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Born under a bad sign
Music Radar has a short piece on the history of Whitesnake’s first UK hit — Fool For Your Loving:
As Coverdale said: “Bernie had done an interview with BB, whom we all adored, and he asked us to write something for him. He loved what we’d done with Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City – as did Bobby Bland, by the way.”
Coverdale and Marsden wrote Fool For Your Loving with Whitesnake’s other guitarist Micky Moody during sessions for the band’s third studio album Ready An’ Willing.
They wrote the song with King in mind, but after cutting a demo they had second thoughts.
As Coverdale recalled: “When we listened back to the demo of Fool For Your Loving, we agreed we should keep it. Sorry, B.B.!”
The article continues with a similar anecdote, as Is This Love off the 1987 album was originally written with Tina Turner in mind, but was deemed to be too good to be given away.
Thanks to Music Radar for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I could have seen Is This Love working very well with Tina, it doesn‘t take much imagination. Not so sure of Fool For Your Loving for BB King though, too many notes to sing, it would have been more fitting for Paul Rodgers or Bad Company, it owes a small debt to Free‘s Wishing Well in any case.
Jim Lea of Slade liked FFYL too. A lot. So much he felt inspired to write this by his own admission with the Whitesnake number in mind (Slade had been opening for WS):
https://youtu.be/FO6JsPr51-0
The parallels are obvious, though the Slade number is rockier and has less of a blues groove. But harmonies and quite a few of the arrangement ideas are lifted straight from WS. There aren‘t all that many Slade singles with prominent organ either, an obvious nod to Jon Lord.
September 29th, 2025 at 01:16