Did anyone in the radio or record industry get a 5-song demo from Tom Keifer in the mid/late 90s?

[Dr. Hollywood]

These guys who used to have a rock radio program in the Nashville area posted this on-air interview they did with Tom Keifer and Fred Coury in June 1997:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omjusONTOos&t=1882s

One of them was in a band that was planning to release an album with a cover of Night Songs (arranged in a completely different style) on which both Tom and Fred played, and which Fred produced. He plays a teaser of it toward the beginning but apparently is not willing to put out the full song because of the possibility of being sued...

Anyway, at the end he shows a 5-song disc that Tom gave him featuring songs that he had recorded with a full band in New Jersey when Cinderella broke up, and which he was then looking to get a record deal for. During the interview Tom mentions that he was singing all of his solo songs in his lower register.

None of these tracks listed appeared on The Way Life Goes or Rise.

If Tom was just giving these discs out, it's amazing that these songs have not been shared online at some point. It's a long shot, but did anyone happen to hear these songs back in the 90s?

You can see the disc at 50:00.

The song titles are:

Nothin’s Gonna Rain on My Parade
Your Love’s Not at Home
Easier Pill to Swallow
On the Other Side
Till the Road’s End

[Neil Diamond Dave]

Not gonna help anything, but I did an internship at MTV in the early 90s and I remember seeing a CD labeled "Tom Kiefer Demo", but that was around 91 - 92. Not sure how active Cinderella was around that time, but he clearly was shopping a demo around and it ended up at MTV 1515 Broadway in NY. Didn't get to listen to it, but I always remembered it as part of a vault of secret demos that MTV always got - They were treated like an actual record company/artist manager who could get artists connected to whomever they needed connecting to.

I do find it an interesting concept for artists to go back to their past library and re-record some of their best songs in a completely different style. Interesting way to bring their best work up to the present time, if they still own their own publishing.

[Rocker4Real]

Is that what the record company passed on because Keifer was associated with the glam scene? Reputation is more important than quality sometimes.

[Dr. Hollywood]

I did an internship at MTV in the early 90s and I remember seeing a CD labeled "Tom Kiefer Demo", but that was around 91 - 92. Not sure how active Cinderella was around that time, but he clearly was shopping a demo around and it ended up at MTV 1515 Broadway in NY.

That's really interesting; thanks for sharing! I hadn't heard of him shopping non-Cinderella material that early. I wonder what was on the demo and if any of it ended up getting worked into Still Climbing. They revived several Cinderella demos for that album ("Talk Is Cheap" and "Freewheelin'") so it would make sense.

[Neil Diamond Dave]

I did an internship at MTV in the early 90s and I remember seeing a CD labeled "Tom Kiefer Demo", but that was around 91 - 92. Not sure how active Cinderella was around that time, but he clearly was shopping a demo around and it ended up at MTV 1515 Broadway in NY.

That's really interesting; thanks for sharing! I hadn't heard of him shopping non-Cinderella material that early. I wonder what was on the demo and if any of it ended up getting worked into Still Climbing. They revived several Cinderella demos for that album ("Talk Is Cheap" and "Freewheelin'") so it would make sense.

Yeah, my recollection about that Tom demo stuck out to me, as it was clearly labeled just him, not Cinderella (even though he was the main songwriter for Cinderella, of course).

Why not give MTV a demo with the Cinderella name? Because at that time, glam and hair was very much on the way out, and getting quickly replaced on MTV by thrash, alt, and grunge. I was thinking Tom must have been shopping something with a more country/southern/americana tone without the Cinderella name and all those connotations attached. I wish I would have listened to it or made a copy.

[Wild Obsession]

Didn't Keifer have some songs on a Lynard Skynard album?

[Dr. Hollywood]

Didn't Keifer have some songs on a Lynard Skynard album?

He is listed as the main songwriter of "The Best Things in Life" on The Last Rebel (1993).

I also have a bootleg recording of him performing "Call Me the Breeze" with them in Philadelphia on September 4, 1992. He doesn't sing...just plays guitar.

It's interesting because those must have been the years where he first experienced major vocal problems (after the Heartbreak Station tour and before the recording of Still Climbing).

[FreddyFender]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

[kwf]

I have no idea. Hope this helps

[Rocker4Real]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

[Wednesday 13 Fan]

Is that what the record company passed on because Keifer was associated with the glam scene? Reputation is more important than quality sometimes.

