...Twice Shy

Great White recorded their fourth album at Total Access Recording Studios between November 1988 and February 1989, leaving December out. Alan Niven and Michael Lardie produced and arranged it, and Lardie engineered. It was the first album with Tony Montana on bass, alongside Jack Russell on vocals, Mark Kendall on lead guitar, Lardie on guitar and keyboards and Audie Desbrow on drums. "Mista Bone" grew out of a riff Montana brought in, which Kendall turned into a song. The song that completes the album's title is a cover: "Once Bitten Twice Shy" was written by Ian Hunter. According to Kendall, Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses, whom Niven was also managing, played it to Niven, who fell for its lyric about life on the road, the life the band was living. Kendall had never heard the song and liked the idea of a title that followed on from Once Bitten. The band had met Hunter twice by chance, once when he rode on their tour bus and once when they borrowed his drum riser for a Judas Priest tour, but Kendall says neither meeting had anything to do with the choice. Capitol released ...Twice Shy on 12 April 1989. "Once Bitten Twice Shy" climbed to number 5 on the Hot 100 and number 6 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and with the piano ballad "The Angel Song" reaching number 30, the band had its first top-40 singles. The album peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200 and spent 50 weeks on the chart; the RIAA certified it gold on 13 June, platinum on 26 July and double platinum on 28 September 1989, and the single went gold on 26 July. Kendall recalls its video reaching number one on MTV. "House of Broken Love" reached number 7 on the rock chart in 1990, and the British and Japanese editions added "Wasted Rock Ranger" among their bonus tracks.