KISSFAQ's Audio Archives: Session Players to Special Guests (2004)
Originally written for KISS Magazine, it wasn't used.

During March 1973 Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley would spend a weekend at Electric Lady Studios recording their 5 song KISS demo with Eddie Kramer. The date was long thought to have been June 1973, but Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch discovered during their research for their book “KISS Alive Forever” that the recording was actually three months earlier than had been accepted. While that recording would set KISS on the path of their career, the demo session had been financed by session work Gene and Paul had done at Electric Lady the previous year. According to Gene and Paul, “because we did those sessions, we were offered either $1000 in session money, or we can take it in free studio time. Instead of taking the money, that’s how we got enough money to do a decent demo with Eddie Kramer” (KISS Uncovered). At a time when money was tight, and better spent on equipment for their band, the two had already learned about the value of studio time.

Located on 52 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village in New York the studio was built by the legendary Jimi Hendrix who originally intended the property to be a club. Originally consisting of studio A & B the facility opened during the summer of 1970, less than a month prior to Jimi’s death though he’d been recording there for several months. By 1973 Gene and Paul weren’t strangers to Electric Lady Studios and had recorded previously there with their pre-KISS band Wicked Lester. Getting their foot in the door was a result of nagging Ron Johnsen, who was chief engineer at the studio, into coming to see the band, what resulted was more luck for the band who quickly found themselves in the studio recording on spec time (when the studio wasn’t booked by paying clients). For Gene and Paul the connection with Ron Johnsen would prove beneficial as Ron was also working with other artists. One of these included the vocalist Lyn Christopher for whom Ron was producing her debut album. Lyn had been a backing singer for Laura Nyro in the late 1960s before embarking on her own solo career with a record deal with Paramount. With Ron Johnsen producing, and a plethora of session players performing the tracks, Gene and Paul would be drafted to sing backing vocals on two tracks on the album.

The notable result of Gene and Paul’s participation on the album would be the first appearance of their adopted names on the album’s credits: Gene Klein becoming Gene Simmons and Stan Eisen becoming Paul Stanley. This would also be their first professional recording credit. Unfortunately Lyn’s career would not take off and by 1975 she had faded from view after a short stint on Granite Records. The tracks Gene and Paul sang on included “Weddin’” and “Celebrate.” “Celebrate” was originally a single song “Celebrity Ball” that would split into two segments to fit on the record and thus ended up as the last song on side A and the first song on side B. It had originally been recorded by Three Dog Night and managed to reach #15 on the singles charts in 1970. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley would be part of the “gang” backing vocals. The recording of this song is more notable in that Gene and Paul would meet one Peter Criscuola, for the first time, at the studio during the timeframe the song was being recorded. According to Peter’s brother, both he and Peter were drafted by producer Ron Johnsen to provide some background clapping on the track, making an ironic appearance of three future KISS members on the song (Gooch, Suhs – KISS Alive Forever)! Gene and Paul’s contributions to the songs are very limited, being simply “ooohs” and “aaaahs.” Peter’s contribution, as noted, was limited to clapping.

Gene and Paul have also recalled, “we were doing studio sessions, doing singing on other people’s records and doing commercials. Lyn Christopher and Tommy James, the ‘Hanky Panky’ guy. There was one Tommy James record we sang on, it was ‘Jubilation’ that came after ‘Sweet Cherry Wine’ and all his hits over here” (KISS Uncovered). Sadly, that comment has led to a certain amount of confusion since Tommy James never recorded such a song during this period, nor did he release an album. However, Tommy did release a single titled “Celebration” backed with “The Last One to Know” (Roulette 7135) in October 1972, and has since confirmed that the two “soon to be masked musicians” were on backing vocals on the track. This song seems to have nothing to do with Ron Johnsen, so it is more than likely that Gene and Paul got drafted while hanging around the studio.

