Songfacts®:

• "Runaway" was the first hit for Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi wrote it in 1982 with his early collaborator, George Karak, and it gained popularity in the band's home state of New Jersey. Despite the success of the song, the band continued to struggle. They were a popular live act, but didn't make much money until they released their Slippery When Wet album two years later.
• This song tells the story of a young girl who gets so little attention from her parents that she runs away from home and lives on the streets, doing what she can to survive. Jon Bon Jovi would often take a Greyhound bus from New Jersey into Manhattan, where he saw many young people trying to get away in desperation. These are the people who inspired the song.
• Jon Bon Jovi recorded "Runaway" with studio musicians because he didn't have a band yet. On guitar was Tim Pierce, whose work can be heard on albums by Rod Stewart, Demi Lovato, Joe Cocker and many others. Roy Bittan of Bruce Springsteen's E Street band played keyboards and Frankie La Rocka on drums.
  
  On bass was Hugh McDonald, who played on Bon Jovi's early albums and replaced Alec John Such as Bon Jovi's bass player in 1994. McDonald, though, was not considered an official member of the band.
• Jon Bon Jovi would often introduce this song in concert with a story about how he brought it to the Long Island radio station WAPP. His rap usually went something like this:
  
  It's 1983, and some young punk kid walks in a radio station. He grabs this DJ by the collar, he says, "Hey Mister, I've go the right chords, and a cool melody. What do you say to do me a favor, and in three minutes and thirty seconds, what you're going to see is a rock and roll star."
  
  Jon had sent the cassette of the song to every record label and manager he could think of, but he got no response. WAPP was a new station and didn't even have a receptionist, so he was able to walk in and plead his case to the DJ, Chip Hobart, and the promotion director, John Lassman. They played the song and included it on their "Homegrown" compilation album of local bands. Another radio station, WDHA in New Jersey, also put the song on their compilation album of unsigned acts, which got the band some attention. Derek Shulman, who led the prog-rock band Gentle Giant before taking a job at Mercury Records, signed the band. In a Songfacts interview, Shulman explained that it wasn't so much the music that led him to sign the band, but the "potential of marketing and promotion" - he knew these guys were driven to succeed and had a great story - on Jon Bon Jovi would tell from the stage decades later.
• The song aged well, remaining a fan favorite and usually getting a slot on Bon Jovi's setlists. It's one of Jon Bon Jovi's favorites, as it glossy and anthemic, but also with a socially conscious message.
• Dave "The Snake" Sabo played guitar when Jon Bon Jovi toured to showcase the song but was replaced by Richie Sambora before the album was released. Sabo went on to form Skid Row; when they released their debut album in 1989, Bon Jovi brought them on tour.
• In a 1986 interview with Spin magazine, Jon Bon Jovi had some harsh words for the music video. He said: "I hate videos. If you wanted to torture me you'd tie me down and force me to watch our first five videos. Five times you're chump before you learn what you're doing. The first time we'd just made a record and we were all excited and some a--hole decides we're going to make a video for 'Runaway.' So instead of making it about what the song's about, he decides to put a concept to it with his little niece in it. It's the worst piece of s--t I ever saw in my life. There's a girl with like fire coming out of her eyes. They dressed the band. Richie's wearing a jumpsuit and shoes that are three sizes too big. They kept squirting us down with this greasy solution to make it look like we were sweating. We all look like assholes."
• A live version was used as the B-side of "Lay Your Hands On Me" in 1989.
• Before performing this in 2003, Jon Bon Jovi introduced it by saying, "If you see this song down at the beach, buy it a drink - it's finally old enough."
• This was used in the season 2 Stranger Things episode "The Lost Sister" when Eleven runs away to Chicago to find her "sister."