Coverdale Confirms Whitesnake Hit Was Written For B.B. King

(Gibson) It's long been rumored and now David Coverdale has confirmed it: 'Fool For Your Loving', Whitesnake's first big hit, released in 1980, was originally written for blues legend B.B. King.

In a video posted by Whitesnake, Coverdale talks about the song's genesis, describing how he and guitarist Mick Moody worked on the song first, crafting the pre-chorus and chorus but weren't satisfied with the verse they'd come up with. Whitesnake's other guitarist, Bernie Marsden, took over and came up with a new verse. Prior to that, however, Marsden had interviewed B.B. King for a British music magazine and at the time, King suggested that the band write a song for him. Thinking that 'Fool For Your Loving' might be the song for King, the band recorded a demo but liked it so much, they decided to add their own rock riffage flavor to it and keep it for themselves.

As Coverdale explains it, "One of the ideas was - I think B.B. at the time was working with The Crusaders, so there was this really kind of funky jazz groove underneath, and that's how I was hearing 'Fool for Your Loving' for him�but when we did the *sings main riff* - I went, 'Oh, geez, 'cmon!' So Birch and I looked at each other and said, 'I think we should hang on to this.' Sorry B.B. And that was our first significant hit around the world." Read more here.

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