Gene and Paul also recorded backing vocals for an artist named Mr. Gee Whiz, of which nothing is known apart from the fact that the album was never released. Gene and Paul have also long been rumored to have sung on Gregg Diamond’s “Five Dollar Shoes” album. This is certainly possible, but the rumor currently remains unsubstantiated. The Gregg Diamond album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in the time period Gene and Paul are known to have been around the studio, and was engineered by Eddie Kramer. This Gregg Diamond would make more of an impact in the disco craze of the late-1970s with his studio band, Bionic Boogie providing yet another of those odd “KISS Konnections.” Eric Carr’s pre-KISS band, “Mother Nature / Father Time” would be hired to make appearances for the band which to all intents did not exist outside of the session players Gregg used to record his music. Another Gregg Diamond/KISS connection comes via Bruce Kulick who would tour with the Andrea True Connection during 1975/6. Gregg wrote her 1976 disco hit “More, More, More.” Little, also, is known about the commercial work that Peter, Paul, and Gene have long been suggested to have done though AMC trucks is one manufacturer mentioned that they recorded work for.

Gene and Paul’s recording work at Electic Lady began with an attempt to create an album with Wicked Lester. This would become a drawn out, experimental, and painful process which began in the late summer of 1971. Because the album would essentially be recorded during the odd hours that the studio was not booked by paying clients the process dragged on for nearly a year. Completed mix reels indicate a date of August 1972. Coupled with the recording schedule, or lack thereof, was the “issue” which developed with the band’s lead guitarist. It has long been suggested that Wicked Lester’s record label did not care for Stephen Coronel, resulting in his being replaced by session guitarist Ron Leejack. Material would also be a problem for the band and Ron Johnsen would purchase material for the band to record. What resulted from the recording sessions was an eclectic mix of material. For collectors, though, there are at least three versions of the Wicked Lester recordings: Early recordings with Stephen Coronel on guitar, recordings with Ron Leejack guitar overdubs, and the 1976 CBS remix version of the completed album. There are some alternative recordings which border on demos such as Gene singing “Too Many Mondays” or the enigmatic “Long Long Road,” another song not written by the band, sung by Paul.

Prior to finally uniting in the band Rainbow in early 1971, both Gene and Paul had done some recording work. However, this could hardly be considered professional as both simply obtained studio time, if they used a studio at all, to record demos or simply recorded their respective bands live in the studio. For both of them 1970 had been the watershed year where they became serious about trying to make it in the music business. According to KISS’ box set liner notes Paul Stanley recorded material, in the form of “Stop, Look To Listen” when he was just 15 as a member of the band Uncle Joe. The band was completed with Neal Teeman on drums and Matt Rael on guitar. The band would be “on-again, off-again” throughout the period 1966-70 as Paul left to play with “Post War Baby Boom,” usually returning to the band after a short while. Neal had grown up with Paul, having attended school with him from the 3rd grade. According to Neal, “The band was one of those on-and-off situations. We’d be together, break up, reform. There was a lot of things going on in our lives at that time. We also were never all that happy with the name of the band so it was always changing. I think we were Ratabagus before we became Incubus, but the story of how we became Uncle Joe was this: Stan’s dad’s boss had t-shirts made with his face printed on them for a company picnic and got us all some. We decided to wear these shirts when the band played and since this boss’s name was ‘Joe’ we called the band Uncle Joe. Nothing to do with Stalin at all” (JG).

The box set liner notes indicate that the recording was done at Mayfair Recording Studios in New York City. The liner notes also indicate that Neal had been working as a clean-up boy at the studio, which resulted in them being able to get studio time, Neal recounts a different situation that puts the recording in a different light: “Around 1967 I started to work part time in a recording studio (Century Sound). While there I became friendly with Jay and the Americans [JATA]. In 1970 while I was in my senior year of high school JATA got a big record deal and leased Mayfair Studios. They hired me to be their engineer (no I was not a clean-up boy there or at any other studio ever!!!!) and I worked there Mon thru Fri, from 3 to 11pm with them (for $5/hr). Part of the deal I had with them was that I could use the studio for my own stuff whenever JATA were not using it. I used to set up the room so Uncle Joe could rehearse and I’d let the tape roll without anybody at the controls. That is how we did those tapes. We later dubbed in the vocals but Stan would just put something down in one take. I don’t think he really knew how to sing well in a studio yet. When I saw him do vocal overdubs years later at Electric Lady there was a big difference in the way he could sing” (JG). This, like the recording time Wicked Lester would get on spec, would be a matter of luck.

