ALBUM REVIEW CREW EPISODE 63: "WHITESNAKE"
On the 63rd Episode of the Album Review Crew of Shout It Out Loudcast, Tom, Zeus & special guest, the co-host of the Growin' Up Rock Podcast, Steven Michael, review the self-titled 1987 breakthrough album from Whitesnake.
Whitesnake was a veteran British blues hard rock band with limited success in the United States. By 1987, David Coverdale wanted to change the band's style and image to a more Americanized version. He started with the music. The album is considered Whitesnake's "hair Metal" phase. The band was always a double guitar band, but this time, guitarist extraordinaire, John Sykes would contribute all the guitars and assist in the lyrics. Long time bassist, Neil Murray was on board as was top notch drummer, Aynsley Dunbar. Finalizing this lineup is Shout It Out Loudcast's favorite, Don Airey.
After the music was completed, Coverdale proceeded to fire all the band members and hired an all star lineup to tour and more importantly appear in the MTV videos, including, Vivian Campbell, Adrian Vandenberg, Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldrich. But, more importantly he added his then fiancée, Tawny Kitaen to their videos and the band and the album exploded.
Songs like "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love" made it to Number 1 and 2 on radio respectively. The videos were all over MTV. The album was produced by Mike Stone and Keith Olsen. The album made it to Number 2 on the Billboard Charts and went 8X Platinum.
The success of the band is credited to Coverdale's amazing vocals and frontman capabilities and John Sykes legendary melodic guitar work. However, the videos and Tawny Kitaen's impact cannot be overstated.
As usual the boys breakdown and dissect the tracks and rank the songs. They then rank the album and the album cover against the previous albums reviewed on the Album Review Crew.
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So grab your bad boys and go wild in the streets with this one! Ow, ow, ow, ow!