Whitesnake were a respected bluesy British heavy rock band formed by former Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale in the '70s. They were everything typical of the heavy rock stereotype--sexist pigs making serious music. In the mid- to late-80s however, they had a hair metal phase, and that, unsurprisingly, is what is of interest here.

Were they even a hair metal band? No, I told you! They were a bluesy British heavy rock band. But they sold their souls to the Yankee dollar and in the process took on much of the hair metal image and sound, fused with the authenticity of their more credible blues records.

Sold their souls??? Whitesnake were successful in Britain and Europe from the word go but their American success was limited to the occasional single that would get some radio rotation. Geffen Records' main dude David Geffen persuaded Coverdale that the American market was to be taken seriously, and that would mean a sound and look to appeal to America. Coverdale's hair was dyed blonde, and the band's Slide It In record was remixed for the American market with the slick guitar attack of ex-Thin Lizzy man John Sykes. The album was a sizeable hit, the commercial appeal of the hair metal influence combining with the authentic, heavy duty hard rock of classic Whitesnake. The follow up, 1987 (titled simply Whitesnake in the USA) went ballistic worldwide, with mega-smashes like "Is This Love" and a re-make of an old Whitesnake classic, "Here I Go Again", which has already been a hit in the UK for the band some years previously. Sykes left after the album was released and an all-star line-up was put together to appear in a music video, including Vivian Campbell and Adrian Vandenburg as the two hotshot lead guitarists. The band seemed to have chemistry and on paper the line-up of two such awesome guitarists looked like a sure-fire success. The tour to support 1987 was a huge success but upon discovering that his songwriting abilities would not be made use of, Campbell quit the band. His replacement was monster-shredder Steve Vai, joining the group for (it was rumoured) a cool million. Vandenburg and Coverdale co-wrote all the songs on Slip of the Tongue (1989) but Vandenburg injured his hand and Vai played all the guitar parts. There was no questioning Vai's virtuosity but his limp shredding guitar pyrotechnics simply did not have the beasty guts required to be a credible partner to Whitesnake's authentic heavy rock or to compare to the Jack-the-Ripper playing of John Sykes. The songwriting partnership of Vandenburg and Coverdale is much underrated, but it too was not a match for the Sykes-Coverdale team. The album was again a multi-platinum success with the enormously successful world tour seeing them headline a Monsters of Rock bill. Whitesnake's Greatest Hits featured songs just from the band's big hair period, plus a couple of new tracks and radio edits of hit singles. By combining all the magic moments from the last three releases, it was a winning success, but Coverdale then put the band on ice. When John Kalodner began his Portrait Records project to bring back hair metal (see the Ratt section), rumour has it that he approached Sykes and Coverdale with an open cheque book for them to do another record together. They refused. Since the Greatest Hits album, only an unplugged album and a light MOR type record have slipped out with the Whitesnake name on the sleeve.

Were they any good then? Absolutely! Coverdale is one of the finest voices Britain has ever produced and by surrounding himself with great musicians and songwriting partners he ensured that the quality of his output was always exemplary. The combination of a commercial US pop metal sound with the blues-based classic rock of traditional Whitesnake was simply a winning formula every time.

And their crowning glory? Sorry, "they" is a bit of a misnomer… the only real consistent guy behind Whitesnake was David Coverdale. His top spot was 1987 by all accounts; opening thunderclap "Still of the Night" was simply epic. "Is This Love" was the essential power ballad, and "Here I Go Again" was somewhere between ballad and rocker, a bluesy track that is to this day probably the best known Whitesnake song. To their old fans it reeked of sellout, but to the US it reeked of authenticity and it smokes.

What stank about Whitesnake then? Well, obviously they did sell out. And while not nearly as bad as people make out, Slip of the Tongue really doesn't have classic stamped all over it. It does, however, contain the absolutely phenomenal pop-rock anthem "Now You're Gone".

Band rating: 93%

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