Bon Jovi released 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong in the United States on November 16, 2004. The four-CD, one-DVD box set gathered 38 previously unreleased recordings and 12 rarities, making songs that had missed earlier albums the center of a major catalog release.
There was a substantial backlog to draw from. Richie Sambora told Billboard that he and Jon Bon Jovi would write between 30 and 50 songs while working toward an album of 10 or 12 tracks. Some were left behind because they didn't suit the direction of that particular record. Reopening the archive gave those decisions a second hearing, with material dating from 1985 through 2003 sharing space across the collection.
Longtime engineer Obie O'Brien handled the search, bringing recordings back to the band for selection. The musicians made small adjustments to some tracks but left most previously unreleased material substantially as O'Brien found it, as they explained in their 2004 box-set FAQ. Jon described spending only a few hours apiece on additional work. The band was also writing and recording new music while the archive project took shape.
Each CD was sequenced to work as an individual album instead of following recording dates. That allowed different stages of the songwriting process to sit together. “The Radio Saved My Life Tonight” came from a 1992 demo, while the fourth disc placed a studio recording of “Love Ain't Nothing But a Four Letter Word” directly before its original demo. The pairing gave listeners a comparison between a working version and a more developed recording within the same stretch of music.
Other inclusions gathered songs that had already reached listeners through different routes. “Good Guys Don't Always Wear White” had appeared on the soundtrack to The Cowboy Way, and “Edge of a Broken Heart” came from Disorderlies. “Real Life,” originally associated with EDtv, received a remix for the box. Collecting those songs alongside unreleased recordings connected the band's soundtrack work to its larger catalog.
The third disc also moved the lead microphone around. Drummer Tico Torres sang “Only in My Dreams,” while Sambora's “If I Can't Have Your Love” was an unreleased solo recording. Keyboardist David Bryan contributed “Memphis Lives in Me” from the musical Memphis. The collection made space for the members' work beyond their familiar instrumental roles in Bon Jovi.
The package marked the debut album's 20th anniversary and what Island reported as 100 million records sold worldwide. Its DVD combined interviews with behind-the-scenes footage, while the 64-page booklet included photographs, band contributions and fans' personal accounts. The invitation to send those memories drew roughly 4,000 to 5,000 emails in its first week, Jon recalled in the Billboard interview. “They've been a part of this journey,” he said.
Even the end of the fourth CD held another recording to uncover. After “Nobody's Hero,” the set included the original demo of “Livin' on a Prayer” as a hidden track, putting an early version of a familiar hit inside a collection built around music that had stayed out of sight.
