LA-based hair metallic icons Poison seemingly got here from nowhere to promote 4 million copies of their 1986 debut album, Look What The Cat Dragged In. Nevertheless, their meteoric rise additionally meant the strain was on once they started recording their second album, Open Up And Say… Ahh!, late in 1987.
Take heed to Poison’s Open Up And Say… Ahh! now.
The fact of the scenario took some time to sink in, not least as a result of the band had spent two years dwelling on the breadline once they arrived in California from their native Pennsylvania, in 1984. Their “overnight” success was really the results of relentless gigging in Hollywood golf equipment and bars, with their luck solely altering when, two years later, Enigma Data agreed to fund their debut album.
“It was a pipe dream to play rock’n’roll for a living”
“You have to understand we came from a small town back east,” drummer Rikki Rockett informed Final Traditional Rock in 2018. “So it was such a pipe dream to play rock’n’roll for a living – let alone actually make it!”
But make it Poison did, with Look What The Cat Dragged In spawning three hit singles, heavy MTV rotation, and high-profile US excursions with Cinderella, Ratt, and Quiet Riot. With all eyes abruptly turning towards them, the big-haired quartet wanted to carry their nerve when it got here to making a sophomore launch.
It didn’t assist that Poison have been experiencing business-related issues at this stage too. The band have been present process adjustments in administration and their first alternative of producer – KISS legend Paul Stanley – was compelled to bow out via scheduling conflicts. Nevertheless, Poison’s luck modified when revered onerous rock producer Tom Werman (Mötley Crüe, Ted Nugent, Low-cost Trick) signed as much as helm the periods. Additionally, as an alternative of the meager 12 days they’d spent on their debut album, the band found that Capitol Data have been joyful to bankroll additional studio time for Open Up And Say…Ahh!.
“Everything is the deal real deal!”
“It was a real budget, and we had real pre-production days,” Rockett later recalled with relish. “We were like, ‘Wow, this is how it really does work. It’s not an independent record – everything is the real deal!’”
Inspired by label and producer alike, Poison rose to the problem and the periods took off. The band finally accomplished 12 tracks, of which 10 made the minimize. Raucous, hedonistic rockers (“Look But You Can’t Touch,” “Bad To Be Good,” the KISS-esque “Nothin’ But A Good Time”) remained their major foreign money, although an infectious cowl of Loggins & Messina’s 1972 hit, “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” and the exuberant, bluesy “Good Love” supplied marked departures with mainstream attraction.
Elsewhere, a star-crossed love affair involving frontman Bret Michaels impressed an acoustic ballad of actual high quality. Nevertheless, whereas band and producer felt this track – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” – had the potential to be a single, their label felt it was too radical a departure. Finally, Poison needed to combat for the track’s inclusion on Open Up And Say… Ahh!.
“It’s got a little bit of a country feel to it,” Rockett mirrored in 2018. “But we really believed in it. We’d been playing it live and seeing tears in the eyes of the girls in the first row. We’re like, ‘Of course this can work!’”
The Open Up And Say…Ahh! marketing campaign acquired off to a constructive begin with the MTV-friendly “Nothin’ But A Good Time” climbing to No.6 within the US in April 1988, with one other slow-burning album spotlight, “Fallen Angel,” quickly following it into the High 20. Launched because the album’s third single, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” proved Rockett and firm have been proper to stay to their weapons: the track raced up the US charts and rewarded Poison with their first (and, so far, solely) Billboard No.1.
“It’s what we wanted our life to be”
With its singles doing spectacular enterprise, Open Up And Say… Ahh! hit the racks on Could 3, 1988, and once more swept apart the competitors, peaking at No.2 on the Billboard 200 and finally going quintuple platinum Stateside. In its wake, Poison supported ex-Van Halen star David Lee Roth on his Skyscraper tour after which headlined their very own US tour in September 1988, establishing themselves as a significant stay act on their very own phrases. Fairly a turnaround for a band who might barely afford to eat once they first strolled down Sundown Boulevard.
“When we came [to Hollywood], we were living at poverty level,” Rikki Rockett informed Traditional Rock. “So many of those lyrics, it’s not what our life was at that time, but it was what we wanted it to be. We wanted to go out on the Strip in a car with the roof down and all that fun stuff, but we couldn’t do that back then. So many of those early songs – they were wishes and they were dreams!”
Poison’s Open Up And Say… Ahh! will be purchased right here.
