There's not a lot to say about this cover. It is a generic 80s hair metal debut from an unestablished band. Lead singer, street at night, chick, sepia tone. The generic title font predates what would become the band's own custom serif font, which would be used on all subsequent efforts with minor variation. The photo on the cover is exactly the same one used on the "Runaway" single, which just seems lazy.
Here we have the classic logo/font, with the diamond in the middle, firmly in place. The picture is unusual not because it is an androgynous man entwined with flames, but because there appears to be a "T" cut out of the layering to reveal more of this person's face. It reminds me of Boba Fett's helmet. Of course the title, 7800° Fahrenheit, refers to the melting point of rock, which sounds like a joke in a blog post about Bon Jovi's album art, but is actually a fact.
One could say that between the years 1986 and 1988, Bon Jovi went through a transformation that dramatically impacted the trajectory of their career (no duh as they became worldwide superstars and millionaires), but one could also argue that this change is clearly evident simply in the album art of this same period. And it all began with Vertigo/Mercury's decision to reject the following cover for Slippery When Wet:
While this is a sweet cover, it's almost unfathomable to visualize where Bon Jovi would be today if this had been the actual art for their most iconic album. A band does not get to do certain things ('adult' things, like country-crossovers and AOR balladeering) with imagery like this attached to their catalogue. That they were so pissed off by their label'a decision on this matter, that they then decided to 'rush-design' a new cover by having someone in the band simply write the name of the album on a wet garbage bag, says a great deal about the band. If not having tits on their album covers at the apex of their career was a serendipitous occasion (inasmuch as what it allowed, in terms of mass appeal, for the rest of their career), then the graphic look of their next record was a stroke of sheer, calculated genius.
Perhaps inspired by the enormous success of their previous, minimally-designed album, Bon Jovi gives the world this. Generic stone banner on a marble background. Clearly high on their own talents for writing super catchy rock songs, this is a statement that says, "It doesn't matter how you package us, we will sell millions of records." New Jersey produced five top 10 singles, the most ever from a single album.
But this is not a cover that says "New Jersey." This is a cover that says "Burden" or "Masterful" or some other loaded one-word title that Creed might have considered in their heyday. And thus the dichotomy which bred Bon Jovi's ultimate success was born. At once solemn, reserved and serious for the adult set, Middle America, etc., yet still a little crazy for the teenagers in all of us. A marble wall says as much about Sayreville, NJ, as a garbage bag says about sex.
After this, there was no real need to continue on with the parallels--as is clearly evident from the football hand pact and corny doodle font of Keep the Faith. Bon Jovi had established their brand. So when we think about them we don't first think about hair metal or boobs. We think about this. And we only subconsciously think about this.
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