Whitesnake

Whitesnake (also known as Serpens Albus in Japan and 1987 in the UK and Europe) is the eighth studio album by British hard rock band of the same name (Whitesnake), released in 1987. The album was a major crossover hit and one of the top-selling albums in the glam metal genre, eventually selling over eight million copies in the United States alone (and thus going eight times platinum). The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Its success even boosted its predecessor, Slide It In, from gold to double platinum status.

In Europe the album was called 1987 which featured a different running order and two extra tracks, “Looking for Love” and “You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again”; and in Japan the album was titled Serpens Albus which, in Latin, means “Whitesnake”). The two extra European tracks would be released in America in the 90s on Whitesnake’s Greatest Hits.

After the album was recorded, lead singer David Coverdale fired the band members who had played on the recordings: John Sykes (guitar), who went on to found Blue Murder; Neil Murray (bass); and Aynsley Dunbar (drums). Adrian Vandenberg, who played on the solo to “Here I Go Again,” joined the band on a full-time basis after the other members were gone.

The album produced three major crossover hit singles: the Led Zeppelin-influenced “Still of the Night”, “Here I Go Again”, the band’s only #1 single in the U.S. and the power ballad “Is This Love”, which reached #2 on the U.S. singles chart. They also had hits in Britain with the aforementioned three singles, as well as “Give Me All Your Love”, which reached #18.