After recording two solo albums, former
Deep Purple vocalist
David Coverdale formed
Whitesnake around 1977. In the glut of hard rock and heavy metal bands of the late '70s, their first albums got somewhat lost in the shuffle, although they were fairly popular in Europe and Japan. During 1982,
Coverdale took some time off so he could take care of his sick daughter. When he re-emerged with a new version of
Whitesnake in 1984, the band sounded revitalized and energetic.
Slide It In may have relied on
Led Zeppelin's and
Deep Purple's old tricks, but the band had a knack for writing hooks; the record became their first platinum album. Three years later,
Whitesnake released an eponymous album (titled
1987 in Europe) that was even better. Portions of the album were blatantly derivative -- "Still of the Night" was a dead ringer for early
Zeppelin -- but the group could write powerful, heavy rockers like "Here I Go Again" that were driven as much by melody as riffs, as well as hit power ballads like "Is This Love."
Whitesnake was an enormous international success, selling over six million copies in the U.S. alone.
Before they recorded their follow-up, 1989's
Slip of the Tongue,
Coverdale again assembled a completely new version of the band, featuring guitar virtuoso
Steve Vai. Although the record went platinum, it was a considerable disappointment after the across-the-board success of
Whitesnake.
Coverdale put
Whitesnake on hiatus after that album. In 1993, he released a collaboration with former
Led Zeppelin guitarist
Jimmy Page that was surprisingly lackluster. The following year,
Whitesnake issued a greatest-hits album in the U.S. and Canada focusing solely on material from their final three albums (as well as containing a few unreleased tracks).
In 1997,
Coverdale resurrected
Whitesnake (guitarist
Adrian Vandenberg was the only remaining member of the group's latter-day lineup), issuing
Restless Heart the same year. Surprisingly, the album wasn't even issued in the United States. On the ensuing tour,
Coverdale and
Vandenberg performed an "unplugged" show in Japan that was recorded and issued the following year under the title
Starkers in Tokyo. By the late '90s, however,
Coverdale once again put
Whitesnake on hold, as he concentrated on recording his first solo album in nearly 22 years.
Coverdale's
Into the Light was issued in September 2000, featuring journeyman guitarist
Earl Slick. After a lengthy hiatus that saw the release of countless "greatest-hits" and "live" collections, the band returned in 2008 with the impressive Good to Be Bad.
Coverdale and
Whitesnake toured the album throughout Europe and Japan. The band returned to the recording studio in 2010 with new members bassist Michael Devin (formerly of Lynch Mob) and drummer Brian Tichy, who appeared alongside guitarists Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach, and guest keyboardist Timothy Drury (as well as Coverdale's son Jasper on backing vocals on various tracks). The band's 11th album, Forevermore, was preceded by the issue of the single, "Love Will Set You Free," and released in the spring of 2011.
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Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, Rovi