You can forgive American fans for believing that Whitesnake was a brand-new band when they stormed American charts with a series of hits in the second half of the 80s. The band hadn’t made much of a dent in the US prior to that period.
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In actuality, the British rockers had been kicking around for the better part of a decade by the time they hit it big in the US. And the song that busted down the door was five years old itself.
Coverdale’s Career Move
In the beginning, Whitesnake formed as a temporary backing band for David Coverdale. Coverdale left Deep Purple in 1976 after serving as lead singer for that highly successful British hard-rock outfit for a few years. He did some solo work before a backing band started to materialize.
Eventually, the Whitesnake brand began to stick as the band started scoring some success in Great Britain. But the idea of Coverdale being the undisputed leader never abated. Evidence suggests that he might not have been the most benevolent dictator. Band members came and went with regularity during the band’s heyday.
Despite all the turnover, Whitesnake staked a claim as one of the more successful hard rock bands in the 80s in Great Britain. But success in America was harder to come by. Their closest thing to an American Top 40 hit for the first decade of their existence was “Fool For Your Loving”. That song was a Top 15 hit in the UK in 1979 that only made it to No. 53 in the US.
US Progress
As the 80s progressed, Coverdale longed to take Whitesnake across the pond. A couple of things happened that allowed him to do that. For one, he received a key backer in record executive John Kalodner. Kalodner gained a reputation as a kind of kingmaker with rock artists in America in terms of stewarding them to success. And he saw in Coverdale an artist who had what it took to make that happen.
On top of that, MTV started to cater to hard rock bands in the middle to the second half of the decade. Coverdale was a charismatic frontman who could take advantage of that. A couple of videos for songs from the 1984 album Slide It In helped Whitesnake gain some crucial US exposure.
A whole lot of drama would accompany the making of the next Whitesnake album. That included serious vocal problems for Coverdale. In addition, the entire rest of the band was fired between the album’s recording and its release. But it all worked out. The catalyst was a new release of a song that the band first recorded five years before.
“Again”, Again
David Coverdale wrote “Here I Go Again” with Bernie Marsden, a Whitesnake member in the first half of the 80s. The song appeared on the band’s Saints & Sinners album in 1982. John Kalodner thought the song had serious potential, and he suggested a re-recording.
Coverdale wasn’t thrilled at the prospect, feeling that Whitesnake had more than enough material for the album that was called 1987 in the UK and simply Whitesnake in the US. But he relented, eventually recording a version for the album and then another for single release.
With a video featuring actress Tawny Kitaen, whom Coverdale later married, “Here I Go Again ‘87”, as the new version was dubbed, went wild in the US. It skyrocketed all the way to No. 1 on the pop charts. It may have taken some time for Whitesnake to get there, but they made sure their first US Top 40 hit was a serious smash.
Photo by Mediapunch/Shutterstock
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