Adrian van den Berg was originally approached to join Whitesnake in the early 1980s, having impressed David Coverdale with not only his guitar skills, but also with his songwriting talent and his ability as a band leader. He initially declined, due to the success of his own band Vandenberg and their Top 40 hit, "Burning Heart." By 1986, however, with pressure from the record company to become more and more commercial and their success hitting a plateau, he relented and finally disbanded Vandenberg, agreeing to join Coverdale in Whitesnake. Initially he was hired as a session musician, helping to complete their eponymous album "Whitesnake" (known as "1987" in Europe) after a mass-firing of the original band members by Coverdale. He contributed the solo to their No. 1 hit "Here I Go Again," but guitarist John Sykes played all of the other lead and rhythm guitar on the album.