Songfacts®:

• In this song, Jon Bon Jovi plays the part of a guy who encounters his ex and feels the passion they once had. "You wanna make a memory?" he asks her, reminding her of all the good times they shared and looking to add a bit more to their history.
  
  "That's one of the best lyrics I've ever written," he told Ultimate Guitar. "I always saw it as two people who were together but probably aren't together now. And I'm just observing. It is my favorite song on the record but that's really hard to say."
• "(You Want To) Make A Memory" was the lead single from Bon Jovi's 10th album, Lost Highway. The album title is a nod to the "Hank Williams song. The band recorded it in Nashville and overall it has a country music influence, but this song is more conventional pop, complete with a string section.
• Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote the song with Desmond Child, who also worked with them on "You Give Love A Bad Name," "Livin' On A Prayer," and several other hits for the band. Child usually produces the songs he works on, but he didn't in this case. The song was produced by John Shanks, whose other clients include Miley Cyrus, Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes. Child was disappointed when he heard the finished product. In a Songfacts interview, he said: "I think it's one of the strongest collaborations I had with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. I wish I had been able to be the producer of it, because the way it came out just seemed a little bit linear to me. They went through this U2 kind of feeling with it. I heard it in my mind as a more dramatic kind of presentation."
  
  He added: "I can't say it wasn't a success because it went to #1 on the AOR chards, but that song is one of my favorite songs, and when I do my shows with my music, I always end with that song."
• The music video was inspired by the 1990 movie Ghost, where Patrick Swayze, in death looks over Demi Moore. Jon Bon Jovi plays the ghost, watching what's presumably the girl he loved. For most of the video it looks like she's just ignoring him, but then we see her walk right through him.
• The video was directed by Kevin Kerslake, who also did Nirvana's videos for "In Bloom" and "Come As You Are." The bar scenes were shot in Nashville at a place called Layla's.
  
  The girl in the video is Brooke Langton, who was on Melrose Place and in the movie The Replacements.