Cinderella - Night Songs

Released in 1986

Cinderella may just owe their success to Jon Bon Jovi, for he was their advocate and played a large part in bringing the band (and their debut album, Night Songs) to Mercury Records. Due to this connection, Cinderella was sometimes unfairly labeled as a second-rate Bon Jovi, but such a comparison was inaccurate and seriously flawed. They may share the same common genre of metal, but claiming they are clones is as silly as claiming Dracula is a clone of Friday the 13th simply because both films are considered horrors.

The band Bon Jovi, who put out some seriously memorable hair metal of their own, had a far more pop/glam sheen to their sound than Cinderella. Lead singer Tom Keifer's voice possesses a stronger pitch far closer to Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) than the melodic Bon Jovi. While the musicianship possesses a good deal of accessible melody throughout their songs, I would say their guitar riffs and overall sound is more aggressive. They don't recreate the hair metal formula on their debut album (though they would begin inserting blues overtones starting with their sophomore release), but they aren't copycats either.

So all invalid comparisons aside, how does Cinderella stand up today? Remarkably well, especially if you were a fan of 80's hair metal! The songs are powerful, catchy and varied, able to deftly incorporate a variety of sounds and paces, each of which work amazingly well. Although their appearance screamed 80's glam/hair metal (hey, it was cool back then!), Cinderella consisted of legitimate musicians rocking at the top of their game.

Some of the standout tracks on Night Songs include:

• Night Songs – The title track possesses some awesome guitar work, powerful vocals and a somewhat, dare I say, haunting sound. A unique standout track.
• Shake Me – What would a hair metal album be without a flat-out rocker? Shake Me fits this bill perfectly.
• Nobody's Fool – One of the rules of hair metal was that each album must contain at least one power ballad-type song. Nobody's Fool, which was popular on the airwaves, serves this purpose well. In fact it's far better than a good deal of the power ballads released by hair metal bands.

Choosing favorites with an album like this is no easy feat, for few, if any, tracks are deserving of hitting the skip button on the remote. This is one of those albums I was able to play through in its entirety, both during my childhood and today. And better yet, the Night Songs just seems to fly by as you listen; before you know it, it's finished. That's the mark of a great hair metal album, and as such my rating for this album will be:

Rating: 8 stars

Track List Night Songs Shake Me Nobody's Fool Nothin' For Nothin' Once Around the Ride Hell on Wheels Somebody Save Me In from the Outside Push, Push Back Home Again

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