Once Bitten

Once Bitten was the first album Great White made for Capitol, and Mark Kendall has called it a do-or-die record: without something memorable, he felt, the band would have been finished. Alan Niven, Michael Lardie and Kendall produced it at Total Access Recording Studios, with Lardie also engineering. Audie Desbrow played drums and Lardie keyboards and guitar. Bassist Lorne Black shares the writing credits on two songs, but by the time of the release he had been fired, and 20-year-old Tony Montana had taken his place. The centrepiece is the seven-minute "Rock Me". Kendall built it from the idea of holding one note while other lines move over it, and Lardie supplied the B section; Jack Russell wrote the lyric, and Niven shares the music credit. The single was cut to 4:12, but Niven reasoned that DJs wanting a break would welcome a song twice the customary four minutes of radio. Nigel Dick directed the video. The ballad "Save Your Love" began as Stephan Williams's idea, complete with a heavy intro, before the band turned it into an acoustic song. Russell stressed in 1987 that the album held nine originals and that, unlike their cover of "Face the Day", "Rock Me" was the band's own song. Capitol released Once Bitten in June 1987, and Billboard's review in the issue of 4 July named "Rock Me" the best track. The song became the band's first Hot 100 entry, peaking at number 60, and reached number 9 on the Mainstream Rock chart; "Save Your Love" followed to number 57 on the Hot 100 and also to number 9 on the rock chart. The album peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 53 weeks, and the RIAA certified it gold on 12 October 1987 and platinum on 27 April 1988. The British edition, EST 2039, dropped four songs from side two in favour of three tracks tied to Shot in the Dark. Niven was managing Guns N' Roses at the same time and gave them support slots on Great White's tours.