Whitesnake - A Legendary English Classic Rock Band

Whitesnake was a legendary English classic rock band founded in 1978 in London, England, United Kingdom (although, according to a webpage of the British Museum, the band was established in Middlesbrough instead and was initially known as ‘The White Snake Band’; alternatively, the band was also known as David Coverdale’s Whitesnake early on when they started out) by singer and frontman David Coverdale who had then recently left the classic rock supergroup Deep Purple in which he had invested a significant period of time from his early musical career (more specifically between 1973 and 1976). For him, Deep Purple meant so much prior to forming his own musical group and his departure from the band represented a harsh, shattering, and important turning point in his musical career and life. It also represented a creative musical renewal. Throughout decades of commending musical activity, it can be said that Whitesnake was (still is and will forevermore be) essentially synonymous to none other than the charismatic and highly gifted English singer-songwriter David Coverdale from Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Yorkshire.

Promotional photograph depicting Whitesnake in 1984 by Geffen Records, with David Coverdale in the middle of the group. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Another promotional photograph depicting Whitesnake in 1984, with David Coverdale as the first band member to the right. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Prior to forming Whitesnake, David Coverdale released two studio albums during the late 1970s, the first one literally White Snake in 1977 followed by Northwinds in 1978 (as a side note, a very touching and dear favourite of mine since my early teenage years). These two proto-Whitesnake solo David Coverdale studio albums received moderate success both in terms of critical acclaim as well as commercially. Both studio albums were a mixture of blues rock, rhythm & blues, soul, and hard rock (with certain elements of funk and jazz included as well). While these two records received mixed reviews (I for one like them very much, but I might be a little bit biased because I basically grew up with David’s music), they laid the groundwork for what was later to become a major and more stylistically-developed musical project of David Coverdale and certainly one of the best and most popular bands in rock music history. The band that Coverdale founded in 1978 had the following original members: Bernie Marsden, Micky Moody, Neil Murray, David Dowle, and Brian Johnston. David Coverdale’s touching bluesy and at times powerful voice can be heard on as many as 13 studio albums. In addition, throughout the passage of time, the band also released 2 EPs (i.e. extended plays), 9 live albums, 15 compilations, 44 singles, and 9 video albums.

Whitesnake also went through multiple line-up changes as years passed, the only constant member being its founder, David Coverdale. Nonetheless, definitely the most well-known and best line-ups of the band were those of the late 1980s and early 1990s, two golden line-ups which included John Sykes on guitar, Neil Murray respectively Rudy Sarzo on bass, Aynsley Dunbar respectively Tommy Aldridge on drums, Dutch virtuoso guitarist Adrian Vandenberg (and briefly also maestro Steve Vai). These two line-ups contributed on the iconic studio albums 1987 (released in March, 1987) as well as Slip of the Tongue which was released two years later in 1989.

The studio albums released by the band are the following ones (listed in chronological order):

Trouble (1978)
Lovehunter (1979)
Ready an’ Willing (1980)
Come an’ Get It (1981)
Saints & Sinners (1982)
Slide It In (1984)
1987 (1987)
Slip of the Tongue (1989)
Restless Heart (1997)
Good to Be Bad (2008)
Forevermore (2011); I also had a t-shirt with the frontal cover artwork of this great album when back when I was still in high school, namely in 9th grade
The Purple Album (2015)
Flesh & Blood (2019)

David Coverdale, the singer-songwriter and frontman of the legendary English classic rock band Whitesnake, live in Nijmegen, the Netherlands in 2008 (performing on stage at the Arrow Rock Festival). Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Whitesnake’s musical activity came to an end this year as David Coverdale officially retired. However, the music of the band will always live on in the hearts of his fans (naturally in mine as well). Below you can listen to some of my most favourite songs from the entire discography of the band embedded via YouTube. I truly hope you will like them as much as I did, still do, and will definitely continue to do for as much as I’m going to live in the future. This list of favourite songs also several remastered ones from the two ‘proto-Whitesnake’ studio albums (as well as from David Coverdale’s solo discography) I previously mentioned because they have been quite touching and certainly very dear to me up until this very day and will continue to be as such well beyond as well.

Moral of the following song (as in its lyrics): Nothing ever changes, the song remains the same. The perfect song to listen to if you’re sitting on an empty train with a one way ticket. This particular great, touching songs brings about a lot of nostalgia in me. Besides, believe it or not, I’ve had my fair share of the north winds myself between 2017 and 2020 while I was still an international student at Aalborg University in Aalborg, North Jutland, Denmark. It’s quite windy there… so much so, in point of fact, that you hardly which way the winds might blow (or even slap you in the face). Sometimes, they can stem from more than one direction or cardinal point. And a great way to deal with that is by listening to this song on your Marshall headphones. 😉