Slide It In is the sixth studio album by British rock band Whitesnake, released on 30 January 1984 in Europe, and on 6 February in the UK by Liberty and EMI Records. To cater to the American market, the album was remixed and resequenced, and subsequently released on 16 April 1984 in North America through Geffen Records, after the group was signed to the label prior to its release. The album is widely regarded as a pivotal release for Whitesnake, as it marked their initial success in the United States and laid the groundwork for their breakthrough later in the 1980s. Notably, it was the last Whitesnake album to feature the band’s original "snake" logo. Two distinct editions of the album exist, each reflecting a different production approach. The original mix was criticised for its "flat" sound, while the remix adopted a more modern and polished production style, aligning with the growing popularity of the American glam metal scene. The remix proved instrumental in refining Whitesnake's sound, helping the band establish a stronger identity in the competitive U.S. rock market, giving it "the voice" that the group wanted. Critics have described the album as a blend of blues rock and glam metal. The remixed version, in particular, was praised for its energy and accessibility, which resonated with American audiences.
During the promotional tour for Slide It In, the band underwent significant lineup changes. Founding guitarist Micky Moody, left the group after the album's recording and was replaced by John Sykes, formerly of Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang, while bassist Colin Hodgkinson was replaced by a returning Neil Murray. Guitarist Mel Galley also left due to a nerve injury, while longtime keyboardist Jon Lord departed the band, to rejoin the reformed Deep Purple and play on their comeback album Perfect Strangers, which was released later the same year. Drummer Cozy Powell would also leave the band, to form Emerson, Lake & Powell in January 1985, after the supporting tour finished. These changes eventually changed the band's evolution in style and sound leading into the late 1980s, while rising in popularity.
Background In 1982, Whitesnake released their fifth studio album, Saints & Sinners, which proved to be difficult as tensions between band members persisted, including a major change to their management and a lack of financial payouts, despite being a top draw in the UK. David Coverdale had temporarily put the band on hold and made permanent changes to their management personnel at that time before the record was released. New members of the band were introduced to the supporting Saints & Sinners tour as a result, with Micky Moody and Jon Lord returning. Geffen Records A&R executive, John Kalodner who had been a longtime fan of the band, convinced the label's founder, David Geffen to sign the group. Kalodner stated, "I thought David Coverdale was a star frontman, a star singer, I felt he had a mediocre band and just average songs. My job was to make them a commercial rock band for the United States."
Being cognizant of the band's future, Coverdale set his sights on the United States by signing to a major record label with Geffen, distributing Whitesnake's upcoming releases in North America. The band has also signed with Sony (known as CBS/Sony at that time) for future distributions in Japan.
Writing and production After the supporting tour, the band rehearsed for their next upcoming album at Lord's house in Oxfordshire. Coverdale had written most of the lyrics, alongside Mel Galley, who recently joined the group. Moody only had writing contributions on "Slow an' Easy".
Recordings of Slide It In began in 1983 at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany with producer Eddie Kramer, who had been suggested to David Coverdale by John Kalodner. In the studio, the album featured drummer Cozy Powell, bassist Colin Hodgkinson, keyboardist Jon Lord, guitarist Mel Galley, and with guitarist Micky Moody returning to the band, all of whom had performed on the previous supporting Saints & Sinners tour. However, while recording, Moody's relationship with the band became strained over time, stating in a 1997 interview: "(…) I realised that as soon as we started rehearsing and playing that it wasn't the same band, it never felt right. Mel Galley is very talented, a good singer, a great guitar player, but that band just didn't work out. Cozy was a great drummer, I always had a lot of respect for him, but he just didn't have any feel for the old Whitesnake sound. Cozy Powell brought with him a bass player called Colin Hodgkinson. Me and David knew Colin in the North East back in the sixties. He was a great legendary bass player, worked with the jazz/blues styles, but he never struck me as the bass player for Whitesnake. It was more the heavy metal attitude, probably because of Cozy's influence. He was a more heavier drummer than Ian Paice. There were flames and explosions going on, not really my cup of tea. It seems to me now that maybe Cozy wanted the band to be much more heavier and flasher."
Originally, the album was slated to be released in October following to the Monsters of Rock festival show, however, failed to meet the deadline. Internally, the band was not satisfied with Kramer's style and production, particularly the mixing of the record. Kramer was only credited to the "Guilty of Love"/"Gambler" single before he was eventually let go from his duties. As a result, the band had rehired Martin Birch, who had produced all of the band's albums in the past, to finish the record. A new release date was scheduled to be in mid November or the 30th, with the upcoming supporting tour for the album to begin in December. Yet, both of these dates were delayed until early 1984 due to personnel changes and troubled production.
