Whitesnake

I honestly find it hard to believe that no one has started a thread dedicated to this incredible band yet......

Whitesnake was formed back in 1977 by David Coverdale, who had already established himself as the former frontman of Deep Purple. Over the years, the lineup has seen some truly legendary musicians pass through its ranks, including Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, Bernie Marsden, Micky Moody, John Sykes, Adrian Vandenberg, Vivian Campbell, Tommy Aldridge, and even Steve Vai.

Throughout their storied career, they have released 12 studio albums, 4 Live albums, and 5 compilation albums.

They’ve actually been ranked at number 85 in the Billboard Hot 100 list of the greatest hard rock bands of all time.

While "Here I Go Again" is undoubtedly their most famous track—and I think it's quite good myself—they have so many superior songs out there. I'm talking about tracks like Bad Boys, Crying in the Rain, Fool for Your Loving (specifically the version featuring Steve Vai), Judgment Day, and Still of the Night...... Honestly, I have over 20 tracks from them on my personal playlist that I just absolutely love.

For anyone interested in seeing them in action, their live DVD "Live...In The Still of the Night" is truly phenomenal. It serves as a fantastic retrospective because it features almost all of their major hits in one place......

As for their penultimate album, "Good to Be Bad," I highly recommend giving it a listen. For me, it felt like a complete breath of fresh air for the rock scene, and it was actually that specific album that inspired me to dive deep into the entire Whitesnake Discography.

I'm still genuinely surprised that a Whitesnake discussion hasn't been initiated before, so I figured I would step up and start one. They are simply a magnificent band that everyone needs to experience......

I've included a few videos below so you can get a feel for them immediately......

Whitesnake - Bad Boys

Whitesnake - Judgment Day

Whitesnake - Fool for Your Loving

Whitesnake - Fool for Your Loving (Steve Vai)

To pair right here is pure perfection. I’ve got them on my MP3 player and I could listen to them every single day.😍

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOJk0HW_hJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jn-dntWENI

And this one is also totally cooooooooooooooool.😁
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMT-Uyxy5pg

Whenever I listen to a band like this, I feel genuinely sorry for the state of modern music. This is what a real band sounds like. This is what real music is.🙏 🙏
I'm with you on that. This is the kind of band you actually need to listen to.👍

So, this is what's playing right now🙂.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvZi...feature=relmfu.

Angela Alvarez10 said:I'm actually listening to this right now🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvZi...feature=relmfu

It’s a fantastic track—it really has such a great groove.

Give Me More Time

I mean, seriously, what a phenomenal riff...

On a different note, I wanted to share a few more gems here. If anyone is just discovering them and assumes the tracks we’ve been discussing are their absolute peak, let me tell you—they definitely aren't. 🙂

Still of the Night
That riff is just something else...

Crying in the Rain
Just ignore all that download nonsense 🙂 🙂

Phenomenal band. Honestly, they’re even better to me than Deep Purple or Rainbow. Incredible material, killer vocals... they absolutely earned their spot among the legends.

In my book, they aren't even in the same league as Deep Purple or Rainbow! They’ve got a handful of decent tracks, but that’s about where it ends. It feels like every other song has "love" slapped in the title, and the lyrics? Pure cliché. Don't get me wrong, they definitely had some incredible musicians passing through the lineup—they really did—but if you're asking me who my favorite member of Whitesnake ever was, it's gotta be Cozy Powell.

Austin Fisher said:I mean, I seriously can't believe nobody has started a thread for this killer band yet......

Honestly, I’ve been wondering the same thing 😕

To be fair, my older brother—he's two years ahead of me—basically "poisoned" my brain with them. We shared a room back in the day, and he had them blasting on the record player constantly. And honestly? Zero regrets.
That said, I usually lean toward stuff that's a bit heavier and darker, like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, or Van Halen, rather than the "newer" era like Soundgarden, Nirvana, or QOTSA.

Anyway, enough rambling
Here are my absolute favorite albums of theirs
(And obviously, Ready n' Willing is the undisputed king for me)

[IMAGE DELETED]

After a certain point, things got all messy with their lineup changes and drama, so I kind of drifted away...