During this first foray into the recording studio, Paul would write this song in addition to singing the lead vocal. The comments of Neal Teeman would seem to indicate that other material was recorded by Uncle Joe in the studio: “We were just practicing. Later we would listen back to the tapes to evaluate our playing and the arrangements. We were really learning then. We didn’t know what we were doing” (JG). What sort of material the band recorded is unclear, but it is likely to have been the band running through the sort of covers they usually performed or simply jamming. The piece was probably recorded closer to 1970 than 1966 due to Neal’s account of his studio work. From Neil’s comments it would seem more likely that Paul’s “Never Living, Never Loving,” recorded around 1967/8 with Post War Baby Boom, is actually his first properly recorded song. This group also featured a female lead vocalist, Maxine, and the song was recorded as a demo during a recording session arranged by an A&R representative in an attempt to get a recording deal with CBS/Columbia Records (Sharp, Ken – Goldmine). Written by Paul Stanley, it’s not clear whether Paul or Maxine, if either, sang the lead vocal since it has been mentioned that she lost her voice around the time of the recording session. It is possible that the song remained an instrumental. During 1970 Matt Rael would be replaced on guitar by Stephen Coronel, who had been introduced to the band by friend and bassist Marty Cohen, who happened to play in a band with a guy called Gene Klein.

Gene wasn’t as fortunate as Paul to have a band mate who had access to a recording studio in such a way. Gene’s early demos were mainly a result of using future Wicked Lester keyboard player, Brooke Ostander’s, home recording equipment. Previously, Gene would bring his band down to New York City to record in any cheap studio. This would be the case with one of his earliest recorded pieces, “Leeta,” which was recorded at Sanders Recording Studios. By early 1971 Gene would be shopping around a tape of demos, without any drums, “having to do with the clarity of the tape,” he had recorded. Some minor interest would result in his putting together a band which included Stephen Coronel. Stephen would bring Paul Stanley in and the circle would be complete.

During 1972/3, allegedly, Peter Shepley and Mike Brand, the former leaders of Peter Criss’ pre-KISS band Chelsea, recorded an album for Dick James Music (DJM). The completed album would hit a stone wall after costing some $100,000 to produce, but eventually Shepley/Brand signed with Paramount Records through Louis Ragusa, who had moved from DJM to Paramount. According to one source, “He believed in something, maybe just the fact that he had invested so much in the project. He made the main promotion guy listen and he liked it.” Unfortunately, before the album could be released, Paramount closed its record division.

What were the recordings? Apparently, Brand/Shepley had transformed their sound from folk to a more mainstream rock sound. The album, titled “Death Rattle and Roll” remains unreleased, if it even exists at all. It was allegedly recorded at the Record Plant, Bell Sound, and Electric Lady Studios. More importantly to the story of KISS, Peter Criss returned to the fold with his prior band-mates and “played on a number of tracks.” Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley would also allegedly do session work on tracks on the record dating this to the period between Peter hooking up with them and the transition into KISS indicating that Gene and Paul continued to do session work on other projects whenever the opportunity arose. This means that there are possibly other recordings, apart from “Lyn Christopher,” on which the three appeared prior to KISS. No song titles are currently known.

Once KISS became a viable product the band members did not go out of their way to do session work for other bands. In the case of Gene Simmons he would usually get involved in other bands from the other side of the recording studio, behind the console as producer. Gene would be the first KISS member to work, musically in any case, outside of KISS having produced Van Halen’s original demo in late 1976 and taking on the band Virgin in 1978/9. Memories seem to be very poor when discussing the demos produced by Gene Simmons for Van Halen in late 1976. Gene has variably stated that there were 12 or 15 demos, some of which would later be used on the band’s debut album. Fortunately, 10 perfect sound quality demos from those sessions do circulate. These include: “Baby, Don’t Leave Me Alone,” “Big Trouble,” “House Of Pain,” “Let’s Get Rockin,’” “On Fire,” “Put Out the Lights,” “Runnin’ With The Devil,” “Somebody Get Me a Doctor,” “She’s the Woman,” and “Woman In Love.” Some tracks were recorded at the Village Recorder Studios in Los Angeles. Some later guitar solos and overdubs were laid down at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

