Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Number 765 - Cinderella


Number 765

Cinderella

"Hot & Bothered"

(1994)
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Genre:Glam Rock
Long hair, wrist bands and spandex! And today's Generation Y (Gen P, Crystal Meth,Playstation & obesity) says we should be embarrassed of our time period. Err, righto Paris Hilton freaks :p Any way back to the world of arena rock shows.

"Cinderella was founded in Philadelphia, PA, in 1983 by singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist Tom Keifer (born January 26, 1961) and bassist Eric Brittingham (born May 8, 1960), who quickly added lead guitarist Jeff LaBar (born March 18, 1963). Guitarist Michael Kelly Smith and drummer Tony Destra were also early members of the band, but they left in 1985 to form Britny Fox. Cinderella then added drummer Jody Cortez and continued as a four-piece. Insisting on playing original material, they performed in clubs and bars in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in 1985 Jon Bon Jovi caught one of their shows. He was sufficiently impressed to alert his record company, Mercury, which signed the band. Their debut album, Night Songs, was released in June 1986. Shortly after its completion, Cortez left the band and was replaced by Fred Coury (born October 20, 1964). The LP was not an immediate success, but it gained momentum gradually while the band toured extensively as an opening act to promote it. It broke into the Billboard chart in July, and the track "Shake Me," although it failed to chart as a single, got enough radio attention to turn up on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart in August. On October 1, the album was certified gold. That month, Mercury released a second single, "Nobody's Fool," accompanied by a music video that earned play on MTV; it broke into the charts in November and peaked at number 13 in February 1987. Its success further stimulated sales of the album, which was certified platinum in December 1986 and broke into the Top Ten by the end of the year; it peaked at number 3 in February 1987, and that same month was certified double platinum. In April, Mercury released a third single, "Somebody Save Me," which peaked at number 66 in May. (The album was certified triple platinum in May 1991.)

"Having broken through to popular success with Night Songs, Cinderella returned with their second album, Long Cold Winter, in July 1988. Radio initially focused on the track "Gypsy Road," giving it a Top 20 ranking in the Album Rock Tracks chart, but Mercury did not release it as a single at first (although in the U.K., where it was released as a single, it charted). Instead the power ballad "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" was released as a single in August, and it peaked at number 12 in November. The album reached number ten in September, the same month it was certified gold and platinum simultaneously, with a double-platinum certification following in November. (It was certified triple platinum in January 1997.) As the group continued to tour relentlessly through 1988 and 1989, Mercury broke more singles from the LP. "The Last Mile," released in December, peaked at number 36 in March 1989; "Coming Home," released in March, hit number 20 in June; and "Gypsy Road," finally put on 45 a year after the release of Long Cold Winter in July 1989, and backed by a live version of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash," got to number 51 in September."

"In the meanwhile, fashions changed. Cinderella had been part of a "pop-metal" movement including Bon Jovi, Great White, and Ratt, who preceded them, as well as Poison, the enormously popular Guns N' Roses, and L.A. Guns, who followed them. But when "grunge" rockers Nirvana, boasting a neo-punk style, broke through to success in the fall of 1991 with their album Nevermind and single "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the record labels suddenly became enamored of their stripped-down approach. Suddenly, instead of the teased and blown-dry coiffures and skin-tight stage costumes of the pop-metal bands, it was the dirty-hair-falling-in-the-face, flannel-shirt-and-jeans look of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain that was all the rage. Soon, the pop-metal groups were written off with a new epithet, dismissed as "hair metal" bands. By the time Keifer & Co. finally emerged with the fourth Cinderella album, Still Climbing, in November 1994, it could only manage to spend one week at number 178 before disappearing. Mercury promptly dropped the band"
~ William Ruhlmann

Didn't Nirvana knock out a whole Genre in one album or what !

