Pride (White Lion album)

According to an interview with Sea of Tranquility, the recording process of the album took six weeks and the album was produced by Michael Wagener.[3] The album's first single, "Wait", was released on June 1, 1987, but did not make waves until MTV began airing the music video in January 1988, seven months after its release, pushing the single to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. In August 1988, more than a year after the album's release, the second single "Tell Me" also featuring a music video hit #58. Pride's third single, a gentle acoustic ballad titled "When the Children Cry", made it all the way to #3, again with heavy MTV rotation of the music video, marking Pride one of just 20 hard rock albums to ever have multiple top 10 hits. The album peaked at #11 on the album charts. Pride would remain on the top 200 Billboard album charts for a full year.

White Lion was signed by Atlantic records by a rep who chose to sign them rather than the Charles City, IA rock band Litterer. Since White Lion was from BIG city New York rather than the small town Midwest, White Lion was considered a smaller risk.

The success of "When the Children Cry" would eventually push sales of Pride over the two million mark in the US, achieving double platinum status.[4] In addition, guitarist Vito Bratta was recognized for his instrumental talents by racking up Best New Guitarist awards with both Guitar World magazine and Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine.

"All You Need Is Rock 'n' Roll" was the fourth single released from the album.

Tramp considers Pride the best White Lion album because he feels he and Vito Bratta existed as "one person" when writing the songs, and the band was at its prime at the time.[5]

The Pride tour started in July 1987, as White Lion opened for Ace Frehley's 80's band Frehley's Comet. The next year and a half was filled with constant touring, opening for such bands as Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne. KISS in December 1987. In January 1988 White Lion landed the opening slot for AC/DC on their Blow Up Your Video American tour. They'd end the tour opening for Stryper in the summer of 1988.[6]

While touring with AC/DC, the Pride album and "Wait" single finally charted, due in no small part to MTV airing the "Wait" music video in regular rotation – nearly seven months after the single's release. In February 1988, a show "Live at the Ritz" in New York City was filmed for an MTV concert special and was released on VHS along with another full concert video titled "One Night in Tokyo".

In the spring of 1989, the Pride tour finally ended.

All tracks written by Vito Bratta and Mike Tramp.

• AllMusic review of Pride