Runaway

Jon Bon Jovi recorded Runaway at the Power Station in New York with session musicians who became known as the All Star Revue: Roy Bittan, Tim Pierce, Frankie LaRocka and Hugh McDonald. Mick Seeley wrote the keyboard intro. After record companies turned it down, a radio DJ encouraged Jon to enter a contest for unsigned bands run by WAPP 103.5, The Apple. It won, and became a radio hit in the summer of 1983. It was the first single from the debut album and reached number 39 on the Hot 100 in early 1984.

Jon told the Guardian in 2024 that when he heard it on the radio for the first time, driving to his parents' house in Sayreville, he wanted to roll the windows down and drive fast. Since the early 1990s it has been the only song from the first two albums played regularly. He said in 2007 that a couple of songs on the debut hold up, and that Runaway definitely does. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame calls it the single that started it all.