Only Van Halen would prove successful, though Gene’s involvement with the band ended when he couldn’t interest Bill Aucoin or Casablanca in them. Virgin, on the other hand, disappeared leaving a half-recorded and unreleased album, even though they were managed by Bill Aucoin. The five-piece band included Dirk Etienne (vocals), Tom Moody (guitar), and Chuck Billings (drums), and had some assistance from former KISS-producer Kenny Kerner. Kenny recalled, “I used to look at the charts every week, and it dawned on me that every year there’d be another teen phenomenon, but never a legitimate, self-contained teen band that would record their own songs, play them in concerts, and play their own instruments. I saw these guys rehearsing at Cherokee Studios, and they looked incredible” (After Dark Magazine, 1979).

The suggestion that the band simply couldn’t play, long heard as a reason the project fell apart, seems unlikely since they had already toured with Shaun Cassidy. Chuck also played drums on some Gene Simmons demos at the time, one of which would be recorded by KISS for the “Dynasty” album. At the same time Gene was producing Virgin, Paul was working with New England – one can nearly make the immediate connection that there might have been a bit of extracurricular competition going on. By the time the band broke up in 1980 they had managed to release just one single, dating to prior to Gene’s involvement with the band, “Here Comes My Baby” backed with “Get Out Of My Car” (Warner Bros/Curb, 1978). Chuck has recently played in a band with 70s teen-idol Leif Garrett – the two had originally met at a party during the filming of KISS’ “KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park” in 1978 – in the rock band F8. It is likely that the Virgin album would have included the following tracks: “You Got Me By The Heart,” “Tired Of Being Alone,” “I Love You Any Way,” “Get Out Of My Car,” “Candy” (written by Kenny Kerner and Dirk Etienne), “All Over You,” and “Here Comes My Baby” (a Cat Stevens cover). This is the sum total on material copy written by Rock Steady.

During 1978 Paul Stanley would become the first KISS member to make a credited guest appearance on another artist’s work. He would record some guitar work, including the solo, and sing some background vocals on Alessi’s album “Driftin’.” This song, “You’re Out Of Love,” would be released in August 1978. Alessi was an AOR-styled light pop band whose primary members were identical twin brothers Billy (Keyboards/Vocals) and Bobby (Guitar/Vocals) Alessi who were from West Hempstead, New York. Some have accused them of being Bee Gees clones, though their musical style would be closer to Journey or Rush with more of a 70’s dance beat rather than the full-on disco which jumps into mind when considering the Bee Gees.

1978 also saw Paul scoring the first KISS member co-write on a non-KISS album. In doing so Paul would pick up a song-writing partner with whom he’d work for much of the 1980s. This song, “The Fight,” would be written by Paul and the now legendary Desmond Child. According to Desmond, “I met Paul Stanley after a show of Desmond Child and Rouge. He was curious so he came over to see us play. We got together and he suggested we write songs together. First we wrote a song for my next album which I was working on at that time. Then he suggested to co-write a song for KISS, so we wrote ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You.’ I was very surprised by the success of that song but also very happy ‘cause it helped me to get through many hard, lean times” (Desmond-Child.com). First though, Paul would recruit the female singers from Rouge to appear on his solo album, which was being recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Paul wouldn’t appear on the Rouge recording of “The Fight,” but the song would provide the song-writing genesis for a successful partnership that would last for more than a decade.

By 1979 Paul would follow Gene’s lead and start producing other artists. This would lead to him producing the debut album from a new Boston band, New England, for Infinity Records. This band had originally been discovered by KISS manager Bill Aucoin and had opened up for KISS on some dates during the 1979 “Return Of KISS” Tour in support of the “Dynasty” album. In his biography, New England’s drummer, Hirsh Gardner describes how Paul got involved in a brief vignette, “The boys were offered a choice of any record producer in the industry, as the record company was really into the band and basically all they said was, ‘OK, who do you want?’ Aucoin suggested Paul Stanley of KISS, who wasn’t really a consideration at that point, but the band was open-minded and said, ‘Sure, send him up to Boston for rehearsal.’ That was it. Done deal. Paul flies in, great vibes, knows the board well and production starts” (Dirtywater.com). Paul would sing backing vocals on the track, “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose,” which would become a radio hit for the band, reaching the Top-40 at the same time KISS’ “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” was on the charts.

