No. 9: "Is This Love" - Whitesnake
Whitesnake released its self-titled seventh record in 1987, and it produced their first true hits on the charts after making music for a decade.
Their previous album, Slide it In, is well known by rock and roll fans, but it was by no means a commercial record. It was filled with raucous, suggestive songs like the title track and "Slow and Easy." Rockers loved it, but there was no way it was getting radio airplay.
The band changed tact for the Whitesnake album. There was a conscious effort to make their sound more commercial and they used videos to push the music. They crashed upon the scene in 1987 with the number one hit "Here I Go Again," a bluesy tune heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin musically and vocally. Lead singer David Coverdale even looked like Robert Plant!
The video really pushed this song to the top. If featured actress Tawny Kitaen dancing on sports cars in a white, diaphanous dress in all sorts of poses. It worked. Between the sexy video and the sultry vocals and violin bow across the guitar strings, the band had a hit on their hands.
They followed that up with the release of the ballad "Is This Love," and they did not mess around with their recipe for success. Kitaen returned in this video, only this time, dancing around an apartment, sometimes with Coverdale and sometimes without. It was a brilliant marketing tactic and it worked wonders. "Is This Love" peaked at number two, giving the band back-to-back Top 2 hits.