So, here’s a few highlights in my humble opinion:

Ready N Willing 😍
Sweet Talker 😍
Carry your load 😍
Ain't gonna cry no more 😍
Saints An' Sinners 😍

Not really. Honestly, Whitesnake / 1987 is hands down the heaviest thing they ever put out (up to that point). It’s just that most people only know Is This Love / Here I Go Again and then judge the whole era based on the hair—dismissing it as some kind of Bon Jovi worship or whatever. Most tracks on that record aren't even close to being "soft" compared to what Van Halen or AC/DC were doing back then.
Personally, I think that album is a straight-up masterpiece. One of the best hard rock records ever made, period. And a huge part of that is thanks to the legendary John Sykes. He's one of those musicians with a tone so distinct you recognize him instantly. Sadly, Coverdale kicked him out of the band right after the album was done.

Anyway, I know a few bands with a super similar vibe. If anyone's interested, we can chat about them here too.

Maybe, maybe...
Come on, just drop a few of the absolute best tracks from that Whitesnake / 1987 album,
I was just saying which specific era I used to blast back in the day,
I haven't really messed around with their stuff before or after that stretch.

Still of the Night
Bad Boys
Children of the Night
You're Gonna Break My Heart Again
Give Me All Your Love

When I called them "flashy," I wasn't even really attacking the music itself—I was talking about that whole visual vibe you nailed when you compared them to Europe
Those greasy, over-styled looks🙄 honestly just totally killed the mood for me, and it made the actual songs start feeling way too formulaic
Look, I’m telling you, my favorites are from the Ready n' Willing era. Back then, they actually looked like real rockers, where the music actually came first and all that...

Sweet Talker 21 Nov 1980 By Ari

Look, it's true their vibe back then felt a bit like Europe's—though they didn't really embrace that sound until a year later after dropping two albums that were way heavier than the stuff they eventually became famous for. But I wasn't talking about Europe, I was talking about Bon Jovi. 😁
And honestly, the hair? How can that possibly stop you from liking a band!? Seriously! :? For Whitesnake, the music always came first. Sure, maybe some of those hits feel a bit formulaic, but hey, that was just how it worked for a ton of hard rock bands in the 80s and early 90s. A lot of them got stuck being labeled as "one-hit wonders" because of one big ballad, even when they had much better, deeper tracks that people ignored.
By the way, if you check the liner notes in that 20th Anniversary edition of the self-titled album, it says even Coverdale wasn't exactly thrilled when he saw himself with that new blonde mane. 😁

David Coverdale's ballad "Time and Again" from his solo album "Northwinds" is pure perfection. Aside from the big hits, "Blindman" and "Don't Break My Heart Again" are my absolute favorites...
Even though "Here I Go Again" is such a powerhouse, I just can't listen to it anymore. It's gotten a bit played out after hearing it over 1,000 times...
Props for starting this Whitesnake thread. I'm not really into bands that just try too hard to promote themselves on forums. We honestly need a band today like Kiss, Whitesnake, or Deep Purple—something that actually connects with the mainstream crowd and captures that true rock spirit...

Patrick Martin: My friend, you really need to sit down and listen to the Whitesnake album *Good to Be Bad* from 2008. Honestly, there are three specific tracks on that record that absolutely blow you away...
I honestly couldn't believe that this rock record was actually released back in 2008. Man, it just transports me straight back to the 1980s, which is wild considering I wasn't even born until '84. It’s such a brilliant album, especially those three tracks that follow...

Whitesnake - Good to Be Bad
What a massive riff!!!! Hit it hard!!!

Can You Hear the Wind Blow.
I honestly can't believe it! My heart is absolutely racing right now. Sometimes things just hit you out of nowhere, and you're left completely speechless. It's one of those moments where everything feels overwhelming in the best way possible. I'm still trying to process it all, but wow... just wow!

Ride the Rainbow, and you will see.
Ride the Rainbow.
You don't have to worry.
Ride the Rainbow.
Ride the Rainbow.
I intend to ensure that your expectations are met and that you remain fully satisfied.