As KISS found itself in trouble with personnel issues both Paul and Gene’s external work decreased. For the better part of 5 years from 1979 neither member did much. Paul would apparently do some uncredited backing vocals on “Falling In Love,” a song recorded for Bob Kulick’s Balance project with Peppy Castro and Doug Katsaros. One long rumored Gene appearance should be discounted at this point. It has long been believed that Gene appeared on Cher’s “Git Down (Guitar Groupie)” originally released on Cher’s first album on Casablanca Records, “Take Me Home” (NBLP-7133, 1979). This uncredited appearance was considered as being something of a give back for her appearing on his solo album the previous year. However, in a similar manner to Cher’s guest appearance on Gene’s “Living In Sin,” the brief shouting voice heard shouting on the track is not Gene. Gene has commented that while he was in the studio while Cher was recording the album that he did not record with her.

By 1983, with KISS attempting to redefine themselves visually and sonically, Gene took the leap into a variety of other fields including film. Reestablishing himself as a producer led to him finding a new home for many of the songs he’d written but not used – on the albums of artists he was producing. Since he didn’t record on the songs with the bands, in most cases, it is enough to simply name some of these bands: Keel, Black ‘N Blue, EZO, and Doro. Few of the bands would actually make it in the industry. During the 1980s Gene would essentially only appear on two non-KISS songs: “It Takes A Man Like Me To Be A Woman Like Me” which was used in Gene’s 1985 movie “Never To Young To Die” and “Nasty Nasty” from Black ‘N Blue’s 1986 album of the same title. “Never To Young To Die” can barely be considered a song since it was simply used in a concert scene in the movie which stared Gene as a schizophrenic hermaphrodite named Velvet Von Ragner. This song was based on an old Wayne (later Jayne) County song “It Takes A Man Like Me To Find A Woman Like Me,” which had been performed by Wayne’s band Queen Elizabeth. KISS had played shows with Wayne during their club days in 1973, and had appeared in a radio interview with her/him about “Glam Rock” in late-1974. “Nasty Nasty,” on the other hand, simply features Gene briefly as part of the “spit” at beginning of the song. While he’d co-written the song he’d later re-write it, retaining the core riff, as “Domino” for KISS’ “Revenge” album.

One non-KISS album not only features Gene playing the majority of the bass under the pseudonym ‘Reginald Van Helsing,’ but also includes Eric Carr, Paul Stanley, Vinnie Vincent, and Ace Frehley making “appearances.” The surname of Gene’s pseudonym some fans of the horror genre will immediately recognize as being from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” character Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. There have been suggestions, stemming from an Wendy O. Williams interview in the French magazine “Enfer” that the bassist was actually a well known guitarist who had also played bass on a post-1985 Sammy Hagar solo album. That comment would indicate that the bassist was one Edward Van Halen. However, Eddie’s involvement with the project never materialized and he had simply been mentioned as a possible guest player during the early stages of the project. It should be noted that the “W.O.W.” album was Gene’s first released extra-KISS production role. He would set the precedent of controlling who played on the recording and use material from his own catalog of songs when he felt that the band’s material didn’t measure up. In the case of “It’s My Life” and “Legends Never Die” Gene would also willingly use KISS recorded material and overdub Wendy’s vocals. As a result Eric Carr would be credited on drums on “Legends Never Die” even though he wasn’t involved in the actual recording of this track with Wendy at all. According to Eric, “the track on Wendy’s album (drums and acoustic guitar) was recorded in ‘82 as part of ‘Creatures....’ So I didn’t actually go into the studio for Wendy. Gene used that basic track and built on it” (KISS Klassics #9). Paul Stanley would make a guest appearance on “Ready To Rock” and Gene would persuade Ace to spend an hour recording a stellar 30 second signature piece for “Bump And Grind.”

