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In 1978, David Coverdale formed the British band
Whitesnake after departing from Deep Purple. In the early days,
Whitesnake sounded a lot more like a 70's rock band than a metal band.
Some songs that early Whitesnake fans may remember include "Ain't No
Love in the Heart of the City", "Fool for Your Lovin'", "Don't Break My
Heart Again", "Would I Lie to You", "Guilty of Love", "Crying in the
Rain", and "Here I Go Again". You might recognize some of these
songs as later re-made hits.
It wasn't until their 1984 album,
Slide It In,
that Whitesnake began gaining notoriety in the USA. The American
released version of this album was a re-mix that featured guitarist John
Sykes (suggested by Geffen). Although this album did not
immediately become a hit in the USA, post album sales soared after the
band's late 80's success.
In 1985, David Coverdale and John Sykes began working on
a new release with a much more polish metal sound. In 1986,
Coverdale suffered a medical condition that almost ended his signing
career, and the album was subsequently delayed until 1987 (self-titled release).
Although John Sykes co-wrote and recorded this album, Coverdale fired
him and hire Adrian Vanderberg and Vivian Campbell for the MTV videos
and subsequent tour. This album peaked at No. 2 on the charts in
the USA and featured hits such as "Here I Go Again", "Is This Love",
"Still of the Night", "Give Me All Your Love", and "Crying in the Rain".
Tawny Kitaen, who Coverdale later marrired, was featured on some of the
band's videos.
In 1989, the revolving guitarist door continue to spin,
and Steve Vai was tapped to play guitar for the release of
Slip of the Tongue (Coverdale became interested in Vai after
seeing him play guitar as the devil in the movie Crossroads).
This album hit no. 10 on the Billboard album charts and featured songs
like the remake of "Fool for Your Loving", "The Deeper the Love", and
"Now Your Gone".
1990, Coverdale decided to quit the music business and
dissolve Whitesnake, although this did not last long. He join up
with Jimmy Page for the release of Coverdale Page (you may
remember the song "Shake My Tree" from this album). Since the
1990's, Whitesnake could be found in one form or another both in the
studio and on tour with veteran rockers like Reb Beach (Winger), Warren
DeMartini (Ratt), and Doug Aldrich (Dio). The band even released
their own wine in 2008 (seriously). At the time of this writing,
the Whitesnake Discography was as follows:1978: Snakebite
1978: Trouble
1979: Live at the Hammersmith
1979: Lovehunter
1980: Ready an' Willing
1980: Live in the Heart of the City
1981: Come an' Get It
1982: Saints & Sinners
1984: Slide It In
1984: Whitesnake's Greatest Hits
1987: Whitesnake
1997: Restless Heart
1998: Starkers in Tokyo
2005: Live in the Shadow of the Blues
2007: 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition
2008: Good to Be Bad
2011: Forevermore
2011: Live at Donington 1990 |
