Long Cold Winter
Studio album by
Cinderella
ReleasedJuly 5, 1988[1]
Recorded1987–1988
Studio
Genre
Length43:51
Label
ProducerAndy Johns, Tom Keifer, Eric Brittingham
Cinderella chronology
Night Songs
(1986) 		Long Cold Winter
(1988) 		Heartbreak Station
(1990)
Singles from Long Cold Winter
  1. "Gypsy Road"
    Released: July 1988[3]
  2. "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)"
    Released: August 1988
  3. "The Last Mile"
    Released: January 1989
  4. "Coming Home"
    Released: March 1989

Long Cold Winter is the second studio album by American glam metal band Cinderella. It was released in July 1988 on Mercury Records.

The record reached No. 10 in the US and became double-platinum for shipping two million copies in the US by the end of the year, just as their debut album Night Songs had done earlier. It was later certified triple platinum.[1] The album features four singles, which all charted on the Billboard Hot 100. "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)", the band's highest-charting single, reached No. 12, "The Last Mile" reached No. 36, "Coming Home" reached No. 20, and "Gypsy Road" hit No. 51, more than a year after the release of the album.[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Classic Rock[6]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal5/10[7]
Kerrang![8]
Rock Hard8.5/10[9]
Rolling Stone[10]

The album received mixed-to-positive reviews. Music critics remarked the shift of the band's musical style from the clichéd glam metal of their debut to more blues-oriented compositions,[5][6][8][9][10] but they did not agree in the evaluation of the songs' quality. Contemporary reviewers criticized the album for being "too bluesy"[8] and too derivative of other more famous bands' influences.[10] Only Rock Hard reviewer considered Long Cold Winter "a surprisingly strong rock'n'roll album, rough, unpolished, powerful, but still melodious", and praised Keifer's vocals and the level of songwriting.[9]

Modern reviews are similarly polarized. Steve Huey of AllMusic reviewed Long Cold Winter as "a transition album for Cinderella, mixing pop-metal tunes with better hooks than those on Night Songs with a newfound penchant for gritty blues-rock à la the Stones or Aerosmith", and further explained his rating by saying "[not] all of the songs are memorable, but most of them are".[5] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff was harsher in his judgement and wrote that Cinderella strived to be "a next Stones or Aerosmith, not realizing that such talents are both rare and natural, and that without the gift and conviction, [their] attempt reeks of imitation and crass commercialism."[7] Twenty-two years after its release, Geoff Barton re-evaluated the album for the British magazine Classic Rock, praised the band for their change of musical style and called Long Cold Winter "a minor classic."[6] In 2019, Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone also praised the album and wrote that "in retrospect Long Cold Winter ranks with any blues-rock of the Eighties".[2]

Track listing

All music is composed by Tom Keifer except "If You Don't Like It" by Keifer and Eric Brittingham

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Bad Seamstress Blues/Fallin' Apart at the Seams"5:19
2."Gypsy Road"3:55
3."Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)"5:56
4."The Last Mile"3:51
5."Second Wind"3:59
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Long Cold Winter"5:24
7."If You Don't Like It"4:10
8."Coming Home"4:56
9."Fire and Ice"3:22
10."Take Me Back"3:17
Total length:43:51

Personnel

Cinderella
Additional musicians
Production

Charts

Chart (1988) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] 32
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[12] 24
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[13] 15
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] 24
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[15] 7
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[16] 38
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] 7
UK Albums (OCC)[18] 30
US Billboard 200[19] 10

Certifications

Certifications for Long Cold Winter
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[20] 2× Platinum 200,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[21] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[22] Silver 60,000^
United States (RIAA)[23] 3× Platinum 3,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Accolades

Publication Year Country Accolade Rank
Metal Rules 2003 US Top 50 Glam Metal Albums[24] 15
Rock Hard 2005 Germany The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time[25] 457
L.A. Weekly 2011 US Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums[26] 9
Rolling Stone 2014 US 50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own[27] 42
Rolling Stone 2019 US 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums of All Time[2] 10

References

  1. ^ a b "RIAA - Gold & Platinum". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Eddy, Chuck (August 31, 2019). "Rolling Stone - 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  3. ^ "Great Rock discography". p. 145.
  4. ^ "Cinderella - Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Huey, Steve. "Cinderella - Long Cold Winter review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  6. ^ a b c Barton, Geoff (January 2011). "Cinderella - Long Cold Winter". Classic Rock. No. 153. London, UK: Future plc. p. 113.
  7. ^ a b Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
  8. ^ a b c Hotten, Jon (July 2, 1988). "Cinderella - 'Long Cold Winter'". Kerrang!. No. 194.
  9. ^ a b c Stratmann, Holger (1988). "Review Album: Cinderella - Long Cold Winter". Rock Hard (in German). No. 28. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  10. ^ a b c Neely, Kim (November 3, 1988). "Cinderella - Long Cold Winter". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 26, 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  11. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  12. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 8567". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  13. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  14. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  15. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  16. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  17. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  18. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  19. ^ "Cinderella Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  20. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Music Canada. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  21. ^ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards ('Long Cold Winter')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  22. ^ "Cinderella: Long Cold Winter".
  23. ^ "American album certifications – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  24. ^ "Metal Rules - Top 50 Glam Metal Albums". Metal Rules. December 2003. Archived from the original on November 26, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  25. ^ Best of Rock & Metal - Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Rock Hard. 2005. p. 25. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.
  26. ^ Westhoff, Ben (December 6, 2011). "Chuck Klosterman's Favorite Hair Metal Albums". LA Weekly. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  27. ^ Eddy, Chuck (November 12, 2014). "50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 19, 2021. here's where hair-metal found its roots — which, oddly enough for suburban Philly boys, turned out mainly to be in Seventies Southern rock

External links

Cinderella
Authority control databases
Categories