During 1986 KISS declined to actively participate in the Ronnie James Dio “Hear ‘N Aid” rock charity project. Instead, they donated a live recording of “Heaven’s On Fire” for inclusion on the album. This recording had previously been issued in Japan and Europe as a B-side on KISS singles released in support of “Asylum.” By the late 1980s Gene’s output, in terms of appearances on other artist’s recordings, had dropped to an almost irrelevant level with him being featured on the “Decline Of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years” soundtrack uttering a one-liner: “Sex… and rock ‘n roll, the American way.” At this time Gene’s external projects had overtaken the contribution he was making to KISS. Paul Stanley was left to hold the KISS fort, though he too was starting to look outside of KISS by 1988. The following year he would become the first active member of KISS to go out on a solo tour. Paul would also consider outside production roles, most notably production of Poison’s second studio album, which he’d eventually have to decline due to his commitment to his own musical house.

Paul would continue to make occasional appearances on other band’s recordings. In 1989 he’d guest on backing vocals on “Save Up All Your Tears,” written by Desmond Child and Diane Warren, on Robin Beck’s “Trouble Or Nothing” album. This album was produced by Desmond Child, which may help explain how the song ended up on this album, apart from the fact that several Child compositions were recorded by Robin including a recording of Paul’s “Hide Your Heart.” Some of the other background vocalists on the album included Myriam Valle, Maria Vidal, Richard T. Bear, and Desmond Child who turn up elsewhere in KISStory. Robin later married James Christian (ex-House of Lords) and released two further albums before leaving the music scene.

In 1989 another Desmond Child project brought KISS members onto non-KISS releases. The movie “The Dudes Of Wrath” featured a song named “Shocker” which was written by Jean Beauvoir, Desmond Child and Guy Mann-Dude. Paul would share lead vocals with Desmond on the track. The rest of the band, the “The Dudes Of Wrath,” would include Vivian Campbell and Guy Mann-Dude sharing guitar duties, Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot & Whitesnake) on bass, and Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe) on drums. Future and past KISS song co-writers Kane Roberts and Michael Anthony would be among the backing vocalists. The soundtrack would also feature “Sword & Stone,” a Paul Stanley, Desmond Child, and Bruce Kulick composition which had been demoed by KISS around 1987. The song would be recorded by the German band Bonfire.

The 1990s saw little activity from the band in terms of studio output. Side projects and the Reunion kept external appearances sparse for Paul, and non existent for Gene. During 1994 KISS would act as Garth’s backing band for his recording of “Hard Luck Woman” which was included on the “KISS My Ass” tribute album. Gene and Paul would join Garth in Nashville in March 1994 to record the song. The two core members of the band would also appear on Anthrax’s cover of “Love Her All I Can” which was originally released on the band’s 1994 “Black Lodge” EP. Gene and Paul sing on the verses of the song. Anthrax are famed for covering a number of KISS songs including “Watchin’ You” (1995), “Parasite” (Live ‘91, 1994), and Parasite (1988) while also covering other big acts including Alice Cooper, the Sex Pistols, and Black Sabbath.

Paul, on the other hand, would have a reasonably busy 1990s starting off the decade continuing to write with Jean Beauvoir, Stan Bush, Eddie Money, and other new artists. In one case, “The Game Of Love,” which was written by Paul Stanley and Bob Held, this song would be one of the last demoed with Eric Carr on drums and was recorded at Track Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Bruce would play guitar on the demo. In 1998 the band Garbo Talks, which included Bob Held, would resurrect this demo, and others, and overdub additional parts to complete the recording. Paul would also co-write material with bands such as War Babies and Wild Side, though these acts wouldn’t break as grunge took over the music scene. In one rather odd guest appearance Paul play bass on Japanese artist Kuni’s demo of “Brite Lites” which was resurrected for use on Kuni’s 2000 album, “Fucked Up!” (J-Disc ZACB-1027). Kuni Takeuchi is a Japanese guitar hero who had released solo albums in the 1980s, the second of which, “Looking For Action” (1988), had been produced by former Vinnie Vincent Invasion bassist Dana Strum.