Listen, man, I honestly can't make up my mind. I'm sitting here struggling to decide which track I should actually put third in the rotation...
Well then, let’s move forward and list the tracks that I truly believe deserve the third-place spot. 🙂 🙂

I was listening to Whitesnake - Lay Down Your Love earlier today, and it really got me thinking about how much certain tracks can pull at your heartstrings if you catch them at the right moment. There is just something about that specific era of the band—that polished, heavy-hitting melodic rock sound—that hits differently when you're sitting alone with a good pair of headphones. It’s one of those songs where the production feels massive, yet the sentiment remains incredibly intimate. It reminds me of those late nights back in the day, just driving around empty streets in suburban Ohio, letting the music fill the silence. It’s a beautiful piece of songwriting.

I was listening to "All for Love" from the Whitesnake catalog earlier today, and it really got me thinking about how much that era defined the band's sound. There is something about the production on those tracks—it’s polished, yet it retains that raw, emotional core that Coverdale always managed to pull out of his performances. It reminds me of sitting in my living room back in the day, just letting the needle drop on a favorite record and feeling the weight of those power ballads. It’s one of those songs that stays with you.

This ballad is absolutely top-tier... truly world-class.

I was listening to "Till the End of Time" earlier today, and it really struck a chord with me. There is just something about that specific track from the Whitesnake era that hits differently when you sit with it for a while. It’s one of those songs where you can truly feel the weight of the emotion being poured into the arrangement. It isn't just another rock ballad; it feels deeply personal, almost like a confession. I remember sitting in my car during a long drive through the Midwest a few years back, just watching the landscape roll by, and having this song on loop. It has this way of making the world feel very quiet and very large all at the same time. It's a beautiful piece of music.

And all those other tracks, man... specifically that "Call on Me" song. It’s just such a brilliant piece of music.
To be perfectly honest, after that one specific Whitesnake album, I haven't found anything quite like it. It’s truly incredible how meticulously crafted that record is... the level of production and songcraft is just on another level.

Whitesnake - Sailing Ships

You really need to listen to this masterpiece, everyone...

Even though I’m definitely a fan, I gotta admit—I'm way more into that early Whitesnake era—exactly what Patrick Martin was talking about—and even though I’ve got basically everything on vinyl, those three albums are my absolute favorites.

For me, nothing beats Slow and Easy—which they somehow missed playing at the concert I went to, just to spite us...

Honestly, the newer Whitesnake stuff feels kind of off to me. Coverdale still acts like a total brat, and he’s surrounded himself with guys who could all be his grandsons... which is a huge mistake. It just makes him look way older than he is. His guitarist sounds like he belongs in Tokio Hotel...

Are you seriously comparing Aldrich and Beach to Tokio Hotel? O.o
And what does how old everyone is have to do with anything... It's about the music, not how the band looks, ffs!
Besides, both those guitarists passed forty a long time ago.

BTW, Austin Fisher, you remind me of Jack Morgan2 when you talk about Rory. 😁

Hahahha, look, if someone demands respect, then they get it from me—and Whitesnake truly deserves my respect.

Especially since back in 2008, they released an album that left me absolutely floored when I first heard it...

Morgan Brown4 said:Wait, you're comparing the Aldrich and Beach veterans to Tokyo? O.o
And age doesn't matter when it comes to who shows up... It's all about the music, not how the band looks ffs!
Besides, both guitarists are way past forty by now.

http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/808/dsc03175q.jpg

Man, he's totally giving off Tokyo vibes to me... just right. Even though I saw him a few years back, I bet he's hit 40 by now...

And yeah—age definitely matters. Visually, they don't even hold a candle to those old bands I've seen live where the members are roughly the same age. Coverdale is ancient and honestly doesn't fit his own band's vibe... especially with his attitude.
That whole thing where he was "posing" with his mic stand in front of two 15-year-old girls was just gross...
I've regretted going to see them so many times: the look, the playback, the performance... it just totally ruined them for me.