Tape Case Study: Cinderella, "Night Songs" and "Long Cold Winter"

Cinderella, Night Songs (Mercury, 1986)
Cinderella, Long Cold Winter (Mercury, 1988)

Backing up just a handful of years, the discerning listener is able to revisit—and recognize—what was so appealing about Cinderella during the glam and hair metal boom of the '80s. Night Songs was the most glam of the Philadelphia band's recordings; proponent Jon Bon Jovi sang background vocals on "Nothin' for Nothin'" and "In from the Outside." The songs were recorded at Bearsville Studios near Woodstock—and at several Philadelphia-area studios.

Philadelphia studios included Warehouse Studios, which was founded by Bon Jovi sound engineer Obie O'Brien—and which provided many a recording for adjacent acts such as April Wine, Bon Jovi, Britny Fox, Lita Ford, and other musical groups. Tracks were also recorded at Sigma Studios, birthplace of the Philly Sound, the subject of conservation activism, and now a protected historic location. Local Kajem Studios also provided additional services.

While a solid album, Night Songs's songs sometimes tend to run together, offering little standout songwriting. So the followup, Long Cold Winter, is notable for a couple of reasons. The sophomore release resulted in at least two hit singles—"Gypsy Road" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)"—and it didn't take Cinderella too long at all to stray from the straight-ahead glam trappings back home to a bluesier, rock 'n' roll-oriented vibe.

For Long Cold Winter, the band returned to Bearsville and Kajem, still maintaining a Philadelphia connection, and the progression from this record to the subsequent Heartbreak Station requires no leap of faith or imagination. The title track is about as bluesy as a glam band can be (opening a very solid, impressive second side), and Rick Criniti's B3 offers a sumptuous counterpoint to Tom Keifer's strong blues guitar solos and Robert Plant-like vocals.

Was this a case of hair metal bait and switch? Compare the two records' album covers. Night Songs features the band in high glam fashion, posing in front of illuminated smoke. Long Cold Winter doesn't even feature the band on its cover at all. It's just plain, blank white—winter, get it? The band photos, while clearly those of a hair metal band, are definitely more blues- or country-oriented than glam. And the music is there to back it up. Cinderella might have been made to order—even dropping two original band members to sign with a major—but the band had chops to spare. (Do check out side two of Long Cold Winter; every single song in the sequence is solid. "Fire and Ice" might as well be a latter-day Dokken song.)

Sometimes, bands can't survive the step from record to record with such a strong sound or image change. It's a credit to Keifer, Eric Brittingham, and others that they put out several more records before the advent of grunge. Cinderella hit the big leagues because of the glam metal boom, but the band had more going on from song one, leaving behind several excellent blues metal records.

Tape Case Study: Cinderella, "Heartbreak Station" and "Still Climbing"

Cinderella, Heartbreak Station (Mercury, 1990)
Cinderella, Still Climbing (Mercury, 1994)

I've never given Cinderella much time, attention, or thought, primarily considering them an also-ran among the hair metal bands of the 1980s. Until this morning, I'd have been hard pressed to name more than one of their songs—"Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)"—and if you consider their top 10 songs, I could have named one, maybe two with a stretch. But listening to these two records—on cassette, taken from a box underneath my desk—last night and this morning, there's slightly more going on than I expected.

First of all, the band's place of origin is exceptional: suburban Philadelphia. Even Still Climbing, the band's fourth and final record, was recorded between Kajem West in Gladwyne, Pa., and Devonshire Studios in Los Angeles. Kajem West was once located on the site of a munitions factory and mill, and Devonshire's former location at 10733 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood, California, is now home to Salami Studios, which offers audio/video post-production. The band also reportedly practiced in the attic of an American Legion building in Wayne, Pa. (Perhaps Post 668?)

The one-time cover band, which started in the early '80s, quickly graduated from local and regional shows—Cinderella performed at the Empire Rock Club in Philadelphia and was the house band at the Galaxy in New Jersey—to going on tour with Ratt, Bon Jovi, and David Lee Roth. (Two of the original members went on to form Britny Fox.) Cinderella was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance's Walk of Fame in 2015.

I was also struck by the band's music—and the power of presumption. These two records, at least, did not at all meet my expectations of ballad-heavy hair metal, which is how I've always associated the band. Instead, Heartbreak Station is periodically country-tinged, and Still Climbing is even more straight-forward in its blues-rock stylings. And there are horns! They're more subtle on Still Climbing and more forward on Heartbreak Station, which also included some strings work. (There's also some rollicking piano on the latter album, as well.) Based on these two albums alone, I'd compare Cinderella more to AC/DC, Guns n' Roses, and the Rolling Stones than the bands I'd previously considered their peers: Great White, Tesla, and who knows what else. A Bon Jovi comparison is also valid, especially given Jon Bon Jovi's hand in the band's initial discovery and emergence. 

Definitely worth a listen. Experiencing a rapid rise and fall over the course of about a decade, the band was in the right place and time to benefit from the opportunity offered by the glam and hair metal boom—and fell prey to the emergence of a subsequent sound or genre: grunge. It also participated in an East Coast musical ecosystem, benefiting from the proximity of Bon Jovi—and contributing to the evolution of Britny Fox and other local bands. A real Cinderella story, for sure.