Cinderella

Cinderella formed in the Philadelphia suburbs in the early 1980s, built around vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Tom Keifer and bassist Eric Brittingham. The original lineup also featured guitarist Michael Schermick and drummer Tony Destra, completing a quartet that rehearsed in makeshift spaces like attics while members held day jobs at a photo-finishing company to make ends meet. During their early years, Cinderella honed their sound through frequent performances at Philadelphia-area clubs, including the Empire Rock Club on Roosevelt Boulevard and the Galaxy in South Jersey, where they played originals a couple of times per month to build a local following. By 1985, the band's lineup shifted decisively: Schermick and Destra left Cinderella to join Britny Fox, another Pennsylvania-based hard rock band, and were replaced by guitarist Jeff LaBar and drummer Jim Drnec. The band's fortunes turned when Kiss bassist Gene Simmons first took interest in the band, and tried to get them a deal with Polygram, but they were not interested until Jon Bon Jovi saw them perform at the Empire Rock Club in Northeast Philadelphia and talked to his A&R man, Derek Shulman, about seeing the group. That connection led to a deal with Mercury Records and the release of their debut, Night Songs, in 1986. Shortly after the recording, Drnec was replaced by former London drummer Fred Coury, who joined in time to be included as the drummer of record in the album's liner notes, and the album went on to become triple platinum, selling 50,000 copies per week at one point. The Philadelphia-based band hit record stores and MTV in 1987, and the debut album hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The classic lineup of Keifer, Brittingham, LaBar and Coury followed with 1988's Long Cold Winter, which began moving Cinderella away from glam metal and into a more blues rock-oriented direction, akin to early 1970s Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Humble Pie, Bad Company, and Deep Purple, and reached No. 10 in the US, becoming double-platinum by the end of the year. The album featured four singles that all charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" reaching No. 12, "The Last Mile" reaching No. 36, "Coming Home" reaching No. 20, and "Gypsy Road" hitting No. 51. Cinderella's momentum carried into a massive supporting tour and a third album, Heartbreak Station, in 1990. Long Cold Winter was supported by a 254-show tour that lasted over 14 months and included dates on the Moscow Music Peace Festival alongside acts such as Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, and Skid Row, with a stage show that featured Keifer being lowered to the stage on a white piano. Heartbreak Station featured the hit singles "Shelter Me" and "Heartbreak Station". By the mid-1990s, though, the band's fame declined precipitously due to personal setbacks, breakups, and changes in the American music industry, and after a brief hiatus, Cinderella reunited in 1996 and continued to perform live, but never released any studio material after their 1994 album Still Climbing. The band has sold 15 million records worldwide, according to Tom Keifer's official website. Cinderella kept touring for years as a nostalgia and classic rock draw, including reunion shows with the "all original line-up" of Tom Keifer (vocals, guitar), Eric Brittingham (bass), Jeff LaBar (guitar) and Fred Coury (drums) , before finally winding down. After participating in the 2014 Monsters of Rock Cruise, Cinderella again became inactive, and in November 2017, Keifer stated that the band has no plans to reform in the future. Today Cinderella is remembered as one of the defining bands of Philadelphia's contribution to the glam metal era, a group whose blues-rock grit set it apart from many of its hair-metal peers, and its catalog of hits continues to receive steady classic rock airplay decades after its commercial peak.