The defining moment of Whitesnake’s career, but only in the sense that it was their American breakthrough, Coverdale and company having long since conquered the UK and Europe dating back to the late 70’s.
Written by: Dangerzone
ARTIST: Whitesnake
ALBUM: 1987
LABEL: Geffen
SERIAL: GHS 24099
YEAR: 1987
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England, USA
LINEUP: David Coverdale – vocals * John Sykes – guitars * Neil Murray – bass * Aynsley Dunbar – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Still Of The Night * 02 Bad Boys * 03 Give Me All Of Your Lovin’ * 04 Looking For Love * 05 Cryin’ In The Rain * 06 Is This Love * 07 Strength For The Heart * 08 Don’t Turn Away * 09 Children Of The Night * 10 Here I Go Again * 11 You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
The defining moment of Whitesnake’s career, but only in the sense that it was their American breakthrough, Coverdale and company having long since conquered the UK and Europe dating back to the late 70’s.
It wasn’t until 1984’s ‘Slide It In’ that the US market began to take notice of Whitesnake, which I find strange as Coverdale had been a member of Deep Purple when they were in the midst of their Stateside blitz of the 1974 period.
Coverdale underwent a series of health problems prior to ‘1987’ and with it saw the classic Whitesnake lineup, which means Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden, long gone, having been replaced by John Sykes, who had been in place since ‘Slide It In’.
Despite four years in the making ‘1987’ heralded a new direction for Coverdale, more melodic and AOR based, abandoning the bluesy tone of the 1978-84 era. It worked as ‘1987’ sold more than ten million copies, and to this day remains one of the greatest hard rock albums of the late 80’s.
The Songs
Forgetting everything else associated with Coverdale, Tawny Kitaen in the videos etc, the music here defines that particular era like few others. The keyboards are loaded, the hooks are inescapable and the whole affair smacks of undoubted class.
Naturally it led to a slew of hit singles, which as expected are still heard to this day, namely ‘Still Of The Night’, ‘Crying In The Rain’, ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Here I Go Again’, the latter a number one vehicle.
Who can ever forget the video with three keyboardists side by side armed to the gills and delivering a synthesizer overdose?
The tracks that work aside from these are the hard riffing ‘Bad Boys’, with Coverdale once again ‘the black sheep of the family’, perhaps the heaviest rock exercise within the album. Sykes was worlds apart from Moody and Marsden, preferring shredding solos, which is what Coverdale wanted.
Commercial AOR tracks are everywhere, ‘Straight For The Heart’ relentlessly punchy, and how’s that for a nifty hook really? The keyboard intro for ‘Don’t Turn Away’ provides massive drama, and this is exquisite material.
Proving they were still hard rock ‘Children Of The Night’ and ‘Give Me All Your Love’ provide some grit, with the odd ballad interlude ‘Looking For Love’ the obvious standout.
It was a stroke of genius by Coverdale to remake ‘Crying In The Rain’ and ‘Here I Go Again’ in such wonderfully updated late 80’s style, looking back, who would have thought a pair of forgotten tracks from ‘Saints And Sinners’ would have yielded such a fortune?
In Summary
This was redemption of sorts for Coverdale as many had counted him out after the delay between albums. His voice was better than ever but friction remained, with Sykes leaving before the tour took place, Vivian Campbell and Adrian Vandenberg stepped in, along with Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge as well.
The makeover cemented Whitesnake as icons of the late 80’s hard rock years, and to this day the videos are played commonly with much romance and nostalgia awarded to Coverdale’s marriage to Kitaen.
But the music is what is meant to be celebrated, and Coverdale never came close to repeating the heady sales of ‘1987’ with the rather bland ‘Slip Of The Tongue’ in 1989.
For anyone curious as to what the late 80’s were about, this might be – along with Def Leppard‘s ‘Hysteria’ – the most blatant example. Only ‘1987’ is by far the superior listen.
Whitesnake on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
