Sometimes it takes awhile for a song to catch on. Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” is one of those, says the band’s frontman, David Coverdale.

“‘Here I Go Again’ was a document that I wrote in Portugal, much earlier than you guys heard the song. It was, I think, 12 years old when I had a number-one in America with it. That was documenting the break-up of my first marriage, when two people who at one time were very much in love turned into cat and dog. What I would do in those days was rent a house in the South of France, or the Caribbean, or whatever and take like a writing holiday. That particular song was in Portugal.”

David Coverdale celebrates his birthday today!