Poison’s Pop-Metal Classic ‘Open Up And Say… Ahh!’ Gets A Rockin’ Reissue
Grab your lighter, one of the quintessential albums of hair metal, Poison’s Open Up And Say… Ahh! rings in its 30th anniversary with a reproduced 180-gram reissue via Capitol/UMe on April 20.
Their five-times-platinum, best-selling album remains a genre classic, and is now available in two versions: black vinyl at select retailers and a limited edition of 1,000 in green vinyl (available exclusively at The Sound Of Vinyl).
This reissue restores to album art to its uncensored glory, with the cat-tongue no longer cropped out of the cover that all hair metal enthusiasts will remember. Originally released on 3 May 1988, their sophomore album proved to their breakout release, and spawned four monster hits including the party anthem ‘Nothin’ but a Good Time’, ‘Fallen Angel’, the 1972 Loggins and Messina cover ‘Your Mama Don’t Dance’ and most famously the ultimate hair metal ballad ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’. The ballad scored Poison their first No.1 single and helped send the album to the No.2 spot on the Billboard 200.
After leaving their hometown of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with “nothing but gear and a dream” as lead singer Bret Michaels tells it, Poison soon became a fixture of LA’s scuzzy Sunset Strip scene and were soon hanging out at Rainbow, the Roxy and the Whisky and later taking the stage themselves.
Armed with fist-pumping riffs, pop-metal anthems and infectious choruses, this four-man glam outfit consisting of Michaels, lead guitarist CC DeVille, bassist Bobby Dall and drummer Rikki Rockett were responsible for some of the greatest rock hits of the late-80s.
Now 30-plus years later and the LA veterans continue to be the pied-pipers of debauchery (in spirit that is). The group is back on the road this summer on the aptly titled, Nothin’ But A Good Time Tour 2018, with special guests Cheap Trick and Pop Evil.
Explore our Poison Artist Page for career highlights and historic performances.
Poison’s Open Up And Say… Ahh! is available to buy here.
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