Heartbreak Station

Heartbreak Station is the third studio album by American rock band Cinderella, released in 1990 through Mercury Records. It reached No.19 in the Billboard 200 US chart on December 21, 1990,^[5] and went platinum for shipping a million albums on February 26, 1991.^[1]

Heartbreak Station
Studio album by Cinderella
Released	November 20, 1990^[1]
Recorded	1990
Studio	• Bearsville Studios (Woodstock, NY) • House of Music (West Orange, NJ) • Kajem Studios (Gladwyne, PA) • Studio in the Country (Bogalusa, LA)
Genre	Blues rock^[2] hard rock^[3]
Length	52:42
Label	Mercury (USA) Vertigo (Europe)
Producer	John Jansen & Tom Keifer
Cinderella chronology
Long Cold Winter (1988) Heartbreak Station (1990) Still Climbing (1994)
Singles from Heartbreak Station
"Shelter Me" Released: November 1990^[4] "Heartbreak Station" Released: March 1991

Three singles were released, two of which charted on the Billboard's Hot 100 in 1991. "Shelter Me" peaked at No. 36 and the title track climbed to No. 44.^[6] "The More Things Change" did not chart.

Background and production

Heartbreak Station marked a shift in the band's sound, wherein they moved further away from the glam metal style they had in Night Songs and Long Cold Winter and took a bluesier, stripped-down approach. In an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News a month before the album's release, when asked about the band's stylistic shift from their prior albums, lead vocalist Tom Keifer stated, "The sound has progressed from the last album. We produced it from a rawer, simpler approach. We stripped it down from a production standpoint, so there's not a lot of reverb or overdubs." Keifer also cited blues as a large influence on his songwriting in the album.^[2]

John Paul Jones, the former bassist of Led Zeppelin, arranged the strings for two songs on Heartbreak Station; the band requested Jones's help after they were impressed with orchestral arrangements Jones had contributed to songs by The Rolling Stones and Donovan.^[2]

In a retrospective interview with Classic Rock Revisited in 2013, Keifer reflected on his songwriting approach and his feelings towards the band's sound in Heartbreak Station, stating that, "We grew out of those '80s' processed slick things. That is the thing that was most intentional. Your writing and playing grows and grows, and it is organic, and it just happens." Keifer discussed his disillusionment with the polished sound of 80s rock that had been present on the band's prior records and that he instructed the album's mixing engineer, Michael Barbiero, to give the songs a rawer feel because "everybody was caught up in that whole '80s' sound. I told him it was time to do something different."^[7]

In 2017, Keifer gave an interview with a radio host working for the Detroit-based rock radio station WRIF wherein he stated, "In terms of production, which is something that is a learning experience as you go, of the Cinderella stuff, I think Heartbreak Station [is] my favorite because I just love how dry and how raw that record is. And we evolved into that sound, whereas the first two records were a little more 'flavor of the day' in the processing – you know, things were a little slicker and kind of processed in the '80s – and we evolved into this more organic, kind of dry, raw, real sound on Heartbreak Station." Keifer stated that the raw sound made it easier to feel "the emotion. . . . of the music and the players."^[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[3]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	7/10^[9]
LA Times	^[10]
Rolling Stone	^[11]

In a positive review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote, "Cinderella reached back into the Stones and Aerosmith songbooks and created a sneering, raunchy hard rock album that was artistically their finest moment, even if it didn't reach the same commercial heights as its predecessors."^[3]

The Chicago Tribune wrote a review that stated, "The band's new PolyGram Records album, Heartbreak Station, features more rootsy blues rock... . Yet despite Cinderella's blues leanings, critics often lump the group in with party bands like Poison and Warrant."^[2]

In a more negative review, the LA Times wrote, "Any band that can achieve a good approximation of the Stones' raw, cranking classic period--as Cinderella does here-- at least has the validity of a solid bar band. But Cinderella fails to justify and redeem its stylistic thefts by infusing a borrowed sound with a personal perspective."^[10]

People began their negative review with sarcasm, "The first thing that strikes you about this new album by Poison...er, uh, this new album by Cinderella...is how utterly original it is." They continue this theme throughout: "So as I was saying, you can't go wrong if you buy this new Mötley Crüe record. Ask for it by name."^[12]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tom Keifer except "Love's Got Me Doin' Time" written with Eric Brittingham

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The More Things Change"	4:17
2.	"Love's Got Me Doin' Time"	5:15
3.	"Shelter Me"	4:42
4.	"Heartbreak Station"	4:27
5.	"Sick for the Cure"	3:58
6.	"One for Rock and Roll"	4:26
7.	"Dead Man's Road"	6:30
8.	"Make Your Own Way"	4:11
9.	"Electric Love"	5:16
10.	"Love Gone Bad"	4:14
11.	"Winds of Change"	5:26