I remember an interview, maybe one of those Sam Dunn documentaries, where this was mentioned. The record company guy thought it was great and asked where it came from. When he found out he just kinda said, "Oh...um, okay..." and passed on it.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Regarding the last 2 posts - that's the way it was then, they succeeded because they were a glam band and sank because they were a glam band. Whatever they did to reshape their sound or image didn't matter, they were branded. Didn't work for Warrant, Winger, or MC94 either.

[Love_Industry]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

Nope. Moneymaker, Feb 1990. Heartbreak Station, Nov 1990. Enough time in between to jump on the trend.

[Rocker4Real]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

Nope. Moneymaker, Feb 1990. Heartbreak Station, Nov 1990. Enough time in between to jump on the trend.

Keifer was following Black Crowes developments in the studio?

[DonJuanDeMarco]

I'm shocked at how many credits Fred Coury has! I never heard that Asylum Suite band he mentioned that he was producing!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Coury

As far as these demos go... I don't know either! I would think if they were any good, Tom would've put them out or re-recorded them! He has said that some of his first solo albums were songs that he had written for the 5th Cinderella album that never came to be (for Portrait Records, I think).

[SexxAtraxxion]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

Nope. Moneymaker, Feb 1990. Heartbreak Station, Nov 1990. Enough time in between to jump on the trend.

+ The Quireboys - A Bit of What You Fancy (Jan 1990). Overlooked in America but successful in UK.

[Love_Industry]

I'm shocked at how many credits Fred Coury has! I never heard that Asylum Suite band he mentioned that he was producing!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Coury

Asylum Suite was a LA hair metal band with VH's Mike Anthony's brother Robert Lee Sobolewski aka Bobby Leigh on guitar.

[kc primo]

Freds cover of “It’s so Easy” on that GNR tribute record was
really good. He’s got a great voice, it’s worth hearing the
drummer from Cinderella sing lead on a Guns track

[FreddyFender]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

Sure, but that underperformed/flopped. No real hits, unsuccessful tour with Roth.

But that raw blues rock revival stuff was blowing up at the very end of the 80s. I don't remember what made it really take off, but that "Black Velvet" song and the singles from Shake Your Moneymaker were everywhere.

A lot of guys tried to hop from metal over to it - the Britney Fox guy with Blackeyed Susan (great record). Izzy got way into it. Hell, Roth tried to write his own "Black Velvet" on ALAE with "Tell The Truth".

Wouldn't surprise me if Keifer was trying to shop himself as a solo artist in that style. He had the talent.

[Rocker4Real]

After Shake Your Moneymaker broke, a lot of bands were wondering if they could hop onto the blues rock thing.

Wouldnt be surprised if Keifer was testing the waters as well.

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

Sure, but that underperformed/flopped. No real hits, unsuccessful tour with Roth.

But that raw blues rock revival stuff was blowing up at the very end of the 80s. I don't remember what made it really take off, but that "Black Velvet" song and the singles from Shake Your Moneymaker were everywhere.

A lot of guys tried to hop from metal over to it - the Britney Fox guy with Blackeyed Susan (great record). Izzy got way into it. Hell, Roth tried to write his own "Black Velvet" on ALAE with "Tell The Truth".

Wouldn't surprise me if Keifer was trying to shop himself as a solo artist in that style. He had the talent.

Shelter Me was top 40. #36

[FreddyFender]

Shelter Me was top 40. #36

Underperformed/flopped. No real hits.

[TeslaFan]

Not gonna help anything, but I did an internship at MTV in the early 90s and I remember seeing a CD labeled "Tom Kiefer Demo", but that was around 91 - 92. Not sure how active Cinderella was around that time, but he clearly was shopping a demo around and it ended up at MTV 1515 Broadway in NY. Didn't get to listen to it, but I always remembered it as part of a vault of secret demos that MTV always got - They were treated like an actual record company/artist manager who could get artists connected to whomever they needed connecting to.

I do find it an interesting concept for artists to go back to their past library and re-record some of their best songs in a completely different style. Interesting way to bring their best work up to the present time, if they still own their own publishing.

I bet you have some stories about how cute Martha Quinn was..

[soulonfire]

I could've sworn these popped up in the old downloads thread. Somebody probably has it stashed on an old hard drive.