For Rolling Stones see Number 689 & Number 767
For Great White see Number 772
For Guns 'n Roses see Number 795

What does Rolling Stone Magazine think about Cinderella?
"Cinderella is no longer packing arenas, but the band's tour bus hasn't turned into a pumpkin yet. "We were dropped from Mercury after 10 years of loyal service, but we weren't ready to quit at the time," says frontman Tom Keifer. Realizing what they had once it was gone, Cinderella has trudged on in the face of other such Spinal Tap-style setbacks, including the resignation of two drummers and potentially career-ending vocal chord problems for its singer.Keifer has been pursuing a solo career during the group's hiatus."

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Its a Fairy story?) and the Album ranked at Number (Like Alice in Chains innit?) (no...that was a porno)
This song has a crowbarred rating of 65.4 out of 108
Search Artist here:1-2-3-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z


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posted by crowbarred at 9:02 pm 0 comments

Friday, July 25, 2008

Number 475 - Bon Jovi


Number 475

Bon Jovi

"Livin' On A Prayer"

(1986)
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Genre:Rock
You don't have a prayer sonny
Homage to 300 ... Anyway, Prince, or TAFKAP as I prefer to call him, has made me remove one of my videos Number 812 [maybe he didn't like the ranking] except he [his lawyers-same thing] made youtube remove the audio but leave the video? So ... ah, Dear Mr Rogers ..[Prince] What happened to you? Why are you beating on your fans? Why do you have this anal thing about people liking and showing your music? Have you really lost touch that much? Sincerely crowbarred ~ ahhh you get the drift. I'm hoping Prince jumps of this "Metallica" bandwagon either that or I'm Livin' On A Prayer ... my guess is that Prince won't realise before it's too late. But then again ... not my problem.
we could do Star Trek!
It is probably true that Bon Jovi's breakthrough success with Slippery When Wet, their third album, had more to do with lead singer Jon Bon Jovi's mop of curls and winning smile than with anything in the grooves of the record. Nevertheless, the album contained competent contemporary pop/rock, from its Eddie Van Halen-inspired guitar solos to the singer's enthusiastic, husky wail (which owed a lot to Bruce Springsteen). Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, and songwriter-for-hire Desmond Child had little more on their minds than girls and rock-as-mythology (even the working-class anthem "Livin' on a Prayer" featured a character who was forced to hock his "six string"), but that may only mean they had identified their audience -- young white adolescent males -- and were targeting it accurately. ~ [William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide]
For Prince [and his muted video] see Number 812
for more Bon Jovi see Number 522
For Bruce Springsteen see Number 817
What does Rowing Drone think about Bon Jovi?
Like an American Def Leppard, Bon Jovi used good looks and good hooks, toned-down aggression and pumped-up production to forge the pop-metal alloy that made it one of the dominant mainstream rock bands of the late Eighties. Bon Jovi then made two crucial marketing moves: bringing in composer Desmond Child (former leader of the Seventies New York Club band Rouge, he also wrote for Aerosmith, Cher and Kiss) as a song doctor, and basing the next album's content on the opinions of New York and New Jersey teenagers for whom they played tapes of more than 30 possible songs. The resulting selections formed Slippery When Wet (Number One, 1986), which sold more than 12 million copies, with the help of straightforward performance videos that showcased the videogenic band. Hit singles included "You Give Love a Bad Name" (Number One, 1986), the anthemic "Livin' on a Prayer" (Number One, 1986) — both of which Child cowrote — and "Wanted Dead or Alive" (Number Seven, 1987). ~ [Soure:Rolling Stone Updated from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Simon & Schuster, 2001]
For Cher see Number 889
For more Cher visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #088
For Kiss see Number 733
Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '475th Song of all Time' was "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys. Beastie Boys has not appeared in The Definitive 1000.
Other songs with reference to Bon Jovi #484, #522, #575, #605, #609, #644, #762, #765
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Not one song) and the Album ranked at (& not one album - They suck)
This song has a crowbarred rating of 76.2 out of 108

Search Artist here:1-2-3-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
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posted by crowbarred at 10:05 pm 0 comments

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Number 473 - Alice In Chains


Number 473

Alice In Chains

"Man In The Box"

