“The ‘We've gotta hold on’ was the first chorus. Jon was happy with that. I said, ‘No, no, no, that's just the B section. Let's write the chorus now’”: Songwriter Desmond Child had to fight for Livin' On A Prayer's killer chorus – and for the song itself

UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01: Photo of BON JOVI (Photo by Phil Dent/Redferns).

Sometimes, everyone involved can spot a hit as soon as it’s written, but on other occasions, it takes a while for the penny to drop.

Take Bon Jovi’s Livin’ A Prayer, for example, which Desmond Child – who wrote it with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora for 1986’s Slippery When Wet album – tells Elmo Lovano was a case in point. Its genius was revealed in stages, and sometimes by accident, and Jon Bon Jovi himself wasn’t convinced by it until fairly late in the piece.