Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. We here at Defenders are absolutely devastated over the loss of our friend Jack Russell, frontman of Great White, who passed away last Thursday, August 15, at the age of 63. For those who have been following us from the beginning, Jack was one of the first major names to grant us an interview, in the dog days of the pandemic. When things finally started to let up in late 2021, he and his camp graciously invited us to the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois to cover their co-headline bill with Steelheart. Little did we know it would be our last time seeing this ’80s hard rock icon. In honor of Russell and his undeniable legacy, today we go back in time to 1987 and revisit Great White’s defining moment, Once Bitten. Make no mistake: This essay will rock you!
By the time 1987 rolled around, glam/hair/pop metal had reached an absolute fever pitch. Def Leppard, Whitesnake, and Mötley Crüe released absolute blockbusters of albums in Hysteria, Whitesnake ’87, and Girls, Girls, Girls respectively. Bon Jovi quickly ascend to arena headliner status off the colossal success of their third album, Slippery When Wet, released the year before. Hell, even old timers like Aerosmith were hopping on the bandwagon, the result being their biggest outing in over a decade, Permanent Vacation. With all this in mind, it was perfect timing for Great White to strike and stake their claim amidst a crowded playing field of big hair and even bigger crowds.
Great White’s rise to the top did not happen overnight. In fact, they were amongst the earliest of the Sunset Strip scene, forming in 1977 under the moniker Dante Fox. After 5 years of playing every watering hole on the Strip and beyond, Dante Fox became Great White and quickly released their debut EP, Out of the Night. You can read our retrospective essay on that release here. Said EP would catch the attention of Capitol Records, and within a year, the band would be opening up for Judas Priest in support of their self titled debut full length. The pairing of Priest and Great White couldn’t have been more perfect, as at the time, Great White came off as the American heirs to Priest’s heavy metal throne. They played a fast, fierce, and fiery brand of metal, which unfortunately led to little commercial success.
Much to the surprise of those who had been following Great White since ’83, their sophomore album, Shot in the Dark (1986), marked a radical shift sonically. Sure, there were some nods to their traditional metal past (“Run Runaway”, “Shot in the Dark”), but for the most part, this affair saw the band change gears towards a retro hard/blues rock sound in the vein of Zeppelin, albeit with an ’80s pop metal twist. Although the album wasn’t an immediate smash hit, the transition paid off, with their cover of The Angels’ “Face the Day” becoming a cult hit on rock radio. The stage was now set for Great White to finetune these new elements for their next album, and boy did they do so.
On June 17, 1987, Great White released their coup de grace, Once Bitten. 10 years of hard work and hard touring had finally culminated in this: The album in which Great White truly found their identity, and in turn, won over a legion of fans. It was their most dynamic and compelling album to date, without sounding forced or desperate for mass appeal. Some might say it was a matter of “right place, right time”, with the general public being hungry for metal that was heavy, but not too heavy (i.e. Death, Bathory, Sepultura, etc.). In this respect, Great White scratched that itch and then some, with a collection of some of the strongest pop metal anthems ever laid down on tape.
Once Bitten opens with my personal favorite Great White song of all time, “Lady Red Light”. A glorious hybrid of glam metal and AOR (perhaps the greatest example of such an amalgamation ever), “Lady Red Light” boasts all the trappings of an ’80s pop metal anthem. It’s a perfect balance of sleaze and class, heaviness and hooks, its sordid lyrics chronicling a love affair juxtaposed by explosive six string pyrotechnics and lush synths. All of these facets are framed by a larger than life shout-along chorus, tailor made for the American megadomes.
The party continues with the charmingly glam-tastic “Gonna Getcha”. If you strip this rowdy rocker to its core, there isn’t much difference between it and say a Sweet or Slade obscurity. The riffs, chorus, and structure certainly has a retro ’70s tinge to it, but is “modernized” by its ’80s glam metal production, courtesy of producer/manager/songwriter/collaborator/confidant Alan Niven. This is followed by Great White’s first smash hit, “Rock Me”. When I interviewed Russell in 2020, he looked back wistfully on how the band duped rock radio stations all across the country, sending them promo singles that read “4:00” as the length time, as opposed to the actual “7:11”.
