In 1987, Whitesnake had a Top 5 single with “Is This Love”. The song, a slower tempo than their former hits, is written by band members David Coverdale and John Sykes. “Is This Love” appears on Whitesnake’s eponymous seventh studio album.
“Is This Love” is a song about an admission of feelings. It says, “I find I spend my time / Waiting on your call / How can I tell you, baby / My back’s against the wall / I need you by my side / To tell me it’s alright / ‘Cause I don’t think I can take anymore / Is this love that I’m feeling, / Is this the love, that I’ve been searching for / Is this love or am I dreaming / This must be love / ‘Cause it’s really got a hold on me.”
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One of Whitesnake’s biggest hits, Coveredale didn’t actually begin writing “Is This Love” with his own band in mind. Instead, the song was written for Tina Turner after a friend of Coverdale’s told him they were looking for songs for Turner. Coverdale started writing what became “Is This Love”, playing it for Sykes, who got his coffee and began playing.
“It was just this organic thing,” Coverdale recounts. “These ideas just fed really beautiful things that I wouldn’t have come up with. Maybe John wouldn’t have come up with the chords, but the embellishments were just part of the whole package of the song.”
Why Whitesnake Decided to Keep “Is This Love” For Themselves
Coverdale and Sykes may have indeed pitched “Is This Love” to Turner if not for David Geffen. At the time, Geffen was the head of Whitesnake’s record label. Geffen heard the song and immediately liked it.
“I said, ‘No, no, no. This is for Tina Turner,’” Geffen remembers. “But Geffen immediately responded with, ‘No, it’s not.’ And it’s one of the biggest songs that we have.”
For the remainder of Whitesnake’s performances, “Is This Love” became part of their live shows.
“Whenever we play really big heavy metal festivals around the world, I’m going, ‘Should we do it?’” Coverdale says. “Man, everybody’s hugging, ’cause usually by that time of the day, people need a good sonic hug. So we’re only too happy to oblige with that.”
Still, Coverdale admits he wonders what Turner would have sounded like on the power ballad.
“I would still love to have heard her sing it, though. If you were to imagine it in your mind’s ear, you know she’d do a superb job on it,” he says.
Photo by Getty Images/Bob Riha, Jr.
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