Whitesnake was a hard rock or heavy metal British band, active primarily in the 1980s. The band was formed by David Coverdale (of Deep Purple) and was originally popular only in Europe and Japan.
During the band's early years, its music was primarily blues-oriented hard rock. Members of the band include Jon Lord and Ian Paice of Deep Purple as well as Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody. The band also featured many talented guitarists - including Adrian Vandenberg, John Sykes, future Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell as well as Steve Vai.
After a major personnel shift, Whitesnake released 1984's Slide It In, which went gold in the United States. The following album, simply titled Whitesnake (1987), marked the band's U.S. breakthrough, driven by the power ballad "Is This Love" and the #1 hit single, "Here I Go Again." The album sold over eight million copies in the U.S. and pushed sales of Slide It In to over two million copies. The album's exposure was boosted by heavy airplay of its videos, which featured Coverdale's wife Tawny Kitaen, on MTV. Oddly enough, Coverdale fired all of the band members who recorded Whitesnake after the album was released, retaining only session musician Adrian Vandenberg.
The band was altered again for Slip of the Tongue (1989), which featured guitar legend Steve Vai; the record did not sell well in spite of his appearance. 1990 saw a Greatest Hits album, but other than that the band was dormant until 1997. In that year, an album called Restless Heart was released, though not in the United States. Since then Whitesnake has only released an unplugged Japan show Starkers In Tokyo.
In 2003 Coverdale reactivated Whitesnake for a 25-year celebration tour. Joining Coverdale were Doug Aldrich (guitar), Reb Beach (guitar), Marco Mendoza (bass), Tommy Aldridge (drums), and Timothy Drury (keyboards). This line-up remained stable until early 2005, when Mendoza left to pursue other projects, and was replaced by Uriah Duffy.
Discography
- David Coverdale's Whitesnake (1976) (Coverdale Solo)
- Northwinds (1977) (Coverdale Solo)
- Snakebite (1978)
- Trouble (1978)
- Lovehunter (1979)
- Ready An' Willing (1980)
- Live...In The Heart Of The City (1981)
- Come an Get It (1982)
- Saints n' Sinners (1983)
- Slide It In (1984)
- Whitesnake 1987 (1987)
- Slip Of The Tongue (1989)
- Coverdale/Page (1993) (Coverdale with Jimmy Page)
- Restless Heart (1997)
- Starkers In Tokyo (1997)
- Into The Light (2001) (Coverdale Solo)