Whitesnake ( B3 )

 The album made the UK Top 30 and contained the minor hit "Long Way from Home", which reached No. 55 in the single charts. Shortly after that, drummer Ian Paice replaced David Dowle. giving Whitesnake three ex-Deep Purple members. The new line-up recorded the 1980 release Ready an' Willing (1980), which was a breakthrough hit for the band, reaching the UK Top 10 and becoming their first entry into the U.S. Top 100. The single "Fool for Your Loving", which the band originally wrote for B.B. King, made No. 13 in the UK single charts and No. 53 in the US, and the title track also hit No. 43 in the UK charts. The Ready an' Willing tour included the Saturday night headline appearance at the 1980 Reading Festival, the highlights of which were broadcast by BBC Radio 1 in the UK. While still mostly unknown in the US, the modest success of Ready an' Willing (1980) helped Whitesnake increase awareness there as an opening act for established bands such as Jethro Tull and AC/DC. The band also released Live...In the Heart of the City, which contained recordings made in 1978 and 1980 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, and achieved a No. 5 ranking in the UK album charts.

In 1981 the band recorded the album Come an' Get It, which climbed to No. 2 in the UK album charts and produced the Top 20 hit "Don't Break My Heart Again" and the Top 40 hit "Would I Lie to You". During 1982 Coverdale took time off to look after his sick daughter and decided to put Whitesnake on hold.

When David Coverdale returned to music, he reformed the band, and after the recording of the album Saints & Sinners (1982) replaced Bernie Marsden, Ian Paice, and bass player Neil Murray with Mel Galley from Trapeze, bassist Colin Hodgkinson, and Cozy Powell as the new drummer. Saints & Sinners was another Top 10 UK album and contained the hit "Here I Go Again", with Malcolm Birch from Chesterfield-based band Pegasus on keyboards. The new lineup toured in 1982–83 and headlined the Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donington UK in August 1983, and the single "Guilty of Love" reached No. 31 in the UK singles chart.

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