JoeLumb's Album Review Whitesnake's "1987" album

Over the past number of years I have grown a deep appreciation for Whitesnake's music I even considered them The Led Zeppelin of the 1980's but today on JoeLumb's album review I review Whitesnake's self titled 1987 album. After their tour in support of "Slide It In" ended in early 1985 Whitesnake played two shows in Brazil's Rock in Rio festival. After forming Whitesnake back in 1977 Singer David Coverdale considered folding the band,but executives at their label Geffen records(where they were signed to at the time) asked Coverdale to continue working with guitarist John Sykes. Sykes was in bands like Tygers of Pan-Tang and Thin Lizzy before hooking up with Coverdale to start work on the next Whitesnake album. Whitesnake had previously signed with Geffen for distribution in North America while they were still with EMI over in Europe. 

Coverdale and Sykes started writing material for the new album in the south of France in the Spring of 1985 according to David Coverdale himself bassist Neil Murray helped with some of the arrangements from these sessions only two songs emerged which one would become one of their biggest hits referring to "Still of the Night" which was based on an old demo done by Coverdale and Rainbow's Ritchie Blackmore and another one called "Is This Love" which was originally written for Tina Turner (may she rest in peace). There was an atmospheric cello riff in "Still of the Night" which was Coverdale's idea after experimenting with the introduction to synthesizers on "Looking for Love"

Then the trio moved to Los Angeles where they rehearsed and auditioned for drummers and they found one in veteran drummer Aynsley Dunbar. With the line up complete they headed to Vancouver's Little Mountain Studios  They faced the issue in finding the perfect guitar sound for Sykes,thanks to help from then engineer turned producer Bob Rock. Then David Coverdale came down with a sinus infection and that put the album's production behind schedule. The sinus infection was so bad Coverdale had to undergo surgery that required a half a year of rehabilitation without the guarantee his singing voice would return to form. Then while recovering Coverdale got invoices from Toronto and in London with him stating that he received no support from John Sykes. "He did everything he could to take advantage of me being compromised." Allegedly Sykes grew impatient claiming that Coverdale used every excuse possible to explain why he didn't want to record his vocals and suggested on getting a new singer to replace Coverdale. That lead to the falling out David and John had and Mike Stone who was in the middle of all of that suffered as well.  30 years later John Sykes denies this and he claims he was fired for dubious reasons. 

After Coverdale finally recovered he was able to record his vocal tracks with producer Ron Nevison before he switched to Keith Olsen.  While recording vocal tracks a re-recorded version of their earlier songs "Here I Go Again" had been done with a new guitar player in Adrian Vandenberg.  Vandenberg would soon join Whitesnake after the recording process was complete. 

With the album finished by late 1986 Coverdale faced problems with with trusting band members especially after The John Sykes debacle. So he let Neil Murray and Aynsley Dunbar go as did Keyboardists Don Airey and Bill Cuomo.  The decision was personal issues,but according to Coverdale himself  he was facing trust issues with members of the band,his depression upon arriving to L.A. from Munich from a holiday where he had seen his daughter from his first marriage and a massive debt due to him not working for the last two-three years. 

"Whitesnake" was released in the United States on March 23,1987 (March 31,1987 in the U.K.) Initially the album was released worldwide under two different titles and tracklists from two different labels. In Europe and Australia it was titled "1987" including two extra songs not on the U.S. release like "Looking for Love" and "You're Gonna Break My Heart Again" while in Japan the album was called "Serpens Albus." The self titled "Whitesnake" album received critical and commercial success around the world selling 8 million units in the U.S. Alone and was at #2 on the Billboard album charts for ten consecutive weeks. Two of their songs from the self titled 1987 album reached the top 5 "Here I Go Again '87" which reached to #1 and "Is This Love" reached #2 to this day those two songs remain their most successful hits that gets radio airplay in classic rock radios to this day.  While promoting the album and going on tour Coverdale kept Adrian Vandenberg and attained the services of second guitarist Vivian Campbell (future Def Leppard),Bassist Rudy Sarzo and Drummer Tommy Aldridge.

My Overall Rating for Whitesnake's "1987/Serpens Albus or Whitesnake" is an 8/10 So what were my favorite tracks from the release Here I Go Again,Is This Love,Still of the Night and Give Me All your Love and I rated this album #1 on my favorite rock albums of 1987.