It’s time this week for a key album from 1984, and one with a whopper of a story to accompany it.

Whitesnake – Slide It In

Released January 1984 AND April 1984

So in 1983, Whitesnake set out to record this new album in Germany. The band was David Coverdale on vocals, guitarists Mel Galley and Mick Moody, bassist Colin Hodgkinson, drummer Cozy Powell and keyboard wizard Jon Lord. Eddie Kramer was in for production, for a moment anyway. The band were not satisfied with his work so he was replaced with Martin Birch, who’d helmed the Whitesnake catalog prior to this. It marked Birch’s last album production not related to Iron Maiden. The album was recorded and released in January 1984 after some delays.

Sounds fairly simple, right? It was until it wasn’t. The first issue was that of the album’s production. The music press was not happy with the album’s flat sound. Whitesnake were contracted in the US with Geffen Records, who also weren’t happy with the production. Geffen commissioned Keith Olsen to remix the album.

But even that wasn’t so simple – David Coverdale was also eyeballing a personnel change. On the advice of label exec John Kalonder, Coverdale began looking for a “guitar hero” type of lead player to further enhance the band’s image. Michael Schenker was approached but was either uninterested or uninteresting, depending on who you ask. Adrian Vandenberg was more interested but he declined, choosing to operate with his own successful outfit instead. Vandenberg would find his way in a few years later.

This led Coverdale to John Sykes, late of Tygers Of Pan Tang and currently with Thin Lizzy. Sykes was agreeable to the Whitesnake gig but also very reluctant to leave Phil Lynott hanging. Sykes made an ask for an absurd amount of money, which Whitesnake surprisingly agreed to. Lynott gave his blessing for Sykes to move on and Coverdale now had his guitar hero. This would shift Whitesnake away from their long-held blues-based sound and into the hair metal era, which was gaining a ton of steam in 1984.

Mick Moody was still on the Whitesnake roster, so Coverdale acted like a complete asshole to Moody, who took the hint and quit the band. Bassist Colin Hodgkinson was also fired, and former pal Neil Murray was brought back in. Sykes and Murray would re-record parts for the US remix of Slide It In.

And today I will be going over the US version of the album, as it’s what I’m familiar with. There are countless versions and re-issues of this available. For simplicity’s sake I’m going to use the old US tracklisting, which won’t match up with most versions found today on streaming. Either way, it’s 10 songs at a bit over 40 minutes.

Slide It In

The title track keeps things very, very simple – driving riff with double entendre lyrics. Honestly the song is so horribly basic that it’s like wearing a beige suit to a middle management conference. But the song also works splendidly, it’s a textbook example of a rocking track from this era. Not a bad way to mark your territory on the Sunset Strip scene. Grade: A+

Slow An’ Easy

Up next is the song Whitesnake would offer as the US single and the song that would help them finally break into the coveted American market. This one has it all – build-up and mood-shifting, with a bit extra behind the guitars and Powell’s drumming to really push it all over. It still has marks of the blues as it was co-written by Moody, but the song functions amazingly well in the ’80’s rock pantheon. It’s exactly the kind of song you’d want to write to get attention. Grade: S

Love Ain’t No Stranger

Whitesnake joined the ballad fray here, but this ballad is on steroids and totally rocks out. It had the rock for the rockers and the more melodic hook and twinge of melancholy for the ballad seekers. The song performed modestly as singles in both the UK and US, but over time it has become a staple of the Whitesnake set. Grade: A+

All Or Nothing

One of many tracks on here that showcase the “old” blues sound coupled with the updated ’80’s rock approach. This one slams right in and makes itself at home, with the organ adding some spice in the mid-section. Grade: A

Gambler

Here we have the sad tale of someone who is stuck “outside” of love, apparently struck by chance to remain loveless. Overall the song is well done, I do think maybe the two versions of the album clash here a little bit between the guitars and keyboards. But it’s a minor gripe. Grade: B+

Guilty Of Love

Now this song sounds totally like an ’80’s track. It keeps a quick pace but keeps a bright enough tone not to be a headbanging track. And yes, Coverdale is totally guilty of love, as we would all find out as the ’80’s wore on. Grade: A-

Hungry For Love

No, we’re not dealing with a concept or prog album by any means here, our themes today are very meat and potatoes for the ’80’s. This one is more of an old school boogie with a bit of sleaze on it. I do wonder if the song might have stood out more without the keyboards, I’d have just let the guitars carry this one. But no matter, still a nice song. Grade: B+

Give Me More Time

This song showcases Whitesnake’s transition perhaps better than any other. It still has some old-school underpinnings but it’s also a total ’80’s rocker too, a very good mark of what Whitesnake was turning into. It’s catchy and rocking and hits all the right notes. Grade: A+

Spit It Out

As we round the bend to the album’s close we get another total rocker absolutely fit for the time. It’s another pretty basic track but it gets the job done and then some. Grade: A-

Standing In The Shadow

The album wraps up with another well done song that highlights Whitesnake’s new approach. It’s a simple and effective mid-paced rocker that keeps the album’s quality high through the whole run. Grade: A

Slide It In would help Whitesnake break the American market – somewhat slowly. The album got to 40 on the Billboard 200 and would eventually earn gold certification in 1986. The original UK version went to 9 there are charted decently across Europe. The band toured behind the record, with members slowly dropping off – Jon Lord would reconvene with Deep Purple, Cozy Powell left over money disputes and Mel Galley was out due to injury.

This left Coverdale along with Murray and Sykes to work on the next record. The album was put together, but Coverdale was under massive financial pressure and was also not getting along with his bandmates, yet again. Murray left voluntarily (I guess) while Sykes was fired in acrimonious circumstances.

The story was far from done though, as Whitesnake’s self-title album would massively dominate airwaves and sales charts. This also floated up Slide It In, which went platinum in 1987, double platinum later and a total of six million copies sold worldwide. This album was the closest musically to the self-titled behemoth so its further success was no surprise.

All of the truckloads of drama aside, Slide It In was a wonderful rock album that stood up fine on its own merits. It has no filler and it combined the contrasting sounds of the early and modern Whitesnake eras very well.

Album Grade: A

I’m sure multiple books could be written about all of the events up to, including and after Slide It In. It’s one of rock’s crazier stories that in the end saw David Coverdale’s gambles pay off. But the album itself is a perfect testament to the rock scene of 1984 and an essential piece for any rock fan’s catalog.

For more on the grading scale, head here.

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