"It’s My Life" - Bon Jovi

Todd, we got in two different promo CD singles for this in 2000, and here are all the particulars (there are no listed times). Todd, I would be happy to shoot you out tracks 2 & 3 for your analysis; let me know:

Bon Jovi-"It's My Life" (ISLR 15066-2)
1-(The Bon Jovi Hits Medley)
2-It's My Life (Mainstream Mix) (actual 3:42)
3-It's My Life (LP Version) (actual 3:43)
4-(Call Out Research Hook)
5-(Interview)

Bon Jovi-"It's My Life" (no #, but an officially issued Island/Def Jam promo CD single)
1-It's My Life (Z100) (Giants Mix) (actual 3:48) Bon Jovi is from New Jersey, are big NY sports fans, and this version includes several audio snippets, from then-NFL pregame/game commentators Terry Bradshaw and John Madden, just to name a couple. With our station located in southern CT, definitely "NY Giants football country", this was no doubt why we got in a copy of this 2nd promo CD single in the first place. I do remember us "spiking in" this version a bit on-air in 2000. I wouldn't suspect any stations outside of the NYC tri-state area would've received this second promo, for obvious reasons.

Edited by jimct

Hykker wrote: This may be a little off topic, but how many songs had regional special versions? One was Billy Idol's "Hot In The City" where the shouted "New York!!" was replaced by (insert your city here). Another, while not a top 40 hit per se (though it was a big country hit & one of her signature songs) was Terri Clark's "I Wanna Do It All". There is a line in the song about watching the Yankees play ball, we received a CD-R at our country station containing 2 alternate "Boston" versions replacing the dreaded Yankees with the Red Sox and Patriots. I'd guess there were versions for other cities as well.

Our local country station (Milwaukee) played Terri Clark's "I Wanna Do It All" with the Brewers and Packers inserted in the proper spots.

Growing up in the Minneapolis area, I also remember hearing the custom "Hot In The City". "My Town" by the Michael Stanley Band and "The Heart Of Rock & Roll" by Huey Lewis & The News also inserted local cities.

The first custom version I ever remember hearing was "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters ("you turn on the radio" replaced with "you turn on WLS").

Our local A/C station played the "Talkin' Twins" version of "Talkin' Baseball" by Terry Cashman.

Also, our local oldies station used to play the Minnesota version of "High School U.S.A." by Tommy Facenda.

I remember hearing a few different city versions of "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" by Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz (1998).

Also, the top 40 station I worked at in Detroit had a special version of "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys. She recorded the opening lines of the song as "I keep on listening toooooooooo DRQ....DRQ" and then the rest of the song was the same.

Update: I eventually did pick up the Now 5 CD, and it turns out that it does not contain the "Mainstream Mix" of "It's My Life" as I previously suspected. Perhaps the quickest and easiest way to differentiate it from the album version (note: the song was released only as a commercial 45 in the U.S. and is presumably the same as the album version) is to focus in at approximately the 0:48-0:50, 1:54-1:56, and 2:52-2:54 marks. At these points on the "Mainstream Mix", there is a loud, bright, "buzzy"-sounding electric guitar that leaps out into the forefront, primarily in the left channel. On the album version, the electric guitar sounds more muddy and subdued and is centered more evenly in both channels. The difference is quite noticeable when performing an A/B comparison.

To date, the "Mainstream Mix" of "It's My Life" has not appeared on any database CDs, based on audio snippets I've listened to for each one.