KISS – Paul Stanley (Release Year – 1978)
2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the Paul Stanley solo CD (God, that makes me feel old). Ok, if you want to get technical, Paul’s first solo CD didn’t come out until 1997, but the album was out in 1978.
For whatever reason, all four of the KISS solo discs (Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, and Paul Stanley) all have KISS on the cover, but it isn’t KISS performing on the discs at all, rather than one member of the band. I guess the KISS name, sells better than their individual names. Anyway, it is hard to listen to this CD, and not compare the songs to KISS, especially with Paul Stanley being the voice of KISS. There are some songs on this record that could have easily been leftover KISS tunes. There are also some songs here that feel like a departure away from the rocking tunes that made KISS famous.
The tunes that are almost KISS like are “Tonight You Belong To Me“, “Move On“, “It’s Alright“, “Love In Chains” ,and “Goodbye“. With no surprise, these are my favorites on this disc. I have always like Stanley’s vocals, and his voices soars on the majority of the tunes. Bob Kulick (older brother of former KISS guitarist, Bruce Kulick) provides some tasty guitar licks on this album.
This album had a minor hit with the ballad, “Hold Me, Touch Me“. It might be my personal taste, but this song sounds dated in 2008, and does not hold up well. This sticky sweet tune sounds like it has more in common with the Doobie Brothers than KISS. I am sure this was a tune used to get couples slow dancing in the local discotheques back in the late 70’s.
To Paul Stanley’s credit, he wrote the majority of the material on this album, with a little bit of help from Mikel Japp. The song writing is pretty good on this record. In my opinion, this release, and the Ace Frehley solo disc, are the best out of the four KISS solo releases from ’78.
If you are a KISS fan, chances are you probably own this. If you don’t, you ought to pick this up.
Track Listing:
1. Tonight You Belong To Me
2. Move On
3. Ain’t Quite Right
4. Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me?
5. Take Me Away (Together As One)
6. It’s Alright
7. Hold Me, Touch Me (Think Of Me When We’re Apart)
8. Love In Chains
9. Goodbye
Musicians on this CD are:
Paul Stanley – Lead Vocals, Background Vocals, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, E-bows, all guitars on “Hold Me, Touch Me”
Bob Kulick – Lead Guitar, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Richie Fontanta – Drums (“Move On”, Wouldn’t You Like to Know Me”, “Ain’t Quite Right”, “Tonight You Belong To Me”)
Craig Krampf – Drums (“It’s Alright”, “Hold Me,Touch Me”, “Love In Chains”, Goodbye”
Carmine Appice – Drums (“Take Me Away”)
Steve Buslowe – Bass Guitar
Eric Nelson – Bass Guitar
Doug (Gling) Katsaros – Piano
Steve Lacey – Electric Guitar
Pepe Castro, Maaria Vidal, Diana Grasselli, Miriam Naomi Valle – Background Vocals
Comments
Leave a reply to J. Edwards Cancel reply
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
No incoming links found yet.
Call me a freak if you must….But for a departure in style that award goes to “KISS – Gene Simmons”.”See You Tonite” could have been written by The Beatles. I Love this album….Paul #2, Peter #3 with Ace #4. Thats right, I am a freak, a KISS FREAK!
That’s awesome Bob, I forgot about the posters. They all had carefully designed notches and key holes bordering on the outer edges. When you had all four posters, you could put them together like a jigsaw puzzle to form one big poster. Kiss always had their finger firmly on the pulse of their fans (8-17 year old boys) and often included posters of the band with an album.
I was nine years old when these albums came out. I remember the original vinyl copies came with posters which I, as a blind person, stupidly threw away since I couldn’t see them. Anyway, yes, Ace’s album was easily the best, but Paul’s wasn’t bad either. Tonight You Belong to Me simply kicks ass. Love the vocals on that track.
I was seven years old when these came out and Peter Criss’ album was actually the very first record I ever owned so these albums hold tremendous sentimental value for me. That being said, I went on to become a huge Kiss fan and eventually owned their entire catalogue on vinyl by the time I was ten. Enough about me though, what do YOU think of me? (Joke)
The solo albums were pretty weak really, I think Ace had the best one with Paul coming in a close second, Gene and Peter rounding out the last two respectfully. They definately have their detractors, and for good reason, but Kiss wrote some great music back in the day, I mean their really old stuff, before they became a corporation.
you’re dead on…Paul and Ace had the best solo albums. Paul Stanley in general doesn’t get enuff credit!