[Neil Diamond Dave]

Not gonna help anything, but I did an internship at MTV in the early 90s and I remember seeing a CD labeled "Tom Kiefer Demo", but that was around 91 - 92. Not sure how active Cinderella was around that time, but he clearly was shopping a demo around and it ended up at MTV 1515 Broadway in NY. Didn't get to listen to it, but I always remembered it as part of a vault of secret demos that MTV always got - They were treated like an actual record company/artist manager who could get artists connected to whomever they needed connecting to.

I do find it an interesting concept for artists to go back to their past library and re-record some of their best songs in a completely different style. Interesting way to bring their best work up to the present time, if they still own their own publishing.

I bet you have some stories about how cute Martha Quinn was..

Never saw Martha, but I can tell you that Tabitha Soren seemed to think very highly of herself as some type of Ms MTV at the time.

To me she just seemed like a former high school nerd who didn't really get most of the music, and was trying to use MTV as a stepping stone to something bigger.

[Neil Diamond Dave]

.

[Neil Diamond Dave]

Cinderella was doing the Blues Rock thang before that with Heartbreak Station.

Sure, but that underperformed/flopped. No real hits, unsuccessful tour with Roth.

But that raw blues rock revival stuff was blowing up at the very end of the 80s. I don't remember what made it really take off, but that "Black Velvet" song and the singles from Shake Your Moneymaker were everywhere.

A lot of guys tried to hop from metal over to it - the Britney Fox guy with Blackeyed Susan (great record). Izzy got way into it. Hell, Roth tried to write his own "Black Velvet" on ALAE with "Tell The Truth".

Wouldn't surprise me if Keifer was trying to shop himself as a solo artist in that style. He had the talent.

I think that's true with the Black Crowes coming out at that time: "authentic" Blues Rock without the glam, hair, and pretentiousness. GnR kinda laid the preparation for some of that too. The acoustic album and suddenly the unplugged series on MTV certainly had a hand. It was also probably the precursor to the grunge trend, leading to the full collapse of Hair Metal.

I was thinking Keifer was shopping something more in that authentic vein, without the Cinderella baggage.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Not gonna help anything, but I did an internship at MTV in the early 90s and I remember seeing a CD labeled "Tom Kiefer Demo", but that was around 91 - 92. Not sure how active Cinderella was around that time, but he clearly was shopping a demo around and it ended up at MTV 1515 Broadway in NY. Didn't get to listen to it, but I always remembered it as part of a vault of secret demos that MTV always got - They were treated like an actual record company/artist manager who could get artists connected to whomever they needed connecting to.

I do find it an interesting concept for artists to go back to their past library and re-record some of their best songs in a completely different style. Interesting way to bring their best work up to the present time, if they still own their own publishing.

I bet you have some stories about how cute Martha Quinn was..

Never saw Martha, but I can tell you that Tabitha Soren seemed to think very highly of herself as some type of Ms MTV at the time.

To me she just seemed like a former high school nerd who didn't really get most of the music, and was trying to use MTV as a stepping stone to something bigger.

Yeah typical NYU art student. I bet the halls of MTV were lousy with them. She def came off as a pretentious little twat.

[Rocker4Real]

Heartbreak Station seems authentic enough to me. They weren't as glammy as before and it didn't seem pretentious. Was 1990 too soon?

[BangThyDrum]

These guys who used to have a rock radio program in the Nashville area posted this on-air interview they did with Tom Keifer and Fred Coury in June 1997:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omjusONTOos&t=1882s

One of them was in a band that was planning to release an album with a cover of Night Songs (arranged in a completely different style) on which both Tom and Fred played, and which Fred produced. He plays a teaser of it toward the beginning but apparently is not willing to put out the full song because of the possibility of being sued...

Anyway, at the end he shows a 5-song disc that Tom gave him featuring songs that he had recorded with a full band in New Jersey when Cinderella broke up, and which he was then looking to get a record deal for. During the interview Tom mentions that he was singing all of his solo songs in his lower register.

None of these tracks listed appeared on The Way Life Goes or Rise.

If Tom was just giving these discs out, it's amazing that these songs have not been shared online at some point. It's a long shot, but did anyone happen to hear these songs back in the 90s?

You can see the disc at 50:00.

The song titles are:

Nothin’s Gonna Rain on My Parade
Your Love’s Not at Home
Easier Pill to Swallow
On the Other Side
Till the Road’s End

I would love to hear those songs. I remember after Cinderella disbanded in 1995, Tom was putting a band together with Doug Gordon from Tangier and some other local Philly guys. I'm sure that's where these songs came from.