Cinderella: The Rise & Fall of the Band, History of Tom Keifer

The Rise & Fall of Cinderella, the band behind Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone) & Nobody's Fool

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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

As Night Songs continued to climb up the charts, the band started to get hit with restrictions from Dave’s people. Labar would recall in the book nothin’ but a good time The better our album did, the more restrictions they tried to put on us. At one point Tom was told that he was not allowed to speak in between songs. We pointed out how ridiculous that was, so then they said, “Okay, you’re allowed to say the name of the city and the name of the song.” Cinderella soon jumped to a bigger tour linking up with Bon Jovi for their slippery when wet tour and that further catapulted their album up the charts. The group also learned something valuable on that tour, how to treat other bands as Bon Jovi showed them true hospitality. It was on that tour the band befriended comedian Sam Kinison who was friendly with a lot of the hard rock bands. He was originally supposed to appear in the video for Somebody Save Me, but the guys from Bon Jovi stepped in at the 11th hour and helped the band out,
It was during their first major tour the band would be picketed by some ignorant pro-censorship types at a show in Corpus Christi. The LA Times were along for the ride writing “ Apparently they figured Cinderella, like the heavy-metal band stereotype, was a quartet of druggies preaching the turn-on ethic in concert. “I said ‘Wait a minute,’ ” “I told them that we don’t do drugs and that you won’t find one lyric on any of my songs saying we do drugs or telling people to do drugs. You won’t hear it on the albums and we don’t do that kind of stuff on stage. I said, ‘You’re picketing the wrong concert.
Apart from the few hiccups, Night Songs would sell 3 million copies and it would become the second biggest selling debut LP since Boston’s which came out 10 years prior. The album went on to sell a whopping 3 million copies, a huge feat for a debut record. The LA Times would remark in 1986 “What makes the success of “Night Songs” so impressive is that new heavy-metal bands rarely sell very well. In fact, even veteran heavy-metal bands aren’t selling well these days.
Despite the strong commercial performance, critics didn’t initially praise the band. Rolling Stone panned the album for and i quote too much pose, not punch. But the reviews did little to bother the members with Keifer telling the Spokesman review i’ve never really ever read a bad review about us or another band that i thought was fair., it’s mostly a bunch of cheap shots .
The band’s secret weapon has always been Tom Keifer. Fred Coury would reveal how the band avoided the sophomore slump telling the Eugene Register A lot of people, they go on the road for the first album, just do the tour and then, they get off the road and the record company says ‘well, we need an album’s worth of stuff. They have a couple of months to write 10 songs & it just doesn’t work that way. They force it and the album just starts being horrible.’ But with Tom, he always writes on the road. “ He would go on to say that by the time the band got off the road for their first album Keifer pretty much had second album written. Keifer would admit that a big inspiration for the group’s second record titled Long Cold Winter would be the fact that until the band got signed he hadn’t really ventured too far outside of new jersey and pennsylvania so touring and seeing new places resulted in him feeling emotions he hadn’t had before and he poured those into music. Keifer wanted to take the band in a different direction soundwise. A lot of records were going after the slick production style of album’s like bon jovi’s slippery when wet and poison’s look what the cat dragged in. He would tell an interviewer
“With Long Cold Winter, we started to think about [production] more,” “We started to have more organic instruments -- pianos and acoustics. We toned down the slickness or the processing a little bit, although that record's still pretty slick.”
Absent from the recording sessions was drummer Fred coury who Keifer claimed was too young and inexperienced at the time. At the request of the band’s producer Andy Johns, Jeff Beck drummer cozy powell would play a majority of the drum traks on the record with Heart drummer Denny Carmassi playing on one tra

[brycedownpitch]

I never viewed Cinderella as a hair metal band, but as a bluesy hard rock band with some hairspray and makeup added in. These guys kicked ass.

[LanceLinkSC]

For me Cinderella “Night Songs” was the right band for the right album at the right time in history. The most underrated group and album ever. The song captures the pure essence of what inspired it.

