Greatest Hits (Whitesnake, 1994)

Perhaps more accurately called "Greatest Hits from Whitesnake's Last Three Albums", this is functional yet uninspiring collection for the casual American fan base and their unexplainable interest in "hair metal". I myself picked it up from a record club back in college, so I got my money's worth.

As I just indicated, other than a single bonus track from around 1990, all of the songs appear on three albums: Slide It In (1984), Whitesnake/1987, and Slip of the Tongue (1989). The first of these is the "remixed" version, which was the start of the "new" Whitesnake, a different kind of animal than what the band had been up to that point. The "old" Whitesnake enjoyed an unusual closeness to its Deep Purple roots, and at one point half the band was ex-Purple. Even the non-Purple membership wasn't too far removed from that band; Mel Galley, Bernie Marsden, and Cozy Powell (for starters) were already part of the family tree prior to joining. In 1982, the band nearly dissolved as David Coverdale's interest in the band faltered due to personal issues which quickly became personnel issues with an acrimonious split with guitarist Micky Moody, with the rest of the band except for Jon Lord quickly following him out the door. Oddly enough Moody returned for Slide It In, but his working relationship with Coverdale was on life support by that time, and his contributions were removed from the US released and replaced with John Sykes'. That's sort of the point where the band turned into something else, with Lord's return to Deep Purple cementing that notion. In fact, Jon Lord was so mixed down on the album it was a joke, sort of like buying a giant drum kit and only playing the hi-hat cymbal. The other material here is completely over-the-top 1980's excess at its finest. In fact, even Coverdale has recoiled from the Slip of the Tongue material, though the sentiment of that decade being some kind of "golden age" has done wonders for his career in recent years.

The rest I will explain in pictures, from the last "old" Whitesnake lineup to the first "end" of the group around 1990. All pictures are courtesy of my friends at the Deep Purple Appreciation Society and their fantastic family tree project. Observe the increasing amount of hair care product being used....

The 1980's had consequences.