was already its calling card.
Charts and legacy
Released as the debut single in late 1983 and featured on the band’s first album, Bon Jovi (1984), “Runaway” climbed to No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1984. It was a modest national showing, but it did exactly what a debut single should: it announced a new voice on rock radio and gave the band a song to build a career on. Decades later it remains a staple of the band’s live shows — the one they can never drop.
What to listen for
The keyboard riff that opens the record — bright, urgent and very 1984 — and the way Jon’s vocal already has the pleading quality that would define the band’s ballads. The session-player polish is audible too: this is a studio creation more than a band performance, which makes its success as a “band” debut all the more unusual.