WMS

Whitesnake scored its first platinum-selling album in 1984 with Slide It In, a release that has sold more than four million copies worldwide thanks to hard-rocking songs like "Love Ain't No Stranger," "Slow An' Easy" and the title track. The classic album turns 35 this year and Rhino is celebrating with several new versions, including an enormous seven-disc box set.<br/><br/>After releasing Saints & Sinners in 1982, Whitesnake reconvened the following year in Germany to begin recording songs for what would become the band's sixth studio album, Slide It In. At the time, band members included Coverdale, guitarists Micky Moody and Mel Galley, bassist Colin Hodgkinson and keyboardist Jon Lord. The album was initially released in 1984 in the U.K., where it climbed into the Top 10. <br/><br/>SLIDE IT IN: THE ULTIMATE SPECIAL EDITION features unreleased versions of every album track, including 35th Anniversary remixes made this year, as well as monitor mixes recorded in 1983. The set boasts more than a dozen unreleased live recordings from 1984 that feature an entire concert from Glasgow, Scotland, plus several songs from Lord's final show with Whitesnake in Sweden. The collection's final disc unearths 30 tracks that cover original demos and early mixes for album tracks, as well as unfinished song ideas.<br/><br/>The DVD from SLIDE IT IN: THE ULTIMATE SPECIAL EDITION mixes music videos and live performances, all of which have been carefully restored and remixed in 5.1 Surround Sound for the first time ever. A newly recorded interview with singer David Coverdale rounds out the DVD.

The concept is "unplugged" with songs having stripped back, acoustic-based arrangements, inspired by the 1997 Whitesnake album, "Starkers In Tokyo", hence the "Unzipped" title and theme.