Cinderella

The hard rock outfit Cinderella rose to prominence in the middle of the 1980s, issuing multiple albums that each moved a million copies and several charting singles while securing frequent music-video airplay on MTV. Their broad commercial appeal waned by the middle of the following decade after a string of professional obstacles and shifting listener tastes. The group nevertheless kept performing live on a regular basis well into the new millennium.

Cinderella formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during 1983 when singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist Tom Keifer, born January 26, 1961, joined forces with bassist Eric Brittingham, born May 8, 1960; they soon recruited lead guitarist Jeff LaBar, born March 18, 1963. Guitarist Michael Kelly Smith and drummer Tony Destra also played in the early lineup but departed in 1985 to launch Britny Fox. Cinderella brought in drummer Jody Cortez and carried on as a quartet. Committed to performing only original songs, they worked clubs and bars across Pennsylvania and New Jersey until Jon Bon Jovi attended one of their gigs in 1985. Impressed, he recommended the band to Mercury Records, which promptly signed them. Their first album, Night Songs, arrived in June 1986. Shortly after finishing the record Cortez exited, and Fred Coury, born October 20, 1964, took the drum chair. Initial sales were modest, yet the album gained traction as the band toured heavily in support. It entered the Billboard chart in July, and although the track “Shake Me” never charted as a single it received sufficient radio play to appear on Billboard’s Album Rock Tracks chart in August. On October 1 the album earned gold certification. Later that month Mercury issued a second single, “Nobody’s Fool,” whose accompanying video landed on MTV; the song entered the charts in November and reached number 13 by February 1987. The single’s momentum pushed the album to platinum status in December 1986, into the Top Ten by year’s end, and to a number-3 peak in February 1987, when it was also certified double platinum. In April Mercury released a third single, “Somebody Save Me,” which climbed to number 66 in May. The album ultimately received triple-platinum certification in May 1991.

After the breakthrough of Night Songs, Cinderella delivered their sophomore effort, Long Cold Winter, in July 1988. Radio embraced the track “Gypsy Road,” sending it to a Top 20 position on the Album Rock Tracks chart, although Mercury withheld a commercial single release in the United States at first—though the song did chart when issued as a single in the U.K. Instead the power ballad “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)” came out as a single in August and peaked at number 12 in November. The album reached number ten in September, the same month it was certified gold and platinum simultaneously; double-platinum status followed in November and triple-platinum certification arrived in January 1997. While the band continued relentless touring through 1988 and 1989, Mercury extracted further singles from the set: “The Last Mile,” issued in December, reached number 36 in March 1989; “Coming Home,” released in March, climbed to number 20 in June; and “Gypsy Road,” finally pressed as a single a year after the album’s arrival in July 1989 and backed by a live version of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” peaked at number 51 in September.

Cinderella again retreated from the road to spend a year shaping their third album, Heartbreak Station, which surfaced in November 1990. Although it quickly achieved gold status in January 1991 and platinum the following month, the record met greater resistance than its predecessors, stalling at number 19 with no further multi-platinum awards. The lead single “Shelter Me” reached number 36 in February, and the title track hit number 44 in April. More troubling than these modest commercial results were internal difficulties. Coury left, and the band first replaced him with Kevin Valentine before employing noted session drummer Kenny Aronoff on a temporary basis and ultimately installing Kevin Conway. After completing the U.S. portion of the Heartbreak Station tour and preparing to travel to Japan in 1991, Keifer awoke one morning unable to sing. Initial medical examinations failed to identify the problem, but a specialist eventually diagnosed paresis of the laryngeal nerve governing the left vocal cord. Keifer underwent two throat operations and lengthy rehabilitation. Cinderella contributed the track “Hot and Bothered” to the chart-topping Wayne’s World soundtrack released in February 1992, yet the band otherwise remained sidelined for an extended stretch.

During that hiatus, musical trends shifted. Cinderella had belonged to a pop-metal wave that included Bon Jovi, Great White, and Ratt ahead of them, as well as Poison, the hugely successful Guns N’ Roses, and L.A. Guns who followed. When grunge rockers Nirvana, with their neo-punk aesthetic, broke through in the fall of 1991 via the album Nevermind and single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” labels quickly embraced a leaner sound. The teased and heavily styled hair and skin-tight stage outfits associated with pop-metal acts gave way to the unkempt, flannel-and-jeans appearance favored by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Pop-metal groups soon received the dismissive label “hair metal.” By the time Keifer and company finally returned with their fourth album, Still Climbing, in November 1994, it managed only a single week at number 178 before vanishing from the charts. Mercury immediately dropped the band.

Touring prospects likewise evaporated, and although Cinderella never formally disbanded in 1995 the group simply became inactive through lack of offers. Keifer relocated to Nashville in 1997 and concentrated on songwriting, eventually securing cuts on albums by Andy Griggs and Lynyrd Skynyrd. By 1998 promoters showed renewed interest, prompting a reunion that brought Coury back into the lineup for touring. On October 2 and 3 the band performed at the Key Club in Hollywood, California, and captured the shows for the album Live at the Key Club, issued on Cleopatra’s Dead Line imprint in July 1999. The recording was subsequently licensed to other labels and has appeared under the alternate titles In Concert and Live From the Gypsy Road, creating confusion for buyers. Meanwhile famed A&R executive John David Kalodner signed Cinderella to Sony’s Portrait label along with other 1980s hard-rock acts. Early Portrait releases failed to connect, however, and the contract was terminated. A loyal fan base nevertheless sustained the band’s live activity. Cinderella reunited in the summer of 2000 for a co-headlining tour with Poison and repeated the pairing in 2002. In 2005 VH1 presented the Rock Never Stops package tour, which Cinderella topped, supported by Ratt, Quiet Riot, and Firehouse, with dates running through the summer. A planned 2008 outing was scrapped after Tom Keifer suffered vocal-cord damage that prevented him from singing. By 2010 Keifer had recovered sufficiently for Cinderella to resume the road, yet after 2013 live engagements declined sharply. In a 2017 interview Keifer stated the group would not reunite, citing irreparable internal conflicts. On July 14 Jeff LaBar died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 58. The following day the band’s touring keyboardist Gary Corbett also passed away.