Formed by former Deep Purple member, David Coverdale in 1978, Whitesnake was an English rock band that is consist of Bernie Mardsen, David Coverdale, Neil Murray, Mick Moody, Jon Lord, and David Dowle. They are responsible for the hit albums “Ready an’ Willing”, “Come an’ Get It”, “Saint & Sinners”, and “Slide It In”. But their most successful album would probably be their self-titled album which featured the hit singles “Here I Go Again” and “Is This Love”. Whitesnake split up sometime in 1989 but officially reformed in 2002 and they have been touring together since then.
Albums and Hit Singles
From 1979, Whitesnake released a total of thirteen studio albums and these are
- Trouble (1978)
- Lovehunter (1979)
- Ready an’ Willing (1980)
- Come an’ Get It (1981)
- Saints & Sinners (1982)
- Slide It In (1984)
- Whitesnake (1987)
- Slip of the Tongue (1989)
- Restless Heart (1997)
- Good to Be Bad (2008)
- Forevermore (2011)
- The Purple Album (2015)
- Flesh & Blood (2019)
Hit Songs
Whitesnake also managed to produce several hit songs such as
- Here I Go Again
- Is This Love
- Still of the Night
- Fool for Your Loving
- Love Ain’t No Stranger
- The Deeper The Love
- Slow an’ Easy
- Give Me All Your Love
- Soldier of Fortune
- Crying in the Rain
- Guilty of Love
- Long Way From Home
- Love Will Set You Free
- Too Many Tears
- Wings of the Storm
- Standing in the Shadow
- We Wish You Well
- Blindman
- Ain’t Gonna Cry No More
History and Career
Former Deep Purple member David Coverdale formed Whitesnake in 1978 with the line-up that he had been working with as his backing band on his “White Snake” album tour. They were officially known as Whitesnake and they toured with David Coverdale for his two solo albums.
Whitesnake released their first EP “Snakebite” in 1978. The EP featured the cover of a Bobby Bland song, “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City”. The EP album became a success in the UK and it was reissued with four bonus songs of David Coverdale’s second solo album, “Northwinds”.
They released their debut studio album “Trouble” in 1978 and it reached the top 50 of the UK Album Charts. While Whitesnake was touring Europe to promote the album, they recorded their first live album “Live at Hammersmith” and it was released in Japan in 1979. It also contained songs from their EP album “Snakebite”. Whitesnake released their second studio album in 1979 with the title “Lovehunter” which entered the UK Top 30 and featured the single “Long Way From Home”.
Whitesnake released their third album “Ready An’ Willing” on the following year and it became Whitesnake’s breakthrough hit. It was their first album to enter the UK Top 10 and the U.S Top 100. The album held the hit singles “Ready An’ Willing” and “Fool For Your Loving”. As part of their tour for promoting the album, Whitesnake performed in the 1980 Reading Festival. This performance helped Whitesnake more exposure in the US because they were the opening act of the famous bands like Jethro Tull and AC/DC.
In 1981, Whitesnake released their album “Come An’ Get It” which reached the number two spot in the UK Albums Chart. “Come An’ Get It” featured the hit singles “Don’t Break My Heart My Heart Again” and “Would I Lie To You”. But in 1982, Whitesnake was put on hold because David Coverdale took some time off to take care of his sick daughter.
When David Coverdale went back into the music scene, he reformed Whitesnake and they released their album “Slide It In” in 1984. The album became Whitesnake fourth album to enter the top ten in the UK charts It was Whitesnake’s first album to reach a platinum status. Three years later, they released their self-titled album which became an enormous international success. It featured the singles “Still of the Night” and “Here I Go Again” and sold over six million copies in the United States alone.
In 1989, Whitesnake released their album “Slip of the Tongue”. Although this album went platinum, its success did not match their previous album that’s why David Coverdale decided to put Whitesnake on hiatus after it’s release. David Coverdale focused on his personal career and made projects with Jimmy Page, a former guitarist for the band Led Zeppelin. In 1994, Whitesnake released a greatest-hits album in the U.S and Canada which contained songs from their last three albums and some few unreleased tracks.
In 1997, David Coverdale decided to resurrect Whitesnake and released the album “Restless Heart”. Unpredictably, the album was not released in the United States. Some time in the late 90’s David Coverdale had once again put Whitesnake on hold while he worked on his solo career.
After a long hiatus and release of several live and greatest-hits album, Whitesnake returned in 2008 with their album “Good To Be Bad”. Whitesnake toured Japan and Europe to promote this album. in 2011, Whitesnake released their eleventh album “Forevermore” which featured the single “Love Will Set You Free”. And on 2015, they released “The Purple Album” that featured remakes of cuts from the band Deep Purple. Their most recent album was “Unzipped” which was released in 2018, it contained rare and unreleased acoustic performances that Whitesnake recorded for the past two decades.