10 Most Underrated Hard Rock Frontmen

Through the years, metalheads love to poke fun at the hair metal scene of the ‘80s. For as much fun as some of those songs were, you couldn’t deny that the era of poofy hair and spandex wasn’t devoid of a certain amount of ridiculousness. In a sane world, Cinderella would probably be the most ridiculous of the bunch, but Tom Keifer took that makeup and hairspray and put some real emotion behind it.

As opposed to acts like Poison, whose music sounded like pop songs disguised as metal, Cinderella was a much heavier act in a hair metal costume. While they did break through to the mainstream with the typical power ballad “Don’t Know What You Got (Til It’s Gone,)” most of the songs on the band’s albums are much heavier, like AC/DC mixed with Aerosmith.

Though Keifer wrote all the songs in the early days, his voice also gave the band a unique edge. Rather than being a carbon copy of someone like David Lee Roth, Keifer’s high pitched rasp was more in line with someone like Janis Joplin, which always cut through the mix whenever one of their tracks came on MTV. Cinderella may seem like just another run of the mill hair band, but Tom Keifer’s charisma goes beyond the gimmick of platform shoes and neon colored clothes.