Long Cold Winter

Long Cold Winter is the second album, on which Cinderella kept their early flash while sharply deepening the grit of blues and Southern rock. Released on Mercury in 1988, a burly texture recalling the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith runs throughout. Andy Johns recorded it, and in the studio the late Cozy Powell played drums in place of Fred Coury. Tom Keifer’s raspy voice and guitar lend the songs strong humanity, with dark shading tucked in here and there. From the boldness of the opener “Bad Seamstress Blues / Fallin' Apart at the Seams” to the drive of “Gypsy Road” and the ache of the power ballad “Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone),” the range is wide. That number 12 song was among four singles that all charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with “Coming Home” at number 20 and “The Last Mile” at number 36. Cutting real depth of song and playing into a flashy era, it reached number 10 in the US and went triple platinum — a peak often named by fans as the band’s finest.