If you were alive and breathing in 1987, you didn't just hear Whitesnake; you saw them. Specifically, you saw a whirlwind of red hair and white lace performing gymnastics on the hoods of two Jaguar XJs. It was everywhere. It was the "Here I Go Again" video, and it basically redefined what a "video vixen" could be. Tawny Kitaen wasn't just some girl in a music video. She was the engine that drove Whitesnake from a struggling UK blues-rock act into a multi-platinum American powerhouse.
Honestly, it’s wild how much of that iconic imagery was a total accident. People talk about the Whitesnake video Tawny Kitaen era like it was some master-planned marketing campaign, but the reality is way more chaotic. David Coverdale was actually broke at the time. He’d just fired his entire band after recording the 1987 self-titled album and was basically betting his last cent on MTV.
The Jaguar Cartwheels That Changed Everything
Most people remember the cartwheels. You know the ones—where Tawny leaps from a black Jaguar to a white one without missing a beat. The director, Marty Callner, originally wanted a professional dancer or a different model entirely. He’d actually suggested Claudia Schiffer. But Coverdale had just started dating Kitaen, and he brought her to the set.
"She just started doing it," Coverdale later recalled in various interviews. There was no choreographer. There was no "movement coach." Kitaen, who had a background in gymnastics, just hopped on the cars and started improvising. The result was pure lightning in a bottle. It wasn't just sexy; it was athletic, confident, and weirdly elegant. It turned a standard rock performance clip into a piece of pop culture history that people are still dissecting 40 years later.
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Beyond the One-Hit Wonder Image
While "Here I Go Again" is the big one, the Whitesnake video Tawny Kitaen partnership actually spanned four major clips. If you look at them in order, you can see the progression of their relationship and the band's peak:
- Still of the Night: This was the first one. It was darker, more "Zeppelin-esque," and featured Tawny in a more traditional "rock chick" role, stalking through the shadows.
- Is This Love: This is the ultimate power ballad. It’s softer, more romantic, and focuses heavily on the chemistry between Kitaen and Coverdale.
- The Deeper the Love: Released later in 1990 from the Slip of the Tongue album. By this point, they were actually married.
- Fool for Your Loving '89: Another remake where she made a brief, high-energy appearance.
Tawny brought a "glam rock credibility" that Coverdale desperately needed. She was already a face in the L.A. scene, having dated Robbin Crosby from Ratt (she’s the legs on the cover of their debut EP and the girl on Out of the Cellar). She knew the world. She wasn't just a guest; she was the muse.
The Price Tag and the Reality Check
If you're a real fan, you've probably noticed the "mistake" that once you see, you can never un-see. In the "Here I Go Again" video, during one of those famous cartwheels, you can see a price tag on the bottom of Tawny’s shoe. It’s at the 3:48 mark. It’s a tiny detail, but it’s a reminder of how "scrappy" these high-budget looking videos actually were. They were moving fast, shooting on a wing and a prayer, trying to capture a vibe before the light faded or the money ran out.
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But there was a darker side to the "video vixen" label. Kitaen later spoke about how being "the Whitesnake girl" was a double-edged sword. It made her a household name, sure, but it also pigeonholed her. She was a working actress—she’d been the lead in Bachelor Party with Tom Hanks and starred in the cult hit Witchboard. Yet, for most of the world, she was just the girl on the car.
Why It Still Matters in 2026
We live in a world of highly polished, TikTok-choreographed music clips now. Everything is vertical, short-form, and meticulously edited. The Whitesnake video Tawny Kitaen era represents a time when rock and roll felt dangerous and spontaneous. There was a genuine, palpable heat between the two leads because they were actually in love—or at least in the middle of a very intense, very public romance.
Their marriage lasted from 1989 to 1991. It was short, explosive, and coincided exactly with the rise and fall of the hair metal era. When they split, the "classic" Whitesnake video era effectively ended too. Coverdale moved on to different sounds, and the music industry shifted toward the grungier, less-glamorous vibes of the early 90s.
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What You Should Do Next
If you want to really understand why this matters, don't just watch the YouTube clips. Look deeper into the history of that 1987 album. It’s a masterclass in how to reinvent a brand. Here are a couple of things you can check out to get the full picture:
- Watch the "30th Anniversary" Remaster: The 2017 remasters of the videos are way cleaner. You can see the details in the Jaguars and, yes, that infamous price tag much more clearly.
- Listen to the "MEL Magazine" Audio Documentary: There is a fantastic deep-dive audio doc titled The Real Story Behind "Here I Go Again" that features interviews with the director and the executive who basically forced the band to re-record the song. It explains how close the whole project came to failing.
- Read Tawny's Later Interviews: Before her passing in 2021, Tawny was very open about her time in the spotlight. Her "Tawny’s Take" videos on social media offered a blunt, often funny look back at the 80s that cuts through the nostalgia.
The legacy of the Whitesnake video Tawny Kitaen collaboration isn't just about cars or hairspray. It’s about that brief moment when music and visual media collided to create something that defined an entire decade's aesthetic. It was over-the-top, it was "kinda" ridiculous, and it was absolutely perfect.
To get the most out of your 80s rock deep dive, go back and compare the 1982 original version of "Here I Go Again" with the 1987 version. The 1982 track is a moody, bluesy song about loneliness. The 1987 version—the one with the video—is a triumphant anthem. The song didn't change that much, but the way it was presented changed everything.