Cinderella (band)
| Cinderella | |
|---|---|
 Cinderella in August 2006 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Philadelphia , United States |
| Genre (s) | Glam metal , hard rock , blues rock |
| founding | 1982, 2010 |
| Website | www.cinderella.net |
| Current occupation | |
| Tom Keifer (since 1982) | |
guitar |
Jeff LaBar (since 1985) |
| Eric Brittingham (since 1982) | |
| Fred Coury (1985–1992, since 1996) | |
| former members | |
guitar |
Michael Schermick (1982–1985) |
Drums |
Tony Destra (1982–1985 † 1987) |
Drums |
Jim Drnc (1985) |
Drums |
Jody Cortez (1985) |
Drums |
Kevin Valentine (1994-1995) |
Drums |
Kenny Aronoff (1994) |
Cinderella is an American glam metal - or hard rock - band from Philadelphia , which celebrated its greatest success in the 1980s. Her best-known songs include Gypsy Road , Don't Know What You Got and Nobody's Fool .
history
The early years
Cinderella was written in Philadelphia in the first half of the 1980s. The founding members included singer and guitarist Tom Keifer , bassist Eric Brittingham , guitarist Michael Schermick (who later went by the stage name Michael Kelly Smith) and drummer Tony Destra. The band named itself after a cat, even though Keifer later said the band name came from a porn film called Sinderella .
Two demos in 1983 and 1984 followed before they caught the attention of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons . Simmons offered to help the band find a record label, but Jon Bon Jovi got ahead of him. Cinderella signed a contract with Mercury in 1985. At the same time the band separated from Schermick and Destra, who then formed the band Britny Fox . Destra died in an accident on February 8, 1987, before he could participate in the success of the 1988 Britny Fox debut album. Replacements for the two were White Foxx guitarist Jeff LaBar and drummer Jim Drnc (pronounced Darnick).
The debut album was produced by Andy Johns, and former Stone Fury drummer Jody Cortez played in the studio because, according to Johns, Drnc was not good enough. As a result, Drnc was replaced by Fred Coury . Coury previously stood in for Randy Castillo on the demo preproduction of Ozzy Osbourne's The Ultimate Sin Album and was part of the line-up of Chastain , Keel and London . With the latter he played the album Non Stop Rock in 1985 .
The breakthrough
At the time of their debut " Night Songs " release , the band was playing a few club concerts as opening act for Kix , but sales skyrocketed not long after the LP was released. This resulted not least from the tours in the opening act of David Lee Roth or Bon Jovi as well as the airplay that the singles Shake Me and Nobody's Fool got on MTV . In the summer of 1987 they played together with headliners Bon Jovi as well as Dio , Metallica , WASP and Anthrax at the Monsters of Rock Festival in Castle Donington, England.
When Steven Adler broke his arm, drummer Fred Coury helped out at Guns N 'Roses . The next studio album Cinderella recorded again with Andy Johns. The album was mixed by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero, who were also at the controls on the successful Guns-N'-Roses album Appetite for Destruction . Coury was still touring the world with Guns N 'Roses while recording.
Long Cold Winter , the title of the second album, marked a move away from the riff-heavy Hard Rock , somewhat reminiscent of AC / DC , to rock more influenced by the blues. The band played as opening act for Judas Priest on their American tour and, not least because of the singles Gypsy Road and Don't Know What You Got , Long Cold Winter became the band's greatest commercial success. When bassist Brittingham became a father, Dio bassist Jimmy Bain stepped in for a few concerts. In August 1989 they played at the Moscow Music Peace Festival alongside bands such as Bon Jovi , Ozzy Osbourne , Mötley Crüe , Scorpions and Skid Row . After the tour ended, the band took a half-year break, which singer Tom Keifer used to set up a new studio in the basement of his house. Most of the material for the new album was created there.
In 1990 the band released their third album Heartbreak Station , on which the blues-oriented line of the predecessor was consistently continued. When recording the eleven tracks, Cinderella used gospel singers, brass instruments and significantly more piano than with the previous ones. In addition, John Paul Jones arranged the strings of a thirty-piece orchestra in the songs "Heartbreak Station" and "Winds of Change". In terms of success, however, they could not build on the first two albums. The band canceled a European tour planned for the beginning of 1991 for fear of attacks against the backdrop of the just inflamed Gulf War.
During the US tour for this album vocalist Tom Keifer one suffered neurologically -related paralysis ( paresis ) of the laryngeal muscles . The tour had to be canceled and the recordings for the follow-up album Still Climbing were delayed until 1994.
Fred Coury left the band in 1992 and founded the band Arcade with former Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy , with whom he recorded two albums for Epic Records. He was succeeded by Kevin Valentine; Nevertheless, the studio musician Kenny Aronoff can be heard on the album except for one song. Still Climbing flopped and at the same time marked the end for the band.
Reunion in disguise
It is not least thanks to a documentary broadcast by MTV about the rock bands of the 1980s that Keifer, LaBar, Brittingham and Coury got together again in November 1996 for a benefit concert in New Jersey. A planned tour with Dokken and Ratt was rejected by Keifer. Keifer was working on his solo career in Nashville and was not interested in resurrecting the past in 1997.
Nevertheless, there was a new song by the band on the best-of album Once Upon a Time with War Stories . Then the band signed a new contract with the record company Portrait Records . However, when in April 2001 - almost three years after signing - no new album by the band was in sight, the record company broke the contract. Towards the end of 2002, Cinderella planned a tour in England with Alice Cooper , Thunder and The Quireboys under the name Monsters of Rock, which however never materialized, which is why the band was replaced by the LA Guns in the tourbilling .
Cinderella today
Although Cinderella has officially re-existed since 1996, no new studio album has yet been released. The final musical mark was a re-recorded version of the ballad Don't Know What You Got for the sampler VH1 Classic Metal Mania: Stripped . In the summer of 2005, the band toured the United States with Ratt, Quiet Riot and FireHouse under the Rock Never Stops banner . A new live album was released on November 6, 2009 and a European tour took place in 2010. In June 2011 the band gave their first concert in Germany in over ten years on the occasion of their 25th anniversary in Mülheim an der Ruhr . Lead singer Tom Keifer released his first solo album " The Way Life Goes " in 2013 , which was followed by Rise in 2019 .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
 CA
|
|||
| 1986 |
Night Songs Mercury Records |
- | - | - |
US3  × 3
(70 weeks)US |
CA15th (… Where.)CA |
First published:
Oct 6, 1986 Sales: + 3,100,000 |
| 1988 |
Long Cold Winter Mercury Records |
DE24 (12 weeks) DE |
CH7th  (10 weeks)CH |
UK30 (6 weeks) UK |
US10 × 3
(66 weeks)US |
CA24 × 2
(… Where.)CA |
First published: May 21, 1988
Sales: + 3,250,000 |
| 1990 |
Heartbreak Station Mercury Records |
DE34 (15 weeks) DE |
CH8th (15 weeks)CH |
UK36 (2 weeks) UK |
US19th (32 weeks)US |
CA28 (… Where.)CA |
First published: November 20, 1990
Sales: +1,150,000 |
| 1994 |
Still Climbing Mercury Records |
- | - |
UK88 (1 week) UK |
US178 (1 week) US |
- |
First published: November 8, 1994
|
swell
- ↑ Cinderella: Completed roller coaster ride, interview with Tom Keifer , Classic Rock online, accessed October 1, 2019
Web links
- Official website
- Full biography (English)