Paul also sang “guest background vocals” on “Johnny’s Got A Mind Of His Own,” a recording released on House Of Lord’s “Demons Down” album in 1992. The song was written by James Christian, Mark Baker, and Gregg Giuffria. Amusingly, considering the title of the album, this would be the band’s first release following the demise of their previous record label: $immons Records. While not specifically credited to any single song, Paul’s pipes are very obvious on this track! Another older Stanley collaboration would finally see release in 1993. Co-written by Paul Stanley and Geoff Lieb (Jeff Paris), Paul would sing backing vocals on the recording of “Jump The Gun.” The two had originally written and demoed the song back in the 1980s and included it on a publishing tape that also included other Paul Stanley compositions, such as “Don’t Let Go.” Jeff would release the song on his 1993 “Lucky This Time” album. Moving back to production Paul would also co-write “Winterland” for Jean Beauvoir’s “Crown Of Thorns” project. He’d produce this track, along with others on the album: “Hike It Up,” “Dying For Love,” “Standing In The Corner For Ya,” and “House Of Love.” The initially shelved 1993 “Crown Of Thorns” album would finally be released in some international markets in April 1994. One additional Stanley co-write, “Dirty Walk, Dirty Talk” was not used. It would eventually be released in demo form on the 1996 albums “21 Thorns” and on the bonus EP which accompanied copies of “Breakthrough.” A full band acoustic recording of “Hard Luck Woman” would be released on the 1999 CD “Bootleg: Live On-Air” (Restaurant Records 1008-2). This 3:16 track would be an acoustic version recorded live on the air on Boston’s WAAF’s “The Usual Suspects” Radio Show on July 1, 1993. Also played on air at the time were “Cold Gin” and “Lick It Up” which were not issued on the CD. This radio appearance was in conjunction with the promotional tour undertaken for the “Alive III” album release.

While KISS were recording their “Carnival Of Souls” album both Paul and Bruce Kulick would end up working on another of producer Curt Cuomo’s projects, female vocalist Lenita Erickson. Paul would co-write “You’re Gonna Be The One” with Tommy Girvin, and Curt Cuomo and play guitar on the track. Lenita had been a member of the girl band “Hells Belles” with former member of Vixen, Roxy Petrucci. Vixen had opened for KISS during the “Hot In The Shade” tour. To support the album, Bruce Kulick would tour as her guitarist in 1997. Most recently Paul has co-written music for the German band Silbermond’s song “Mach’s Dir Selbst.” Silbermond are a female-fronted German pop/rock band and the song would be the band’s first single released in March 2004. This single would enter the German charts at #56. The band would shoot a video for the song which would feature guitarist Thomas Stolle wearing a KISS T-shirt in honor of the collaboration with Paul.

KISS members have turned up on a variety of non-related projects in one way or another. Most famous of these “references” would be Cheap Trick’s homage to the band on their 1978 song “Surrender.” Cheap Trick had toured with KISS on their “Love Gun” tour in 1977 and included the classic lyric in their song, which was written by Rick Nielsen: “Whatever happened to all this season’s losers of the year? / Every time I got to thinking, where’d they disappear? / When I woke up, Mom and Dad are rolling on the couch / Rolling numbers, rock and rollin,’ got my KISS records out.” Jimmy Buffet followed with his “Manana” song singing in the third chorus: “So please don’t say manana if you don’t mean it (don’t mean it) / I have done your lines for so very long / Don’t try to describe a Kiss concert if you’ve never seen it / Don’t ever forget that you just may wind up being gonged.” The sampling and musical adaptation utilized by rap artists has also seen KISS material featured. One of the first officially released rap songs to feature a KISS sample, “Funky Cold Medina,” used part of “Christine Sixteen” in the 1989 hit for Tone-Loc. Leila K would use a loop of Eric Carr’s drums from “I Love It Loud” on her 1995 song “C’mon Now.” Most recently Madison Park used part of “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” on their 2001 song “Feelin’ Funky.”

This series continues with the pre-KISS recordings and guest appearances of Peter Criss and Ace Frehley…

About the author:
Julian Gill is the webmaster of the KISSFAQ website which delves into the history of band and chronicles some of the most obscure KISS factoids. Julian is also the author of two privately published non-sanctioned KISS books: “The KISS Album Focus” (2002, out of print) and “The KISS & Related Recordings Focus” (2004).

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