“Always” by Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi wrote "Always" by himself, and Bon Jovi put it out on Mercury in September 1994 as a single from Cross Road, their first official greatest-hits set. It's a power ballad pitched at the back row of the arena: Jon on acoustic and electric guitar and the lead vocal, Richie Sambora's electric guitar wailing, David Bryan on keyboards, Tico Torres on drums and percussion. It was also the last single with Alec John Such on bass before he left the band late that year, and he, Bryan and Sambora stack up the backing vocals.

It paid off big: number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's 11th and final top-10 hit there, number one in Canada, Ireland and Switzerland among others, and sales that topped three million around the world, a million of them American. Marty Callner directed the video.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.