Is This Love – Whitesnake | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#2) & Mainstream Rock (#13); 1987
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
The one constant throughout Whitesnake’s revolving-door line-up was vocalist David Coverdale, who’d come into the big time after getting drunk and sending an audition tape of his inebriated cover of Everybody’s Talkin’ to Deep Purple.
Hired to replace the departed Ian Gillan, Coverdale remained with DP for three years. Going solo in 1976, Coverdale recorded two albums, the first of which was called White Snake.
The next year he assembled a Whitesnake band, and debuted the group live in early 1978. Dave and fellow musicians-of-the-moment waited almost 10 years before Whitesnake – the 1987 album – finally broke them into the mainstream.
First, Here I Go Again zoomed to #1 in October. Then, another ballad, Is This Love, soared to #2 in December, helped out, no doubt, by the accompanying video featuring David’s girlfriend/wife-to-be, Tawny Kitaen.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Mike Stone (for Mike Stone Enterprises)
- Keith Olsen (for Pogologo Productions)
Lyrics Written by:
- David Coverdale
- John Sykes
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).