“Then of course there are those moments you’re not getting the gigs, you’re not being appreciated or whatever.”Īnd then there’s the nightmare Cooler woke up to a few months ago. “We have amazing pinch-me moments,” Starling said. He’s also collabed with Freeway, Eric B and Capone. Cooler continued his work as a producer and was one of the first people to work with Eve. The band continued performing and recording together and Starling launched a solo career. Pretty Poison left Virgin in the early 1990s feeling its creativity was stifled. Every time it looked like it was going to run out of steam something would come out of nowhere and give us another five to 10 weeks of life. It’s the kind of story that you hear but think that’s never going to happen to me. “That was the song they wanted to get behind. “They were looking for somebody to get behind that was local that they could help bring more national attention to,” Cooler said. The band played the song at a showcase where a representative from the Philly hit radio station WCAU-98 happened to be listening. Cooler and Williams spent about 24 hours mixing a newer version, and Starling added her vocals. Then the band got studio time with Kajen Records and shortly after with Kaye Williams Jr. Originally, he thought Pretty Poison might give the beat to an R&B singer. With Prince and similar influences on his mind, he started tinkering around with a bass line and came up with an early version of the “Catch Me I’m Falling” beat. It was a Roland D-50 and set him back $2,000, a fortune for a starving musician in the 1980s. They could command a crowd of 300 to 500 easily but weren’t a major act yet.Ībout the time the fame from “Nighttime” subdued, Cooler purchased a new keyboard. They became major players at venues like The Empire in the Northeast and the East Side Club, located at 12th and Chestnut, and would do the occasional show in Miami, where dance music was thriving. In 1984, the band recorded “Nighttime,” which reached No. Cooler wanted to push Pretty Poison in that direction. At the time, he was listening to R&B radio and noticed how the latest tracks would have hints of electronica and syncopation.
But Cooler realized that “if you weren’t willing to drop everything and move to England like the Stray Cats did” it would be difficult for them to find success outside of Philly’s underground scene. It was very mysterious and had a romantic background.”Īt first, Pretty Poison’s sound was more rock-oriented. I think the music was more intriguing to us, the sound. “It was just kind of a cool idea: You use what you got to get what you want. “It was absolutely nothing like us,” Starling said.
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They had seen a 1968 movie called “Pretty Poison” about a high school cheerleader who turns into a murderer and went with the name for their group. He and his brother had started a rock-oriented band and heard about Starling from other classmates at Camden Vocational Technical School. In the early 1980s, Whey Cooler was looking for a singer. “We were EDM,” Starling said, “before it was called EDM.” Pretty Poison’s big hit was as beloved by the gay community and the black community as it was by the stereotypical ’80s yuppie crowd, the attention for a duo Starling describes as “kids with the big hair and goth makeup.” They had a sound inspired from R&B and pushed forward by an electronic kick that was only starting to be explored at the time. The song’s popularity was due in part to its crossover appeal. Thirty years ago, they released “Catch Me I’m Falling,” taking Pretty Poison from an underground favorite in Philly to No. He’s expected to fully recover, but the disease hasn’t been the ideal way to ring in what should be a celebratory year for him and bandmate Jade Starling. Tonight, radio personality Bob Pantano is hosting a benefit concert for him at 7 at the Adelphia Restaurant and Nightclub in South Jersey, and he’s received $10,000 in donations through a GoFundMe page.
“I likened the feeling in my throat,” he said, “to having swallowed a fan and the blades were stuck in the back of my throat.”Ĭooler was diagnosed with throat cancer in January. He even just got back from performing in California this weekend, his body still ravaged from cancer but not in the disastrous shape it was in a couple months ago. That happened in the last week to 10 days. Whey Cooler, one half of the ’80s-famous duo Pretty Poison, can finally start swallowing again.
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