Motley Crue are one of the most popular and commercially successful of the hair bands. They’ve had a ton of hits like “Shout At The Devil,” “Girl Girls Girls,” “Dr. Feelgood,” “Kickstart My Heart” and many more. As far as their ballads, I know a lot of people will disagree with my choice and would pick “Home Sweet Home” as their best. I just happen to like “Without You” a little more.

Songs about strippers and domestic homicides notwithstanding, Motley Crue did have a sensitive, romantic side, which they showed off very, very rarely. But as most every other hair metal band fell prey to a soaring power ballad — see also Skid Row’s “I Remember You” and Warrant’s “Heaven” — Motley Crue came down on the side of love with its gooey 1989 prom song “Without You.”

Nikki Sixx wrote the song, but he didn’t write it about himself. He came up with it when he was an outside observer of the then-sweet-and-lovely relationship between bandmate Tommy Lee and his girlfriend (and then wife) Heather Locklear, star of T.J. Hooker, Melrose Place, and the only woman in L.A. with hair as big as Lee’s.

“That was a very simple idea for a song, which I had written a lyric about Heather Locklear and Tommy,” Sixx told Rolling Stone. “They were coming over to my place all the time. I thought to myself one day, ‘Without You’ coming from Tommy’s perspective, life would not be the same.” Sixx added that “it was a good relationship at that time,” though this was before the couple’s 1993 divorce.