Continuing my look at the albums of 1986…

The top-selling album released in 1986 was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, and it wasn’t particularly close. The hard rock band’s third album sold more than 15 million copies in the U.S., five million more than the runner-up, Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill. That was enough to make this album the 20th top-seller in U.S. history.

Slippery When Wet earned that success on the backs of the three most enduring songs Bon Jovi ever recorded: ‘You Give Love a Bad Name,’ ‘Livin’ On a Prayer,’ and ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’ I’d never even heard any of the other seven tracks.

Most of those other tracks are throwaway rockers, as if the band knew what they had in the iconic trio and padded the runtime with filler. One exception is the power ballad ‘Never Say Goodbye,’ on which Jon Bon Jovi strives for the same dramatics present on ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ but falls short.

Another exception is final track ‘Wild in the Streets,’ which finds Bon Jovi doing his best imitation of fellow New Jerseyan Bruce Springsteen (even the title sounds like a Springsteen song). I like that one for its shamelessness as much as its sound.

The 19 albums that have sold more than this one in the U.S. are either greatest hits collections or records that resonate start to finish (think Rumours or Thriller). It’s fascinating that this otherwise generic hard rock collection made it into that stratosphere based on the strength of just three classic hits.