Album: Night Songs
Video: From YouTube.
Billboard Hot 100 Peak: 13
MTV Top 20 Peak: 2
MTV Top 20 Weeks: 11
1986 saw heavy metal moving into the mainstream, epitomized by Bon Jovi's wildly successful "Slippery When Wet" album. The opening band for that tour was a new band called Cinderella, who went on to become one of the iconic hair bands of the era.
Cinderella's breakout hit was "Nobody's Fool", the most successful of their handful of top 40 singles in the late 80's. People enjoyed the song because it's a stirring, nuanced power ballad, a tale of personal redemption that slowly builds up to an explosive climax. Or maybe it was because of all the amazing hair. Either way, it seriously rocks.
The #93 ranking is a gyp, the result of the same timing problem that afflicted “The Way It Is” and “Hip To Be Square”, which unjustly missed the top 100 altogether. “Nobody’s Fool” debuted on the top 20 weekly countdown in November 1986, and by the time it peaked at #2 it was already 1987. This circumstance led to the video’s appearance in the 1987 top 100 countdown at #67, making it the rare video to be featured in two consecutive year-end top 100 charts.
Whatever, “Nobody’s Fool” still got hosed. Consider this: in 1986, only eighteen videos reached #2 or higher on the weekly top 20 show and stayed on the countdown for eleven weeks or more. All but two finished in the top 40 for the end of the year. “Silent Running” suffered from a late 1985 debut and a 1986 peak, finishing at #92 in the 1985 top 100 countdown, but at least that video was rewarded by a #27 ranking in 1986's top 100 videos of all-time countdown. "Nobody's Fool" deserved to be easily 50 or 60 spots higher.
The video is the second of a trilogy from the "Night Songs" album. Can we find five awesome things about it? Of course we can.
1) There is a real Cinderella theme, like from the fairy tale.
2) Playing the role of the "evil stepsisters" are two groupies in matching pink polka dot skirts, sunglasses, necklaces, purses, and (eventually) clocks on their heads.
3) The stepsisters are driving a ridiculous Volkswagen bug which is also pink polka dotted.
4) The girl playing the Cinderella role watches the band play, all the while nervously looking at the clock which is fast approaching midnight. She seemingly transforms into another entity and ultimately encounters lead singer Tom Keifer within a throng of adoring fans. While Keifer appears to have a faint glimmer of recognition, it is left to our imagination whether or not the glass slipper fits.
5) Hair. Quite simply, epic hair.
1986 saw heavy metal moving into the mainstream, epitomized by Bon Jovi's wildly successful "Slippery When Wet" album. The opening band for that tour was a new band called Cinderella, who went on to become one of the iconic hair bands of the era.
Cinderella's breakout hit was "Nobody's Fool", the most successful of their handful of top 40 singles in the late 80's. People enjoyed the song because it's a stirring, nuanced power ballad, a tale of personal redemption that slowly builds up to an explosive climax. Or maybe it was because of all the amazing hair. Either way, it seriously rocks.
The #93 ranking is a gyp, the result of the same timing problem that afflicted “The Way It Is” and “Hip To Be Square”, which unjustly missed the top 100 altogether. “Nobody’s Fool” debuted on the top 20 weekly countdown in November 1986, and by the time it peaked at #2 it was already 1987. This circumstance led to the video’s appearance in the 1987 top 100 countdown at #67, making it the rare video to be featured in two consecutive year-end top 100 charts.
Whatever, “Nobody’s Fool” still got hosed. Consider this: in 1986, only eighteen videos reached #2 or higher on the weekly top 20 show and stayed on the countdown for eleven weeks or more. All but two finished in the top 40 for the end of the year. “Silent Running” suffered from a late 1985 debut and a 1986 peak, finishing at #92 in the 1985 top 100 countdown, but at least that video was rewarded by a #27 ranking in 1986's top 100 videos of all-time countdown. "Nobody's Fool" deserved to be easily 50 or 60 spots higher.
The video is the second of a trilogy from the "Night Songs" album. Can we find five awesome things about it? Of course we can.
1) There is a real Cinderella theme, like from the fairy tale.
2) Playing the role of the "evil stepsisters" are two groupies in matching pink polka dot skirts, sunglasses, necklaces, purses, and (eventually) clocks on their heads.
3) The stepsisters are driving a ridiculous Volkswagen bug which is also pink polka dotted.
4) The girl playing the Cinderella role watches the band play, all the while nervously looking at the clock which is fast approaching midnight. She seemingly transforms into another entity and ultimately encounters lead singer Tom Keifer within a throng of adoring fans. While Keifer appears to have a faint glimmer of recognition, it is left to our imagination whether or not the glass slipper fits.
5) Hair. Quite simply, epic hair.
Open Your Heart from Madonna, the #1 vid at the time, wasn't even on the list. (Though it was #8 on the '87 countdown.)
ReplyDeleteYou can't really count year-crossing videos on the basis of their complete performance. That would be unfair to the vids that had more complete runs on the countdown and/or heavy rotation. On the basis of the run so far (~7 weeks) it probably should have been perhaps 30ish spots higher. It would be a few years at least before latecomers were a little more highly placed, and some years more than others, especially with various acts (hello Aerosmith!).
It's true that few videos lasted this long back then, but due to the aforementioned year crossover, videos were only just now beginning to achieve a bit more longevity.
That said, this still felt like the band coming out of nowhere. (Their biggest hit, if by a hair, was "Don't Know What You Got ('Til It's Gone)" btw.) If there's one mark against this one it sounds seriously ripped from "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" from Def Leppard.