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Come an' Get It
Studio album by Whitesnake
Released	6 April 1981
Recorded	July – September 1980, January 1981
Studio	Startling Studios, Tittenhurst Park, Ascot, England
Genre	Hard rock blues rock
Length	40:24
Label	Mirage/Atlantic (North America) Polydor (Japan) Liberty (Rest of the world)
Producer	Martin Birch
Whitesnake chronology
Live...in the Heart of the City (1980) Come an' Get It (1981) Saints & Sinners (1982)
Singles from Come an' Get It
"Don't Break My Heart Again" Released: March 1981 "Would I Lie to You" Released: May 1981
Alternative cover
2007 EMI reissued cover

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	7/10

Come an' Get It is the fourth studio album by English hard rock band Whitesnake, released in 1981. It was, at the time, Whitesnake's highest-charting release in the UK, hitting No. 2 and being kept off the top spot by Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier.

"Don't Break My Heart Again" and "Would I Lie to You" were released as singles, the former making the UK Top 20.

EMI remastered the CD in 2007, adding six bonus tracks, mainly rough mixes.

Cover art

Come an' Get It's cover art was created by British artist Malcolm Horton. Malcolm had been contacted by an old friend John Ward who was at the time road manager for Whitesnake. He explained that the band didn’t like any of the ideas for the album cover that EMI, their record label, had come up with and so he suggested getting Malcolm involved. The band agreed and so he was asked to go and meet them and come up with some ideas. The final artwork sees the white snake trapped inside a glass apple on the front cover and on the reverse the glass apple is shattered and the snake set free; the power of seduction / temptation clearly too strong. The snake’s mouth actually depicted a vagina; however, it did not stir as much controversy as the infamous cover of the band’s second album, Lovehunter. The 2007 reissue redesigned the mouth to more closely resemble a regular snake’s tongue.

Malcolm describes the time in a blog post celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release. Painting Whitesnake’s Come An’ Get It album cover – 40 years on

The original artwork has since gone missing.

Commercial performance

By within its debut, Come an' Get It debuted at No. 2 in the UK chart, the highest debut in the band's discography ever in their native country, but was prevented from the top spot over Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier. It eventually stayed 23 weeks up in the charts. The album charted on 7 countries, with Finland charting on No. 3, Germany on No. 20, Japan on No. 41, Norway on No. 26, and Sweden on No. 24. In the US, it only debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 151 and kept showing for 6 weeks, unlike the moderate successes of their previous album 'Ready an' Willing' that formerly stayed for a total of 16 weeks at that time in 1980.

The album was certified by BPI within silver status on 27 April 1981, eventually reaching gold (100,000 copies) on 16 September 1981. The album also received a gold award by RIAJ in 1981, making the band's very first certification outside their native country.

Track listing

Personnel

Whitesnake

• David Coverdale – vocals
• Micky Moody – guitar, backing vocals
• Bernie Marsden – guitar, backing vocals
• Neil Murray – bass guitar
• Ian Paice – drums
• Jon Lord – keyboards

Production

• Martin Birch - producer, engineer, mixing
• Malcolm Horton - LP artwork

Charts

Certifications

References

1. "Whitesnake singles".
2. "Whitesnake singles".
3. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Whitesnake - Come an' Get It review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
4. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 411. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
5. ^ "Whitesnake - Official Charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
6. Barton, Geoff (2007). Come an' Get It (CD Booklet). Whitesnake. London: EMI. pp. 8–9.
7. Malcolm Horton Blog : Painting Whitesnake’s Come An’ Get It album cover
8. DiVita, Joe (10 July 2023). "50 Most Controversial Hard Rock + Metal Album Covers (NSFW)". Loudwire. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
9. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
10. "Offiziellecharts.de – Whitesnake – Come an' Get It" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
11. ^ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
12. "Norwegiancharts.com – Whitesnake – Come an' Get It". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
13. "Swedishcharts.com – Whitesnake – Come an' Get It". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
14. "Whitesnake | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
15. "Whitesnake Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
16. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
17. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
18. "1981 Polydor Japan label award for Whitesnake album Come an' Get It". 9 September 2023.
19. "British album certifications – Whitesnake – Come an' Get It". British Phonographic Industry.

• Whitesnake albums
• 1981 albums
• Albums produced by Martin Birch
• Liberty Records albums
• Polydor Records albums
• Hard rock albums by English artists
• Blues rock albums by English artists
• Mirage Records albums
• Atlantic Records albums