Let’s be honest, folks: By 1987, NO rock radio station was playing songs past 5+ minutes, save for the occasional Zeppelin deep cut. The era of “album rock”, when DJs would take bong hits in between spinning the likes of Black Sabbath and Ten Years After, was long since over. Ironically, “Rock Me” boasted an eerie semblance to Zeppelin, who seemed to be the one band of this “Dazed and Confused” era that crossed over posthumously into the ’80s. Perhaps it was this hunger for sultry vocals, bluesy licks, and a massive chorus, that helped light up phonelines all across the country, and catapulted Great White to the forefront of the hard and heavy scene.
Speaking of bluesy jams, side A closes with what is an easy contender for a Top 10 Great White Songs list when we inevitably get to such, “All Over Now”. Interestingly enough, it’s a rather textbook glam metal song, but delivered with blues chords and an equally bluesy delivery. However, these facets are so subtle that most wouldn’t even notice, and I imagine the crop of young metallists buying up Once Bitten in droves weren’t the most well versed on the likes of Savoy Brown or Chicken Shack. And yet I can’t help but notice those bluesy roots in the verses of this absolute banger. Furthermore, Russell unleashes a grand slam of a vocal performance, reaching the peak of his range with flawless ease.
As we flip over to side B, the bluesy glam bonanza rages on with “Mistreater”. By now, we pretty much know what to expect from this album, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying. Save for “Rock Me”, these are quick, in and out rockers, framed by gargantuan choruses and equally gargantuan riffage. It’s the same straightforward, no frills formula that made so many fans out of AC/DC and Aerosmith a generation before, but again, Great White did so with their own singular ambition. Sure, one could make Zeppelin comparisons, but a Zeppelin clone they were not.
Having not dabbled in AOR since the opening “Lady Red Light”, Great White dip their toes in the synth-heavy Foreigner/Journey pool one more time with my second favorite cut on here, “Never Change Heart”. Had the entire album been in this vein, it’d be one of the greatest AOR outings of all time. Instead, it’s one of the greatest glam metal outings of all time, but I digress. The fact that “Never Change Heart” was never considered for single release absolutely blows my mind. It has all the markings of a hit single circa ’87, and although AOR was starting to fade commercially by now, there’s no denying that “Never Change Heart” could’ve held its own amongst the equally AOR tinged romps of Def Leppard’s “Love Bites” and Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”.
The sole “true metal” moment of Once Bitten, “Fast Road” always came off to me as a figurative bone the band threw to the old schoolers who were there from day one. A rampaging outburst of speed-glam, this double bass driven blitzkrieg channels the Priest/NWOBHM inspired rage of their heyday, and was guaranteed to push the necks of newcomers to their very limit. This is followed by one more hook-driven arena metal shout-along, “On the Edge”, a song modeled in the same vein as “All Over Now”, “Mistreater”, and so forth, before things wind down with the absolutely sublime, “Save Your Love”.
In an era where the power ballad was king, “Save Your Love” stood head and shoulders above the rest. It was practically contractually obligated that, if you were a glam metal band, to include at least one sappy power ballad on your album, and accompany it with an equally sappy black and white video of being out on the road. “Save Your Love” transcends these conventions with its heart, soul, and passion. Hauntingly atmospheric and emotionally deep, Russell belts it out spectacularly, making it hard to believe this is the same man who sang the infidelity anthem, “Lady Red Light”, just 40 minutes earlier.
All in all, Once Bitten paid off huge for Great White. The album quickly went platinum and the band found themselves as support on yet another high profile tour, Whitesnake ’87. Or as it was famously billed, “the Great Whitesnake Tour”. Get it? Although Once Bitten didn’t reach the astronomical sales as Whitesnake’s self titled, it did set the stage for an era of creative and commercial bounty for these foxes turned sharks, but we’ll talk about that more in a later edition. Until then, with a tear in our eye and lighters raised high, we salute Mr. Jack Russell, Great White, and the timeless Once Bitten. Rest in power Jack!