This Is What Whitesnake's Biggest Hit Is Really About

Despite the sadder than expected origins of "Here I Go Again," the song's video brought out a more joyous, fun-loving vibe. Coverdale revealed to CoS that model Claudia Schiffer was originally meant to star in the video. When that fell through, director Marty Kallner asked Coverdale to stop by and discuss the video. He and then-girlfriend Kitaen were on their way out to dinner, and stopped by together. When Kallner saw Kitaen, he insisted that she be cast as the "Whitesnake woman."

In more surprising "Here I Go Again" news, Paula Abdul was hired to teach Kitaen some choreography, but when she saw Kitaen's moves, she apparently reacted with, "I can't show her anything, David." Coverdale remembered: "It was so unusual to have a woman in a beautiful dress, doing cartwheels from a black Jag to a white Jag. It was fascinating. Nobody had that." 

Coverdale and Kitaen divorced in 1991, but Coverdale's affection for the "Here I Go Again" video lives on. In 2019, he made a video for a new song, "Shut Up And Kiss Me." Per a different CoS article, this lead to him saying "F*** it... why don't we get the Jag out?" The video features the original Jaguars that had been in storage for 30 years. Not wanting to mock his past, he insisted, "We cannot have people doing cartwheels. I don't want anything in this video looking like it's negating the joy and success of the 'Here I Go Again' video."

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