{"id":552178,"date":"2026-03-29T11:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T11:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552178\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T11:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T11:02:11","slug":"dont-know-what-youve-got-till-its-gone-by-cinderella-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552178\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Know What You\u2019ve Got (Till It\u2019s Gone) by Cinderella: the story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Know What You Got (Till It\u2019s Gone) is a heart-rending ballad and MTV favourite recorded by the Philadelphia-based foursome Cinderella<\/a> during the hair-rock explosion of the 1980s. Cinderella singer\/guitarist Tom Keifer wrote the song shortly after the band signed their contract with Mercury Records in 1985, but it wasn\u2019t until the summer of \u201988 that it became their biggest ever hit single.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on an absolute high back then,\u201d the singer recalls. \u201cWe were working with Andy Johns, the legendary producer of the Rolling Stones<\/a> and Free, on our debut album, Night Songs, and things could scarcely have gotten any better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It was while driving to the studio in Gladwyn, Pennsylvania during the recording of Night Songs that Keifer was struck by the idea for a song. Little did he know that it was destined to become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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\u201cI was thinking about how great life was and how sad I would be if [the success] all went away,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe chorus made a big impression upon me. And although we already had another similar song, Nobody\u2019s Fool, lined up for our first record, when I got to Kajem Studios I sat right down at the piano.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Cinderella&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

Cinderella\u2019s Tom Keifer in 1987 (Image credit: MPIRock\/MediaPunch via Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Cue the arrival of Andy Johns, keen to crack on with the album and in no mood to listen to a half-written song idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy is no longer with us and I miss him dearly,\u201d Keifer sighs. \u201cHe was well over six feet tall and had quite a presence. He told me: \u2018Stop dicking around and get in here, there\u2019s work to do. We don\u2019t need yet another ballad\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were working with Andy Johns, the legendary producer of the Rolling Stones and Free, and things could scarcely have gotten any better.<\/p>\n

Tom Keifer<\/p>\n

Under playful duress from Keifer \u2013 \u201cAndy said: \u2018Okay, Thomas\u2026\u2019 well, he was English!\u201d \u2013 Johns agreed to sit alongside Keifer at the piano for an impromptu preview of his new song\u2019s first draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became carried away with my playing, and when I finally turned around, Andy, this hard-as-nails guy, had a tear streaming down his cheek,\u201d Keifer recalls. \u201cAt that moment I knew I had quite a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Keifer\u2019s own admission, Cinderella had been \u201cbanging around in the clubs of Philadelphia\u201d before being discovered by Jon Bon Jovi, although Gene Simmons had sniffed around them a little earlier. However, once JBJ recommended them to his label their rise seemed amazingly fast.<\/p>\n

The Night Songs album peaked at No.3 on America\u2019s Billboard chart, selling two million copies and later being certified triple-platinum. When Cinderella renewed their relationship with Johns on the follow-up, Long Cold Winter, the inclusion of Don\u2019t Know What You Got (Till It\u2019s Gone) was a complete no-brainer.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

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\"Cinderella\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Lisa Lake\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem was that we cut the song way too fast,\u201d Keifer recalls. \u201cSo here\u2019s a secret: we had to start over again and slow down the drums, which we wanted to keep. That\u2019s why they sound so huge; because Varispeeding affects the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those drum parts were actually played by Cozy Powell, and not the credited band member Fred Coury, who Johns considered \u201ca little inexperienced\u201d for the track\u2019s groove and drive.<\/p>\n

In what became a puzzling trend over the course of Cinderella\u2019s first three albums, Long Cold Winter was a better record than Night Songs and yet it sold fewer copies than its celebrated predecessor. The bluesy maturity of 1990\u2019s Long Cold Winter also defied an artistic spike to continue the group\u2019s commercial decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see it that way, but people accused us of changing our style from record to record,\u201d Keifer says with a shrug. \u201cTo me it was a progression; we became better musicians and learned how to paint landscapes, using Dobros, pianos and harmonicas to build up the colours. The writing style didn\u2019t change at all because it was all based on the blues, country and gospel \u2013 the ups and downs of life, or falling in and out of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cinderella – Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) – YouTube
\n\"Cinderella<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Cinderella\u2019s early status as press darlings would soon cool, and one bemused UK reviewer famously said of Long Cold Winter: \u201cTom Keifer wouldn\u2019t know the blues if somebody rubbed him face face-down in Mississippi mud\u201d. However, tougher times still lay ahead for Keifer; the four-year wait for Cinderella\u2019s next album, Still Climbing, was due to paresis of his left vocal cord that had been diagnosed as career-ending (see sidebar, left).<\/p>\n

The writing style didn\u2019t change at all because it was all based on the blues, country and gospel \u2013 the ups and downs of life, or falling in and out of love.<\/p>\n

Tom Keifer<\/p>\n

By contrast, Don\u2019t Know What You Got (Till It\u2019s Gone) grew ever more popular, and made a poignant appearance in the cartoon TV series South Park as Eric Cartman lay motionless on his bed for its entire duration, surrounded by tissues. \u201cThat was hilarious, it really sums up what the song\u2019s about,\u201d Keifer says, laughing.<\/p>\n

Some 26 years after Heartbreak Station, Keifer still makes music, and toured extensively for his 2013 debut solo album The Way Life Goes. Cinderella\u2019s best-known line-up (completed by guitarist Jeff LaBar and bassist Eric Brittingham) reunited for live shows in 2010 but were inactive after that due to LaBar\u2019s ongoing problems with alcohol. Keifer pledged not to reunite until LaBar sorted himself out, their future looks bleak [Ed\u2019s note \u2013 LaBar died in 2021 from a heart attack]<\/p>\n

Tom Keifer Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) Live At KDKB – YouTube
\n\"Tom<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Cinderella\u2019s one-time superstar status may have ebbed away, as have the band\u2019s future prospects, but as a self-confessed \u201csucker for ballads\u201d Keifer has no plans to stop performing Don\u2019t Know What You Got as a solo artist, although in slightly different form.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago my wife Savanah [Snow, Nashville-based singer\/songwriter] and I remodelled it in acoustic form for VH-1, and now we do it unplugged for a while before the band busts into the electric version that everybody knows,\u201d he explains, smiling. \u201cIt brings the house down every night.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when Savanah\u2019s not with me on tour at that part of the show when the roadies pull up the stools, I\u2019ll call her and ask the audience to sing the chorus to her at the top of their lungs,\u201d he adds, smiling. \u201cIt helps us both out. Nobody wants to be lonely, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 233 (February 2017)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Know What You Got (Till It\u2019s Gone) is a heart-rending ballad and MTV favourite recorded by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-552178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}