Personnel

Track information and credits adapted from Discogs^[13] and AllMusic,^[14] then verified from the album's liner notes.^[15]

Cinderella Tom Keifer – vocals, electric guitar, 12 & 6 string acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano, lap steel guitar, mandocello, dobro, acoustic & electric slide guitar, producer Jeff LaBar – guitar, slide guitar Eric Brittingham – bass Fred Coury – drums, percussion, background vocals Additional musicians Bashiri Johnson – percussion Jay Davidson – saxophone (tracks 1, 3, 10), piano (track 10) Rod Roddy – clavinet (track 2), piano (tracks 3, 4) Dennis Ruello – baritone saxophone (track 2) The Memphis Horns Andrew Love – saxophone (track 2) Wayne Jackson – trumpet (track 2) Jay Levin – pedal steel guitar (track 6) Ken Hensley – organ (tracks 5, 8, 10) Brian O'Neal – piano, organ (tracks 5, 8) Rick Criniti – keyboards (tracks 6, 7) John Avarese – synthesizer programming (track 9) Roy McDonald – synthesizer programming (track 11) John Paul Jones – string arrangements (tracks 4, 11) Elaine Foster, Sharon Foster, Tara Pellerin – background vocals (tracks 3, 4) Brenda King, Carla Benson, Curtis King, Evette Benton, Tawatha Agee – background vocals (tracks 5, 8) Eric Troyer – background vocals (track 10)

Production John Jansen – producer Gary Lyons – engineer Brian Stover, Nelson Ayres – assistant engineers (tracks 1 to 5, 8 to 11) Chris Laidlaw – assistant engineer (tracks 1, 5 to 7) Gene Foster, Jim Odom – assistant engineers (tracks 2 to 4, 11) Matthew "Boomer" Lamonica – assistant engineer (tracks 4, 9 to 11) Steve Thompson, Michael Barbiero – mixing George Cowan, Mike Reiter – mixing assistants Mitchell Kanner – art direction, design Scott Townsend – design Andrew Clatworthy, Mark "Weissguy" Weiss, Neil Zlozower, Robert John, William Hames, Ross Halfin – photography

Charts

Chart (1991)	Peak position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)^[16]	28
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)^[17]	39
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)^[18]	34
Japanese Albums (Oricon)^[19]	31
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)^[20]	16
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)^[21]	42
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[22]	8
UK Albums (OCC)^[23]	36
US Billboard 200^[24]	19

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)^[25]	Platinum	100,000^^
Japan (RIAJ)^[26]	Gold	100,000^[26]
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)^[27]	Gold	25,000^^
United States (RIAA)^[28]	Platinum	1,000,000^^
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "RIAA - Gold & Platinum". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
2. "Cinderella Earns Respect, Gets Little, Doesn't Care". Los Angeles Daily News. October 18, 1990. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
3. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Cinderella - Heartbreak Hotel review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
4. "Great Rock discography". p. 145.
5. "Cinderella - Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
6. "Cinderella - Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
7. "Cinderella's Tom Keifer: The Way Life Goes". Classic Rock Revisited. 2013. from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
8. "Cinderella's Tom Keifer: 'The '90s Was Not a Joyride for Me'". Blabbermouth.net. August 2, 2017. from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
9. Popoff, Martin (August 1, 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
10. Boehm, Mike (January 20, 1991). "Cinderella - Heartbreak Station". LA Times. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
11. Eddy, Chuck (January 10, 1991). . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 25, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
12. Staff, People (March 4, 1991). "Picks and Pans Review: Heartbreak Station". People. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
13. "Cinderella – Heartbreak Station". Discogs. August 21, 1990. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
14. "Cinderella – Heartbreak Station". AllMusic. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
15. Heartbreak Station (liner notes). Cinderella. Mercury. 1990. 848 018-1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
16. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 1454". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
17. 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.
18. "Offiziellecharts.de – Cinderella – Heartbreak Station" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
19. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
20. "Norwegiancharts.com – Cinderella – Heartbreak Station". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
21. "Swedishcharts.com – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
22. "Swisscharts.com – Cinderella – Long Cold Winter". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
23. "Cinderella | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
24. "Cinderella Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
25. "Canadian album certifications – Cinderella – Heart Break Station". Music Canada. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
26. "Cinderella Heartbreak Station (Rare Official Japanese Nippon Phonogram Co. Ltd. in-house 'Gold Disk' Award (575133)".
27. "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards ('Heart Break Station')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
28. "American album certifications – Cinderella – Heartbreak Station". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved July 15, 2022.