CHAPTER 12 - Lyn Christopher & Sessions

 

12.01. Celebration (Tommy James, 1972)

Produced by Tommy James and Bob King. Recorded at Electric Lady Studios, New York City, New York; Engineered by Ralph Moss. Gene and Paul recalled, “At that point 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. 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). The statement about the Tommy James song has resulted in a certain amount of confusion, since Tommy didn’t release an album or any single with this title during the period 1971-4. Furthermore, Tommy didn’t even release an album between 1971 and 1976. During this time his releases would be limited to singles. However, Tommy did release a single titled “Celebration” backed with “The Last One to Know” (Roulette 7135) in October 1972.

 

The single was hardly a major success, as it would only manage to reach #95 on the Billboard charts. It would reach a slightly better #75 (11/11/72) on the Cashbox charts during a short 4-week stay. The song bears a striking similarity to the song Gene and Paul sang in the “Exposed” video, when they’re chanting “celebration, celebration,” and can easily be confused by having a similar title to the track that they recorded with Lyn Christopher around the same time. Regardless of the seeming confusion on their part, the two did do a session with Tommy, and Tommy proudly confirms the fact that they appear on backing vocals on the recording. The single has most notably been included on Tommy’s 1989 Rhino compilation “The Solo Years: 1970-81.” This compilation included all 16 of Tommy’s solo singles, including those which were only available on 45 format. Coincidentally, Tommy would be signed to the Casablanca-distributed Millennium label from 1979-81. Tommy is better known for other hits, with his band the Shondels, such as “Mony Mony,” “Crimson & Clover,” and “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which have all been successfully covered by other artists.

 

12.02. Weddin’ (Lyn Christopher, 1972)

Written by Patti Dahlstrom and Robbie Leff around 1969/70 this song would originally be recorded by Lyn Christopher in September 1972 at Electric Lady Studios. Patti would be the lyricist and write the music for the chorus, while Robbie would write the music for the bridge and verses. This song was originally released on Patti Dahlstrom’s self-titled (MCA/Uni 73127) debut album in 1972, and the song had been among several she published in 1971. Both Patti and Robbie had moved to the West Coast, separately, from Houston where they had been high-school friends. They had started writing songs together in the mid-1960s, like many other musicians of the era inspired by the music of The Beatles. Two of the session players on the Lyn Christopher album, but not on this track - Terry Wilson (guitars/bass, who ironically had been in a band called Blackwell) and Tony Braunagal (drums/percussion) - had been in the Houston band Bloontz with lead singer Andy Chapman. Andy had been a childhood friend of Robbie Leff. Bloontz had made one self-titled album (Evolution/Stereo Dimension 3020, 1973) with Ron Johnsen. Their material had caught his ear and he’d flown them to New York from Texas to make the record. The three would later be members of Back Street Crawler with the legendary Paul Kossoff.

 

The musicians on the recording of “Weddin’” would be Kirk Hamilton on bass, Bruce Rebillot on piano, Hugh McCracken on guitar, and Alan Schwartzberg on drums. 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, 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. 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. One song from the album, “Take Me With You,” was released as a single in the United States and would later become a popular piece for musicians to sample. Lyn’s version of “Weddin’” runs 2:55.

 

12.03. Celebrate I & II (Lyn Christopher, 1972)

Written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon in 1968 and originally called “Celebrity Ball.” “Celebrate” was originally a single song that was 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. 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 Peter Criscuola, for the first time, that day at Electric Lady Studios.

 

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.” This song had originally been recorded by Three Dog Night where it managed to reach #15 on the singles charts in 1970. The song has also been covered by Uriah Heep whose live album provided some inspiration for the packaging of KISS’ “Alive!” “Celebrate I” runs 1:44 while “Celebrate II” runs 1:50.

 

12.04. Unknown Songs (Mr. Gee Whiz, 1972)

Because of their connections with Ron Johnsen at Electric Lady, Gene and Paul sang backing vocals for an artist called Mr. Gee Whiz during 1972. The album was never released according to Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs in their “KISS Alive Forever” book.

 

12.05. Commercials (1972)

Gene and Paul, and later Peter, would sing on commercials during 1972. Details are sketchy of which commercials they did, but AMC (Sharp, Ken – Goldmine), the vehicle manufacturer, is supposed to be one.