Video hit Whitesnake

Whitesnake - Still of the night

Still of the Night (also known as "In the Still of the Night") is a song by Whitesnake.

It was released as the fourth single and third track from their hugely successful self titled 1987 album.

It reached #16 in the U.K., #18 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks and #79 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released on March 9, 1987. In 2009 it was named the 27th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.

The song was written by lead singer David Coverdale and guitarist John Sykes, and proved to be one of the band's most popular songs. It combines the blues origins of the band with the more distorted, harder sound driving the song, making for a powerful hard rock song. The current Whitesnake lineup and John Sykes both play the song as their live encore.

In 2009, in an interview with Metal Hammer, Coverdale commented on the origins of the song:

"When my mother died I was going through the stuff at her house and found some early demo cassettes. One of them was a song that Ritchie Blackmore and I had been working on which was the basic premise of what would become "Still of the Night". It was totally unrecognizable, so Ritchie doesn't have anything to worry about... neither do I! Ha ha ha! I took it as far as I could then I gave it to Sykesy when we were in the south of France, and he put the big guitar hero stuff on there. John hated blues so I had to work within those parameters. I manipulated to be electric blues, but how he performed it was fabulous for his time and relatively unique because of the songs. There were a lot of people doing that widdly stuff but they didn't have the quality of those songs."

The song has been cited as sounding similar to Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog", a possible source of inspiration for Coverdale and Sykes.

The cymbal and hi-hat work, as well as the distorted guitar noise and Coverdale's moans in the breakdown of the song have also been noted to bear a resemblance to "Whole Lotta Love," yet another comparison to Led Zeppelin.

A music video, featuring Coverdale's then future wife Tawny Kitaen, was shot for the song, and it was MTV's most requested video in its first week of release. The video lends additional credence to the Led Zeppelin influence, as Adrian Vandenberg is seen using a violin bow prop during the midsection of the song, reflecting Jimmy Page's use of the bow during live performances of "Dazed and Confused".

Whitesnake withheld licensing of "Still of the Night" for use in the video game Rock Revolution; a cover version of the song was subsequently featured in the game.

The Finnish symphonic metal singer Tarja Turunen covered the song for her album What Lies Beneath.

The lyrics:

In the Still of the Night

I hear the wolf howl, honey

Sniffing around your door

In the Still of the Night

I feel my heart beating heavy

Telling me I gotta have more

In the shadow of night

I see the full moon rise

Telling me what's in store,

My heart starts aching

My body started shaking

And I can't take no more, no, no

Now I just wanna get close to you

And taste your love so sweet

And I just wanna make love to you

Feel your body heat...

In the Still of the Night...

In the Still of the Night...

Over here baby...

In the heat of the day

I hang my head down low

And hide my face from the sun

Through the light of the day

Until the evening time

I'm waiting for the night to come, ooh, baby

In the Still of the Night,

In the cool moonlight,

I feel my heart is aching

In the Still of the Night...

Oooh Baby, Oooh baby

Solo

In the Still of the Night

I hear the wolf howl, honey

Sniffing around your door...

In the Still of the Night

I feel my heart beating heavy

Telling me I gotta have more...

Oooh, mama

Now I just wanna get close to you

And taste your love so sweet

And I just wanna make love to you

Feel your body heat.

In the Still of the Night...

In the Still of the Night...

In the Still of the Night...

In the Still of the Night...

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night...

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night...

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night...

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night,

Still of the Night...