David Coverdale's original vision for Whitesnake was to create a "hard rock, blues-based, melodic rock band with soul". He wanted to combine elements of hard rock, R&B and blues with "good commercial hooks". Coverdale's earliest influences included The Pretty Things and The Yardbirds, who combined blues and soul with electrified rock, a style Coverdale found more appealing to traditional twelve-bar blues structures. Another major influence on Whitesnake's sound was The Allman Brothers Band, particularly their first album. Whitesnake's other early influences include Cream, Mountain, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, Jeff Beck (particularly the album "Truth" and "Beck-Ola"), Paul Butterfield, and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers (particularly "The Beano Album") As the band began playing and writing together, their sound developed further into what has been described as their blues rock period, which encompasses roughly the first five Whitesnake studio albums. "Rolling Stone's" Richard Bienstock described this early sound as "bloozy, sexed-up pub-rock". Micky Moody and Neil Murray have felt that Whitesnake didn't truly find their sound until "Ready an' Willing". Coverdale has seconded this, stating that "Ready an' Willing" was the beginning of what Whitesnake should have sounded like from the start. Songs from this "blues rock era" have been largely ignored on the band's later compilation albums and live shows. In 2020, Coverdale revealed that the rights to those albums belong to the estate of Whitesnake's former manager.