Intro (Edit)

Poison is an American glam band. Their main success period was the late 1980’s through the early 1990’s. They are icons of the 80’s MTV era and they have had very much success. They have sold over 25 million records worldwide. They have sold over 14.5 million in the US alone. They are still recording and performing after 25 years.

The band started in 1983. Their first name was Paris. At this time, the band was located in Pennsylvania. Then on March 6, 1984, the band moved to Los Angeles to get into the music scene on the Sunset Strip. The band then changed their name after seeing the movie Spinal Tap.

When the band was first in LA, their manager set up a deal that would get them gigs at The Troubador and they would get paid. During this time, guitarist Matt Smith left the band to go home. Instead of calling it quits, the band held an audition for guitarists. The gig was won by CC Deville.

In 1986, the band was signed to Enigma Records. Their debut album was released on August 2, 1986. It was called, “Look What The Cat Dragged In.” The album peaked at number 3 on the charts. The album had four singles, three of which were successful. The singles were “Talk Dirty To Me”, “I Want Action”, “I Won’t Forget You” , and “Cry Tough.”

Open Up And Say…Ahh! was Poison’s next release. The album was released in 1988 and is Poison’s most successful released. It contained four hit singles. They are “Nothin’ But A Good Time”, “Your Mama Don’t Dance”, “Fallen Angel”, and their biggest hit of all time, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

In 1990, the band released “Flesh & Blood.” Its the third studio album from the band. The album featured the two top ten singles, “Unskinny Bop” and “Something To Believe In.” It also featured the songs, “Ride The Wind”, “Life Goes On”, and “(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice.” The album peaked at number 2.

During the Flesh & Blood Tour in 1990 and 1991, Poison recorded a number of shows. They released these recordings as, “Swallow This Live.” This album was a compilation of Poison’s first three albums and four new studio tracks, all performed live. They were the last songs recorded before C.C. left the band.

C.C. had been battling addictions to cocaine and alcohol, despite Poison’s success. This began to cause tensions in the band. It eventually led to a fist fight between Deville and Michaels. The fight was due to C.C. changing from Unskinny Bop to Talk Dirty To Me, midsong, during a live performance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. After this, C.C. was fired and guitarist Richie Kotzen was hired.

With this new line-up, the band released their fifth album, Native Tongue. It was released on February 8, 1993. The album peaked at number 16 on the Billboard chart.

With the new guitarist, came a new sound for Poison. Richie Kotzen brought more of a blues-rock type sound than glam metal. Also, Kotzen strongly influenced the song writing process. Instead of anthemic party tunes, the band focused on more serious subjects.

Following the album, the band started out on tour. During the tour, tensions started between Kotzen and the band. Kotzen was done with Poison when it was found out that he had been romantically involved with drummer, Rikki Rockett’s former fiancee. Richie was fired immediately and replaced by Blues Saraceno.

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History (Edit)

In early 1994, Poison started recording their new album. It was called, Crack A Smile. Recording stopped in May of 1994 when Michaels was involved in a car wreck. Bret suffered a broken nose, ribs, jaw, fingers, and he lost four teeth. When he recovered in 1995, the band finished up the recording.

After Bret’s recovery, their record label didn’t offer much support for Poison’s next album. With interest in glam metal mostly gone, due to the increasing popularity of grunge, and a shift in staff at Capitol Records, the band had to stop recording for a  second time. Instead the label wanted to released a greatest hits compilation.

In 1996, Poison released “Poison’s Greatest Hits: 1986-1996.” This was due to the label pushing for a greatest hits compilation. The album contains 16 songs from the first four studio album and one song from the live album, “Swallow This Live.” The album also featured two new songs with the new guitarist, Blues Saraceno. These songs were, “Sexual Thing” and “Lay Your Body Down.” The album went two times platinum.

In 1998, Michaels and CC Deville worked out their differences. With CC back in the band, the Greatest Hits tour finally took place. After the tour, the band started to record Crack A Smile again.

On March 14, 2000, the band finally released “Crack A Smile.” This was Poison’s seventh album, after the Greatest Hits compilation. Between the time of their Greatest Hits album and Crack A Smile was official released, bootlegs of the recordings were floating around on the internet. Fans did all they could to get their hands on the bootlegs, not because they knew it was soon to be a collectors album, but they thought that the recordings had potential to be Poison’s best album yet. This official released peaked at number 131 on The Billboard 200. Even though CC was in the band at this point, he was not on the album because the material was the Blues Saraceno era.

Later in 2000, the band released “Power To The People.” The album was released on June 13, 2000 on the band’s independent label, Cyanide Music. This was the first album since their live album, Swallow This Live, in 1991, to feature the original line-up of Poison. This album has only five studio songs on it, the rest are live songs from Poison’s comeback tour of 1999-2000. The album charted on number 166 on the Billboard Hot 200.

“Hollyweird” was the next album from Poison. It was released on May 21, 2002. It was the band’s first full album with CC back in the band. The album debuted at number 103 on The Billboard 200 chart and number 8 on the Top Independent Albums chart. The album was a combination of old and new sounds. Instead of the traditional glam metal sound Poison was known for, CC had started to incorporate pop and punk rock sounds to the album. The critics reviews were mixed.

In 2003, the band released “Best of Ballads & Blues.” It was a greatest hits compilation of the band’s power ballads and blues-oriented songs. The album also featured new recordings. It included “Something To Believe In” (#2 with new lyrics) and “Stand” re-recorded acoustically. The album debuted at number 141 on The Billboard 200 chart.

“The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock” was released on April 3, 2006. Its another compilation from the band. It was released to celebrate the bands 25th year anniversary. This album was Poison’s return to the Billboard 200 top 20 charts since 1993. This album only featured one new song. It was a cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re An American Band.”

In 2007, “Poison’d” was released. This album features all covers of Poison’s favorite rock classics. Nine of the fourteen songs were recorded in 2007, while others came from previous releases. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 32.

“Live, Raw & Uncut” is a DVD/CD combo from Poison. It was released in 2008 for the band’s summer tour. It debuted at number 8 on the Billboard’s Top Music Video’s chart. This is considered Poison’s first full live album. Swallow This Live included some new studio tracks,that were previously unreleased, so it wasn’t considered a fully live album. Power To The People was considered only half live because it included five studio recordings.

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