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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:35 pm

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF TOMMY & GINA
From Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, New Jersey and Crush
Polygram/Mercury Records

You probably went to high school with Tommy and Gina.
Hell, we all did.
You remember Tommy: good-looking kid, lost the mullet at about the same
time his acne started clearing up. Would have made the track team if the coach hadn't
caught him smoking in the parking lot. And Gina, the cute blonde with the big hair? Pretty as
a cheerleader, and might have made the squad if the coach hadn't caught her smoking in the parking lot.
They met at the beginning of their junior year and were voted Cutest Couple by the student body.

They loved each other in that raw, doomed, stupid, hellbent-for-leather way
that only kids can, and married right out of high school in the early '80s. And
to the surprise of nearly everybody, they're still together almost 20 years later.

It's fair to say that Jon Bon Jovi knows Tommy and Gina best, and has kept in touch
with them over the years. The fictitious Tommy and Gina in some ways mirror the real-life
Mr. and Mrs. Jon Bon Jovi, former Sayreville War Memorial High School sweethearts Jon Bongiovi and
Dorothea Hurley.

Bon Jovi first let us know what they were up to on "Livin' on a Prayer," the 1986 hit co-written
by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child:

Things aren't going well. Tommy's been laid off from his job on the docks, Gina's on her feet all day,
waiting tables. Even rock 'n' roll doesn't seem to be able to deliver on its promises. Tommy's guitar is,
after all, in the pawnshop. Every night, it seems they drop into bed exhausted and lost, even to one another.
Love may not be enough to hold them together:

"Gina dreams of running away, when she cries in the night Tommy whispers: 'Baby, it's OK... someday'"
the singer reports, and the only thing that's going to carry them into the morning and through to that
uncertain "someday" is a kind of existential faith:

"We're half way there
Livin' on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it, I swear
Livin' on a prayer."

Things tend to look better in the morning, and prayer is sometimes answered.
Tommy and Gina must have survived that early rock 'n' roll Gotterdammerung,
because the next time we catch up to them is in "99 in the Shade" from the 1988 album New Jersey.

The singer's heading home for a summer reunion, apparently. He's going to hook up with the
old crowd and together they'll raise a little hell, just like in the old days.

"I feel I'm burning up with fever, but the fire's feeling really good tonight," he sings.
"I'm gonna see Sahara Jack and Suntan Sally. Somebody tells me even Tommy's coming down tonight,
if Gina says it's all right."

It's like a postcard: You're damned glad to hear the news that Tommy and Gina are still together,
but the message leaves too many unanswered questions. For one thing, why isn't Gina coming to the party?
She'd probably want to see Suntan Sally, too. Maybe she's stuck at home with the kids.
And what's this about Tommy coming, if Gina says it's all right? Talk about being "whipped."

Twelve years later, Bon Jovi checks in with them again, on "It's My Life" from Crush. They're still together,
both a little less starry-eyed and a little less teary-eyed.

"This ain't a song for the broken-hearted," the singer tells us before getting down to exactly who the song is for:
"This is for the ones who stood their ground, for Tommy and Gina, who never backed down."
And yet, this is no time for complacency: "Tomorrow's getting harder," we hear. "Luck ain't even lucky.
Got to make your own breaks."

Which, of course has always been true. But like Tommy and Gina,
we learn those lessons only over time, only with someone by our sides and a three-chord prayer in our hearts.

Press Staff Writer Michael Riley is an ordained Baptist minister.

Published on July 27, 2001
Copyright 1997-1999 IN Jersey.