Whitesnake hit #1 with “Here I Go Again”

Here I Go Again Whitesnake

Writer(s): David Coverdale, Bernie Marsden (see lyrics here) Released: July 1987 First Charted: May 30, 1987 Peak: 11 US, 12 CB, 11 HR, 4 AR, 9 UK, 11 CN, 24 AU, 6 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 6.0 radio, 178.1 video, 389.23 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After a three-year stint as the lead singer of Deep Purple, David Coverdale formed his own band, Whitesnake, in 1977. The band has undergone multiple incarnations with Coverdale being the only constant. They reached their commercial peak in 1987 – with a song from five years earlier. The band originally recorded the power ballad “Here I Go Again” for their 1982 album, Saints and Sinners. It reached #34 on the UK charts and didn’t go anywhere in the U.S. However, when Coverdale & Co. re-recorded it in 1987, it took off. Coverdale wrote the breakup song after the end of his first marriage. Regarding the recording, Coverdale said, “I was totally disappointed. He said, “the only thing that stands up…is the emotional security of the vocal performance. There’s a very limp performance from some very exceptional musicians.” FB After signing to Geffen Records, Whitesnake made a move from being “essential a blusey hard rock band” SG in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s toward glam metal with their self-titled 1987 album, The company’s John David Kolodner convinced Coverdale to re-record “Here I Go Again.” FB The new version became “a beautifully dumb fist-pumper anthem.” SG It owed a great deal of its success to the iconic video featuring Tawny Kitaen. Claudia Schiffer was set to star in their video for the lead single, “Still of the Night.” When she backed out, director Marty Callner, who’d worked on videos for Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on Prayer,” tapped Kitaen, who was dating Coverdale, as “the Whitesnake woman.” SG She starred in that video as well as “Here I Go Again” and “Is This Love.” In “Here I Go Again” “she is a true human spectacle as [she] busts elite-level stripper moves” SG across cars in a “sheer white bathrobe-dress.” SG She “pretty much invented the video-vixen career path.” SG Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Whitesnake FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 678. SG Stereogum (3/17/2021). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia First posted 12/1/2021; last updated 10/29/2022.