Saints & Sinners (Whitesnake album)

Saints & Sinners is the fifth studio album by English hard rock band Whitesnake, released in 1982. It peaked at number 9 on the UK Albums Chart.[5]

Saints & Sinners
Studio album by Whitesnake
Released	25 November 1982
Recorded	1981–1982
Studio	Rock City, Shepperton, Clearwell Castle, Gloucestershire with The Truck Mobile, Britannia Row and Battery Studios, London
Genre	Hard rock blues rock
Length	39:16
Label	Geffen/Warner Bros. (North America) Polydor (Japan) Liberty (Rest of the world)
Producer	Martin Birch
Whitesnake chronology
Come an' Get It (1981) Saints & Sinners (1982) Slide It In (1984)
Singles from Saints & Sinners
"Here I Go Again" / "Bloody Luxury" Released: 1982 "Victim of Love" / "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City (live)" Released: 1982 "Bloody Luxury" / "Here I Go Again" Released: 1982 (Japan only)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Classic Rock	[2]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	[3]
MusicHound Rock	[4]

Two of the tracks, "Crying in the Rain" and "Here I Go Again", were later re-recorded for their self-titled 1987 album.

Production and recording

The recording process began in 1981, just after the end of the Come an' Get It tour. However, tension within the band was beginning to appear. Micky Moody stated in a 1997 interview that:

By '81 people were becoming tired. We had too many late nights, too much partying. We weren't making nowhere near the kind of money we should have been making. Whitesnake always seemed to be in debt, and I thought "what is this?, we're playing in some of the biggest places and we're still being told we're in debt, where is all the money going?". We hadn't got much money out of it and to be told you're 200,000 pounds in debt, when you just had six golden albums. It wasn't just me, cause everybody was getting tired, pissed off and losing their sense of identity. It was over by then, we couldn't get any further. It's difficult for a band to go more than three or four years without getting tired of each other and losing ideas. Nothing lasts forever. Everybody wanted to do something different after a few years, a solo album or write with someone else.[6]

Moody quit the band in December 1981, and soon afterwards David Coverdale called a meeting with all Whitesnake members and put the band on hold.[7] Coverdale was also worried about the lack of financial reward the band were having, and decided to put the band on hold to dissociate Whitesnake from their manager John Coletta[8] (who had also been Deep Purple's manager from 1968 to 1976). After this parting of ways, Coverdale temporarily took over Whitesnake's business side.

During 1982, the news began to filter through the music newspapers and magazines: guitarist Bernie Marsden also quit Whitesnake, as well as bassist Neil Murray and drummer Ian Paice.[9] Only Jon Lord stuck with David Coverdale. However, Bernie Marsden states in his autoboography that the rest of the band were called to a meeting to be told that they were "no longer a part of Whitesnake".

In August 1982 David Coverdale called Micky Moody and asked him to return to the band. According to Moody, "towards the end of 82, David rang me up and said 'we wanna finish the Saints & Sinners album and we need to do some backing vocals, etc."[6] There were also three new members in the band, namely former Trapeze guitarist Mel Galley, former Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell and Colin Hodgkinson on bass guitar.

As the album was almost finished, the only contribution of the new line-up to Saints & Sinners were the backing vocals recorded by Galley along with Moody at Battery Studios in London; Ian Paice's drum parts and Neil Murray's bass tracks were left untouched.

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Young Blood"	David Coverdale, Bernie Marsden	3:30
2.	"Rough an' Ready"	Coverdale, Micky Moody	2:52
3.	"Bloody Luxury"	Coverdale	3:23
4.	"Victim of Love"	Coverdale	3:33
5.	"Crying in the Rain"	Coverdale	6:00

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	"Here I Go Again"	Coverdale, Marsden	5:08
7.	"Love an' Affection"	Coverdale, Moody	3:09
8.	"Rock an' Roll Angels"	Coverdale, Moody	4:07
9.	"Dancing Girls"	Coverdale	3:10
10.	"Saints an' Sinners"	Coverdale, Moody, Marsden, Neil Murray, Jon Lord, Ian Paice	4:25

2007 remastered bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
11.	"Young Blood" (monitor mix/early vocals)	Coverdale, Marsden	3:30
12.	"Saints an' Sinners" (monitor mix/early vocals)	Coverdale, Moody, Marsden, Murray, Lord, Paice	4:24
13.	"Soul Survivor" (unfinished, unreleased song)	Coverdale, Moody, Marsden	3:08

Personnel

Whitesnake

• David Coverdale – lead vocals
• Micky Moody – guitar, backing vocals
• Bernie Marsden – guitar
• Neil Murray – bass
• Ian Paice – drums, percussion
• Jon Lord – keyboards

Additional musicians

• Mel Galley – backing vocals

Production

• Martin Birch - producer, engineer, mixing at Battery Studios, September/October 1982
• Guy Bidmead - engineer
• Bryan New - assistant engineer
• Peter Mew - remastering at Abbey Road Studios, London, 2007

Charts

Album Year Chart Position 1982 Finnish Albums Chart[10] 7 UK Albums Chart[5] 9 Austrian Top 40 Albums[11] 14 Spanish Albums Chart[12] 17 German Albums Chart[13] 28 New Zealand Albums Chart[14] 41 Japanese Oricon LP Chart[15] 42 Swedish Albums Chart[16] 45 Australian Albums Chart[17] 65

Singles Year Title Chart Position 1982 "Here I Go Again" UK Singles Chart[5] 34 German Singles Chart[18] 51 Australian Singles Chart[17] 53

Certifications

Country	Organization	Year	Sales
UK	BPI	1982	Silver (+ 60,000)[19]

References

1. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Whitesnake - Saints & Sinners review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
2. "Whitesnake: Saints & Sinners - Album Of The Week Club review". Classic Rock. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2020 – via Loudersound.
3. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 411. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
4. Graff, Gary, ed. (1996), MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press, p. 728, ISBN 9780787610371
5. "Whitesnake - Official Charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
6. Myhre, Stig (1997). "Whitesnake: The Last Hurrah". Hard Roxx (34). Retrieved 5 May 2015.
7. Deep Purple Appreciation Society Magazine, Issue 25', The Deep Purple Appreciation Society, July 1982
8. Mel Galley feature on David Coverdale & Whitesnake Web Site', David Coverdale & Whitesnake Web Site, 2008
9. Deep Purple Appreciation Society Magazine, Issue 26', The Deep Purple Appreciation Society, November 1982
10. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin - levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 263. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
11. "Whitesnake – Saints & Sinners (album)". Austriancharts.at (in German). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
12. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
13. "Album - Whitesnake, Saints & Sinners". Charts.de (in German). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
14. "Whitesnake – Saints & Sinners (album)". charts.nz. Media Control Charts. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
15. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
16. "Whitesnake – Saints & Sinners (album)". Swedishcharts.com. Media Control Charts. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
17. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
18. "Single - Whitesnake, Here I Go Again". Charts.de (in German). Media Control Charts. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
19. "Search for Artist Whitenake". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 26 April 2015.