It's My Life (Bon Jovi song)

"It's My Life" is a song by American rock band Bon Jovi. It was released on May 8, 2000, as the lead single from their seventh studio album, Crush (2000). It was written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Max Martin, and co-produced by Luke Ebbin. The song peaked at number one in Austria, Flanders, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Switzerland while charting within the top 10 across several other countries and peaking at number 33 on the US Billboard Hot 100. "It's My Life" is Bon Jovi's most well-known post-1980s hit single and helped introduce the band to a new, younger fanbase.[3]

"It's My Life"
One of retail artworks
Single by Bon Jovi
from the album Crush
B-side"Next 100 Years"
ReleasedMay 8, 2000 (2000-05-08)[1]
Genre
Length3:44
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Bon Jovi singles chronology
"Real Life"
(1999)		 "It's My Life"
(2000)		 "Say It Isn't So"
(2000)
Music video
"It’s My Life" on YouTube

Background

The song has many classic Bon Jovi features, such as Sambora's use of the talk box, and a line in the second verse "For Tommy and Gina, who never backed down" refers to Tommy and Gina, a fictional working class couple that Bon Jovi and Sambora first wrote about in their 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer".

"It's My Life" is also notable for its line referencing fellow New Jerseyan Frank Sinatra: "My heart is like an open highway / Like Frankie said / I did it 'My Way'." Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora apparently had a disagreement over those lines, with Bon Jovi recalling:[4]

I had just come home from making U-571 and I said "Sinatra made 16 movies and toured till he was 80. This is my role model." He [Sambora] said, "You can't write that damn lyric. Nobody cares about Frank Sinatra but you." And I wrote it anyway.

In Paul Anka's cover of the song for his 2005 album Rock Swings, he sings the second line as "Frankie said he did it my way", since Anka wrote the English lyrics for "My Way".

Reception

"Nobody had anticipated the song 'It's My Life'," noted Jon Bon Jovi in 2007. "Except us. We knew we had a hit."[5] The song became an anthem that appealed to many fans. As Bon Jovi later stated:[6] "I thought I was writing very self-indulgently about my own life and where I was in it. I didn't realize that the phrase 'It's My Life' would be taken as being about everyone – by teenagers, by older guys, mechanics, whatever. 'It's my life, and I'm taking control.' Everyone kind of feels that way from time to time."

Veteran critic Robert Christgau later hailed "It's My Life" as a "schlock-rock masterpiece" and "everyman anthem" with a lyric that is "all well-meaning Democrat-as-everyman Jon Bon Jovi".[7]

Music video

The music video was directed by Wayne Isham. Will Estes (as Tommy) and Shiri Appleby (as Gina) are the two main characters.[8] At the beginning, Tommy is watching a video of a Bon Jovi concert on his computer when he is ordered by his mother to take out the trash. Suddenly, Gina calls and tells him to immediately come to the tunnel as the live concert has already started. Tommy starts running down to his apartment and obediently takes out the trash. He then runs through the streets of Los Angeles up to the concert, getting chased by dogs, running a marathon, posing for pictures, and jackknifing a truck. The video was inspired by the film Run Lola Run.[9] Jon Bon Jovi met Estes on the set of U-571 and chose him to be in the video. The music video features the 2nd Street Tunnel as one of the main settings.

It is the most viewed video for Bon Jovi on YouTube, reaching 1 billion views by the end of June 2021.[10]

Track listings

Acoustic version

A much slower, acoustic ballad version of the song is featured on Bon Jovi's 2003 album This Left Feels Right, a collection of their greatest hits that were adapted into new formats. This version was also released as a single. A live performance was uploaded to YouTube in May 2020.

Awards

Won:

  • "Video of the Year" at the VH1 My Music Awards[18]
  • Chosen as one of the greatest songs of the year at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards

Nominated:

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[72] Platinum 70,000^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[73] Platinum 50,000*
Belgium (BEA)[74] Platinum 50,000*
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[75] Platinum 90,000‡
France (SNEP)[76] Gold 250,000*
Germany (BVMI)[77] Platinum 500,000^
Italy (FIMI)[78] Platinum 50,000‡
Japan (RIAJ)[79]
PC download 		Gold 100,000*
Japan (RIAJ)[80]
Full-length ringtone 		Gold 100,000*
Netherlands (NVPI)[81] Gold 40,000^
Sweden (GLF)[82] Platinum 30,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[83] Platinum 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[84] Platinum 600,000‡
United States (RIAA)[85] 2× Platinum 2,000,000‡

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
United States May 8, 2000 Hot adult contemporary radio Island [1]
May 9, 2000
[1]
Japan May 10, 2000 CD Mercury [86]
United Kingdom May 22, 2000
  • CD
  • cassette
 [87]

See also

Notes
  1. "It's My Life" reached number 20 when RPM ceased publication in November 2000.
  2. "It's My Life" reached number 38 when RPM ceased publication in November 2000.
  3. "It's My Life" reached number 11 when RPM ceased publication in November 2000.

References
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  3. "It's My Life".
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  12. It's My Life (Australian maxi-CD single liner notes). Bon Jovi. Mercury Records. 2000. 562 756-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  13. It's My Life (UK CD1 liner notes). Bon Jovi. Mercury Records. 2000. 562 752-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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  15. It's My Life (European CD single liner notes). Bon Jovi. Mercury Records. 2000. 562 753-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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