"Love Ain't No Stranger" is a

power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Balla ...

by the English

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

/ heavy metal group

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1978. The group were originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their ow ...

, and it is taken from the band's U.S.-breakthrough album ''

Slide It In ''Slide It In'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Whitesnake, released on 30 January 1984 in Europe by Liberty and EMI Records. To cater to the American market, the album was remixed and resequenced, and subsequently released on 16 ...

''. One of the group's best known songs, it's been included in multiple multi-artist compilation albums as well as in various media from Whitesnake's own

labels A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affixed to ...

. Particularly well-received in the context of the 1980s heavy music boom in the

Anglosphere The Anglosphere, also known as the Anglo-American world, is a Western-led sphere of influence among the Anglophone countries. The core group of this sphere of influence comprises five developed countries that maintain close social, cultura ...

, various

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

have praised its composition. "Love Ain't No Stranger" is a staple of the band's live performances. Due to its popularity among fans, Whitesnake has performed the song over eight hundred times as of December 2022, making it one of the group's top five most played pieces. The song charted at number 44 on the UK Singles Chart and 34 on the U.S.

Mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent a cross between classic rock, active rock and alternativ ...

charts. Eduardo Rivadavia of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described the song as "one of the decade's greatest

power ballads A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Ballad ...

, bar none."

Recording

The song starts with keyboardist Jon Lord's keyboards with emotional vocal delivery from singer David Coverdale. The song keeps a slow tempo until the guitars and drums kick in when the song tempo drastically changes and becomes a hard driving rock song. The slow tempo "ballady" section doesn't emerge again until the very middle and very end of the song. According to the 25th Anniversary Edition

booklet Booklet may refer to: * A small book or group of pages * A pamphlet * A type of tablet computer * Postage stamp booklet, made up of one or more small panes of postage stamps in a cardboard cover * Liner notes, writings found in booklets which come ...

of ''Slide It In'', the keyboard intro was originally written for guitars, but was eventually switched to keyboards. Also, Coverdale told in the edition's booklet that drummer

Cozy Powell Cozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, B ...

once told the singer that "Love Ain't No Stranger" was the best track he'd ever played drums on.

Music video

The music video for "Love Ain't No Stranger" was directed by Mark Rezyka. The video begins with Coverdale walking alone in a misty night scene at a city. The scene cuts to a shot of Coverdale looking up at a woman in a building. Snake lines were tattooed on the woman's chest that are nearly identical to the group's ''Slide It In'' cover. The scene then cuts to a group of people having a night-out on the corridors, with

Sykes "Sykes" is a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origins, which generally has topographical roots as it original linguistic origin. The name derives from the Old Norse word "sík" or "síkja", meaning a small stream, marshy hollow, or gully. It eventua ...

and

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American bicycle manufacturer * Murray Motor Car Company, an American car manufacturer * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trus ...

in the group. Another woman stands out from the group, depicted as an outcast. She looks at Coverdale as the scene continues on the band performs the song at a mock concert. During Sykes' guitar solo, the scene cuts to Sykes grabbing the woman and seemingly inviting her to ride with others in a truck. At the end of the video, Coverdale climbs on to a truck and hugs the woman, but as he turns around he sees that the woman has changed and that the woman he was after is standing on the ground. As the truck drives away, Coverdale stares back at the woman as she disappears into the mist.

Track listing

Personnel

David Coverdale David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake. Coverdale was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976; he has had a solo car ...

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Micky Moody Michael Joseph Moody (born 30 August 1950) is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden he founde ...

–

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

(UK version) *

John Sykes John James Sykes (29 July 1959 – December 2024) was an English guitarist and singer, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums. ...

– guitars (US version) *

Mel Galley Melville John Galley (8 March 1948 – 1 July 2008) was an English guitarist, best known for his work with Whitesnake, Trapeze, Finders Keepers and Phenomena. Biography Galley was born in Cannock, Staffordshire on 8 March 1948. While a membe ...

– guitars,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

Colin Hodgkinson Colin Hodgkinson (born 14 October 1945, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England) is a British rock, jazz and blues bassist, who has been active since the 1960s. Career Hodgkinson played in several bands, but was even more prolific as a sessio ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(UK version) * Neil Murray – bass (US version) *

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Jon Lord John Douglas "Jon" Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English keyboardist and composer. In 1968, Lord co-founded the hard rock band Deep Purple. Lord performed on most of the band's most popular songs; he and drummer Ian Paice were the only ...

– keyboards

Charts

References