According to Coverdale, John Kalodner had convinced him that in order for the band to achieve their full potential, they needed a "guitar hero" that could match Coverdale as a frontman. Candidates included Michael Schenker and Adrian Vandenberg. Schenker claims he turned down the offer to join Whitesnake, while Coverdale insists he decided to pass on Schenker. Vandenberg reluctantly declined the offer to join as well, due to the success he was having with his own band at the time. According to Coverdale, Vandenberg told him that it was the most difficult decision of his life, but they agreed to maintain contact with each other. Vandenberg was approached "four or five times" later and agreed to join Whitesnake in 1987.
Coverdale then approached Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes, whom he had met when Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy played some of the same festivals in Europe. Sykes was initially reluctant to join, wanting instead to continue working with Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, but after several more offers and Lynott's blessing, he accepted. Sykes recalled on the moment he had been offered and accepted on that premise: "I had a phone call, and it was Coverdale or his people or something. They called me up and asked me if I wanted to join, and I said, “No, I don’t. I’m not interested. I’m staying with Phil.” They called up again and said, “Just come over.” I think it was Munich we went to then? They were recording the 1984 "Slide It In" album or something. I thought I’d go over and take a look. I think they called me two or three times. I went over and met David and Mel Galley, who was a really nice guy. I hung out with them for a couple of days and jammed on a couple of songs. When I came back to London, they rang out for me, offered me the job, and I said: “No, I don’t want to do it.” Then they basically said, “How much money would it take for you to do it?”, so I threw a number out there that I thought I would never get, and they said, “Okay”, and gave me the money."
Around that time, Moody had completed the upcoming record with Birch as the band finished up a European tour in late 1983. According to Moody, Coverdale's personality had changed compared to when they got to know each other in 1976, stating that they hadn't spoken for a very long time. Moody finally decided to leave Whitesnake when Coverdale embarrassed him in front of Sykes who was touring with Thin Lizzy alongside Whitesnake.
Apparently, this did not seem to be a major problem to Coverdale, as, according to Moody, "After the gig, I said to the tour manager, 'I want to have a meeting in my room with all the band: I have something to say'. The other band members arrived and I said, 'Where is David?'. The tour manager came and told me, 'David is entertaining people in his suite, and he won't come down.'"
Soon after Moody's departure, John Sykes was announced to the press as the new Whitesnake guitarist. At the same time it was in the news that Hodgkinson had been fired, as Coverdale felt that his style did not suit Whitesnake's new sound. As a result of Hodgkinson's departure, Neil Murray was asked to rejoin Whitesnake, simply explaining the decision by simply stating: "I'd missed his playing". Lord also informed Coverdale of his intentions to leave the group, but Coverdale convinced him to stay until the next supporting album tour was over.
After the album's initial release in the UK, it was heavily criticised for the "double-entendre drenched lyrics and titles for which Whitesnake were already infamous" and for the album mix, which was deemed "resoundingly flat". As a result, Geffen Records refused to release the album in the United States unless a new remix was commenced, due to the bad reviews about the production in the UK press. Coverdale then flew to Los Angeles to meet up about the change. He was first against the idea, but reluctantly agreed with the record label on the condition that Sykes and Murray would re-record the guitar and bass parts, respectively. The two then flew to Los Angeles to replace the tracks on 19 January, with the help of famous producer Keith Olsen remixed the album at Goodnight Los Angeles studios, further delaying its American debut. As a result, the album had its sound revamped, having a bigger and at the time a more modern sound approach. Geffen had sent cassettes for the remixed version to the band that contained some tracks. However, Coverdale's initial reaction to the remix was negative, as he was strongly unimpressed, as far as after hearing one track, Galley "threw the cassette against the wall". Coverdale recalled, "It sucks as far as I'm concerned and if that goes out, I'm not gonna be with Geffen any more. It's dynamically dull, it's lost its British bollocks." However, over time, his opinion shifted, and he came to prefer the remix to the original European version, eventually choosing not to play the latter at all. He would often listen to the remix at full volume, much to the disappointment of his bandmates. "We couldn't stand to hear them over and over like that," Murray remarked.
While Cozy Powell's drum tracks are virtually not re-recorded but instead increased its clarity into the mix, Sykes' guitar tracks were served as a top layer recorded by Galley and Moody, and would also created some different guitar solos compared to the European version. Bassist Neil Murray, who returned to the band, replaced all of the bass tracks recorded by Hodgkinson. Bill Cuomo also added additional keyboard parts to the album. Sykes didn't replace all the guitar tracks, so some of Moody's tracks were still present in the American version.
In Olsen's mixing, the American remix noticeably added and removed redundancy in instrumental and vocal parts, predominantly the echo on Coverdale's vocal and backing parts, of the record compared to the European version. Coverdale stated that the only subtle difference in the remix was that it gives "the voice" in that record "a lot better." Both the European and American mixes were recorded and mixed on analogue tapes.
Release and promotion