Just as I was looking for an album to write about, sometimes things just present themselves. On May 21, 1988, Cinderella released the now classic “Long Cold Winter,” marking this day the 30th anniversary of the release. Feel old yet?
The album moved away from the full-on glam metal sound of its smash debut, “Night Songs” into a more bluesy direction. But it paid off. The record reached No. 10 in the U.S. and became double-platinum for shipping 2 million copies in the U.S. by the end of the year, just as “Night Songs” had done earlier. It was later certified triple platinum.
The album features four singles, which all charted in the U.S.: “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone),” which was to be Cinderella’s highest-charting single, reached No. 12, “The Last Mile,” reached No. 36, “Coming Home” reached No. 20, and “Gypsy Road” hit No. 51, a year after the release of the album.
I recently bought a copy of Cinderella’s greatest hits compilation, “Once Upon a …” and even though all four of the album’s singles are featured, I still feel the need to re-buy a copy of “Long Cold Winter.” Unlike its contemporaries, Cinderella always seemed to have an edge about them and they were certainly willing to take chances.
Check out an excerpt from Ultimate Classic Rock on the anniversary of the album:
The Philadelphia-based band Cinderella hit record stores and MTV in 1987, joining a crowded crop of hair metal hitmakers that included Bon Jovi, Poison, Europe, Stryper, Winger, Mötley Crüe and more.
The band’s debut album, “Night Songs,” hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart not because its songs were deep treatises on global conflicts or the socioeconomic repercussions of public policy like some other chart-toppers from the era; “Night Songs” was a hit because it rocked.
These guys melded AC/DC’s histrionics to Poison’s arena-ready spectacle and did so with a bluesy, guitar-swinging swagger. Singer and main songwriter Tom Keifer was a pouting pretty boy who also knew his way around the neck of a Les Paul. They were the total package and, at first blush, also appeared to be as glammy and superficial as the other bands that looked just like them.
Keifer had more depth than that, though, and when it came time to write Cinderella’s second album, “Long Cold Winter,” he hoped to avoid the sophomore slump by taking stock of his surroundings and writing songs from the perspective of a young man uncertain of where he was at any given point or who was around him.
Read the full article here.
Leave a Reply