[dwade]

Been a fan since their debut album. No one ever said these guys didn't have talent. They were so good live that many top bands didn't want them opening because it would make the headliner look bad. Cinderella rocked! R.I.P
Jeff Labar. 🤟

[raisinsawdust]

Tom Keifer is one of the best frontmen and hard rock songwriters - this band should be in the Hall of Fame one day!

[BatmanFan]

Cinderella will always be one of my favorite bands from the 80s. Great band to see live as well. RIP Jeff

[theberrybest]

I'm a huge Cinderella fan from album one. The talent for writing songs that Tom has is brilliant. Really helped to get through some rough times. Thanks guys. RIP Jeff.

[shaunhumphrey]

It is really too bad that Cinderella didn't really achieve the same success as some of their contemporaries. In my opinion Keifer was by far one of the best pure vocalists to come out of the glam metal era.

[LunaMesser-zwxh]

To me Cinderella and April Wine has never gotten the recognition these bands worked so hard for ❤ All these guys have my Love and respect ❤

[DekeRadio]

In 1988, AC/DC recruited Cinderella to open for their Blow Up Your Video tour. My college roommate was a HUGE Cinderella fan, I was pretty indifferent to them. They tore the place apart the night of the show we attended. Unbelievable energy. I became a fan that night, and was fortunate enough to have seen them several times after that. I'll go as far as to say that the only band on the planet that could have followed Cinderella that night was AC/DC.

[tedwojtasik]

The guitar solo Tom pulls off in Don't Know What You Got is pure blues perfection. The phrasing and restraint make it drip with emotion. All the shredders doing these 1, 000 note, bumble bee in a glass crap and here old Tom come along and lays this beauty down, making them all look like dopes.

[michaelrochester]

They are the gold standard of the 80s glam/hair metal. Bluesy, talented and one of the best vocalist ever, Tom Kiefer.

[jarred]

When I discovered Cinderella in middle school around 2009, I was blown away. I am a guitar player and I 100% owe everything I know to Tom keifer. There were no YouTube videos showing how to play their music. So I watched the music videos and live concerts available and sat down and learned how to play every single song from every single album. I cannot say enough that Cinderella is my favorite band. Still climbing and heartbreak station are my favorite albums. Sadly I never got the chance to see them live and still haven’t seen Tom live… my senior quote was “I just wanna be free. Free like the wind. And if the wind fills my sails then I’m never coming back again.” RIP Jeff.

[roosternm]

Cinderella came out in 1986 and made that summer the rest of the year that much better. Right away I was learning their hits as best I could. Great times

[christopherbell]

This is the deepest Cinderella dive I've ever watched, great job.

[humongousfungusamongus]

I was alive for Cinderellas' debut...& I'm all the better for it! 🤘🤟 I love this band!

[dustinjones]

Great video! I grew up with Cinderella---14 years old when they debuted in '86. Yet still didn't know a lot of these details. Good work! I saw Cinderella in their heyday in 1989 and they were incredible! And just got to see Keifer live 2 months ago. He sounded fantastic, and played an hour and a half of Cinderella songs.

[jamescarey]

I went to 2 concerts that Cinderella did and was never disappointed great band glad to hear Tom's voice is back. Rock In Peace Jeff 😢

[northwestbaby]

I love Cinderella since my teens and seeing them was just amazing. Definitely underrated. Tom's voice just hits you like a truck

[dirkbonesteel]

I knew Keifer well starting in 5th grade through High School I went to West Chester a couple years, he was in the work study when I got back.
Point is he was always serious as hell about music. Good guy, fun to debate music styles with. By High School he had a keyboard and lawsuit era black Ibanez Les Paul copy in the basement where the band practiced. Got to see Cinderella at the Crystal Palace the night before going into Navy before a record deal was signed. Later while serving on a submarine, got to treat the local sea creatures at about 300 ft below to his music. Everyone was happy for his success, he earned it. Don't honestly know what the sea creatures thought of him.
He is still touring solo and the music is better more Blues, great stuff WOW the hotdog place is on McDade, now buying and selling gold/silver. Funny to me and probably no one else

[RobFultz-fw]

One of my life’s soundtracks .. these guys rocked. Fond memories