Bon Jovi New Christmas Songs…and One He Did Forty Years Ago

How is it possible that Jon Bon Jovi has a Christmas song that is over 40 years old? Because it was the first thing he ever got paid to record!

Also, it’s got a children’s choir and it’s about a robot. You know what? I’ll pick that story back up after we look at his newest holiday recordings.

Jon Bon Jovi has released cover versions of three great holiday songs. None of the songs are obscure but they’re also not ones that you hear incessantly. Speaking of which, has anybody noticed how much the Seth McFarlane’s cover of “Everybody’s Waiting for the Man with the Bag” gets played in stores in outdoor malls? Seriously, I can’t go into a Home Goods during the month of December without having to hear that hot garbage.

The covers include The Pogue’s “Fairytale of New York”, Tom Petty’s “Christmas All Over” and Elvis’s “If I Get Home on Christmas Day”. Check out the Heartbreakers cover and tell me Bon Jovi doesn’t do a pretty impressive Petty:

Now, I’m sure you want to hear more about Jon Bon Jovi’s first Christmas recording which was also his first recording of any kind.

The year is 1980. The second Star Wars movie had just come out that summer and the frenzy was on to cash in on the film series in any and every way possible. Several songs were written that somehow tied in Christmas (which is an ancient holiday in OUR galaxy) and Star Wars (which has its own Xmas analog, Life Day, duh?!?). A talented recording engineer named Anthony Bongiovi was a co-producer of the album. When it came time to hire vocalists, Tony thought of his younger cousin, Jon, who was 18 and had a pretty decent voice. Jon Bongiovi recorded “R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. A couple years later he changed the spelling of his last name to Bon Jovi, recorded a bunch of songs about his friends Tommy and Gina and the rest is history.

Sadly, they never made a video for this song which WOULD have been rad.