(1990)
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Genre:Grunge
art by HeyKtupq
Blogspot is notorious for music fiends, so it was a nice surprise to come across "The Good, The Bad and The Unknown" which is well written,[yes, not like mine ~meh] the site also has a page 4 ranking [I'm suffering from rank envy] and full of really usefull information, for example: Alice In Chains, here the writer J Paul lists the "11 Best Songs by Alice In Chains" Drum roll please and pass me the envelope .....
1. Would? - Dirt
2. Rooster - Dirt
3. Nutshell - Jar of Flies
4. A Little Better - Last Action Hero OST
5. Man In The Box - Facelift
6. Sea Of Sorrow - Facelift
7. Right Turn - Sad ep
8. Heaven Beside You - Alice In Chains
9. Sickman - Dirt
10. Damn That River - Dirt
11. Brother - Sad ep
Thanks to www.goodbadunknown.blogspot.com [yes, I did RSS them]
When Alice in Chains' debut album, Facelift, was released in 1990, about a year before Nirvana's Nevermind, the thriving Seattle scene barely registered on the national musical radar outside of underground circles (although Soundgarden's major-label debut, Louder Than Love, was also released that year and brought them a Grammy nomination). That started to change when MTV jumped all over the video for "Man in the Box," giving the group a crucial boost and helping to pave the way for grunge's popular explosion toward the end of 1991. Although their dominant influences -- Black Sabbath, the Stooges -- were hardly unique on the Seattle scene, Alice in Chains were arguably the most metallic of grunge bands, which gave them a definite appeal outside the underground; all the same, the group's sinister, brooding, suffocating sound resembled little else gaining wide exposure on the 1990 hard rock scene.
need moose!
Neither hedonistic nor especially technically accomplished, Alice in Chains' songs were mostly slow, oppressive dirges with a sense of melody that was undeniable, yet which crept along over the murky sludge of the band's instrumental attack in a way that hardly fit accepted notions of what made hard rock catchy and accessible. Although some parts of Facelift sink into turgid, ponderous bombast (particularly over the erratic second half), and the lyrics are sometimes immature, the overall effect is fresh, exciting, and powerful. While Alice in Chains would go on to do better and more consistent work, Facelift was one of the most important records in establishing an audience for grunge and alternative rock among hard rock and heavy metal listeners, and with its platinum sales certification, it also made Alice in Chains the first Seattle band to break through to a wider, less exclusively underground audience. ~ [Steve Huey, All Music Guide]
For Nirvana see Number 480
For Black Sabbath see Number 826 & #979
For The Stooges see Number 980
What does Rolling Stone think of Alice?
A metal band with an alternative-rock edge, Alice in Chains was among the biggest to emerge from the grunge scene that spawned Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. The group's dark, bitter songs, laden with references to drug addiction and death, occupy a musical landscape somewhere between Metallica's dense head bangers and Pearl Jam's grinding anthems. Layne Staley formed Alice in Chains with an earlier lineup while still in high school. In 1987 he met Jerry Cantrell at the Music Bank, a notorious Seattle warehouse rehearsal space, and the two put together the newly christened Alice in Chains along with Cantrell cohorts Kinney and Starr. By 1989 the group had signed to Columbia Records, where it became the beneficiary of an aggressive promotion campaign that saw the release of a five-song promotional EP, We Die Young, and had the group opening for a range of disparate acts, including Iggy Pop and Poison. As a result, by September 1991, Face Lift (#42) had sold a half-million copies and featured the Grammy-nominated “Man in the Box.” A low-key and mostly acoustic EP, Sap, and a track in the Seattle youth culture movie Singles kept the band in the public eye between albums. ~ [Source:Rolling Stone - from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Simon & Schuster, 2001]
For Pearl Jam see Number 505
For more Pearl Jam visit MM Vol 1 #116
For Metallica see Number 484
For more Metallica visit MM Vol 1 #033 & MM Vol 2 #136
Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '473rd Song of all Time' was "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" by Aretha Franklin. Aretha Franklin has appeared in The Definitive 1000 @ #563
Other songs with reference to Alice In Chains #505, #765, #975, #981
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (No way) and the Album ranked at (One grunge band too many)
This song has a crowbarred rating of 76.3 out of 108

Search Artist here:1-2-3-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

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posted by crowbarred at 12:32 pm 0 comments