Best Of Solo Albums CD

[Australia1980]

So IDK if Best Of Solo Albums was ever released on CD, but I recently came across my cassette from back in the day and decided to make a CD of my own. I had a hard time finding good scans of the vinyl, so I opted to make my own cover. For the front, I took someone's digital rendering and replaced the images by shrinking down some very high quality scans that I had of the actual solo albums and pasting them in. Also, I pasted in a logo from a scan of a vinyl reissue.



The back cover...I just took a decent scan and cleaned it up and pasted in the Phonogram logo from another scan because i thought it was cool. Also I moved a couple things and cropped the edges so that the artwork/tracks end up bigger when printed. Also I numbered each track because it's for CD.



Anyway, I ended up spending some time on these, so I figured I'd share. If you're inclined to make your own Best Of Solo Albums CD, they'll give you a head start.

https://imgur.com/a/ZxfjLnJ

PS was Best Of Solo Albums ever released on CD?

[Den Dennis]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=136355

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Good job! Here's a nice version with original logo:







I'm partial to the Australian release with different member configuration and no red border. But decent scans are hard to find:

[Mr Slow]

Good work! Is that song list your own doing?
The Australian release of BOTSA I had featured several different songs.

[savage_dreams]

Good work! Is that song list your own doing?
The Australian release of BOTSA I had featured several different songs.

Different track listings for different counties.
http://www.kissmonster.com/discography/bestsolo.php

[Mr Slow]

Good work! Is that song list your own doing?
The Australian release of BOTSA I had featured several different songs.

Different track listings for different counties.
http://www.kissmonster.com/discography/bestsolo.php

Ah thanks for that. So this is the Euro version. See You In Your Dreams threw me for a loop. I never knew it made any of the versions.

[Australia1980]

Thanks for the positive feedback, glad you like.

I guess the problem I kept seeing was the same problem that plagues most solo album scans. Too dark on most, with the color and contrast boosted to "juice things up". But a lot gets compromised when you do things like that. The detail gets lost because there's too much contrast. Eraldo Carugati spent a lot of time on little things which is why those album covers (the 12", in 1978) were so amazing. If you compare the 2nd scan posted with mine you will see what I mean. Especially the hair. And the left side of Gene's face, etc.

PS I have a question. The 2014 KISS vinyl reissues of the solo albums...were they faithful reproductions? or do they look like the 1997 CD remasters (too dark, color and contrast boosted, detail lost)?

[Hi I'm Witz]

Do you guys think the right songs were chosen for this compilation? I know I wouldve picked quite a different song list.

[tasmith72]

Awesome job! I did my own a few years ago, I included 20 songs for mine

[Forevertj]

Man, I remember that now. I think I might even had it. I don't feel like looking through my collection. It's all over the place.

[Tail of a hurricane]

It was my introduction to Kiss.

[Four-Who-Are-One]

I guess the problem I kept seeing was the same problem that plagues most solo album scans. Too dark on most, with the color and contrast boosted to "juice things up". But a lot gets compromised when you do things like that. The detail gets lost because there's too much contrast. Eraldo Carugati spent a lot of time on little things which is why those album covers (the 12", in 1978) were so amazing. If you compare the 2nd scan posted with mine you will see what I mean. Especially the hair. And the left side of Gene's face, etc

I admire your quality control. Don't suppose you'd consider turning your hand to the Australian version?

[Australia1980]

I guess the problem I kept seeing was the same problem that plagues most solo album scans. Too dark on most, with the color and contrast boosted to "juice things up". But a lot gets compromised when you do things like that. The detail gets lost because there's too much contrast. Eraldo Carugati spent a lot of time on little things which is why those album covers (the 12", in 1978) were so amazing. If you compare the 2nd scan posted with mine you will see what I mean. Especially the hair. And the left side of Gene's face, etc

I admire your quality control. Don't suppose you'd consider turning your hand to the Australian version?

Ask and you [sometimes] shall receive...

There were problems because I had to take the title from the one you posted but that was way too small so I had to enlarge it. The result is that the title is blurred. And it's still undersized, I only enlarged the title at 150% because if I made it full size it would have looked even blurrier

Also, I had to darken eveything to match the title's black background. Much detail is lost, but a lot does remain. Also nothing is in the right place because I had no template of any kind to work with (unlike the red one). I just winged it. I do think it's better than what's on available on Google. Not as good as the red one I did though.

So here it is. I suspect that it might look pretty good when printed at CD size.

[Australia1980]

Awesome job! I did my own a few years ago, I included 20 songs for mine

Seriously nice work dude.

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Ask and you [sometimes] shall receive...

There were problems because I had to take the title from the one you posted but that was way too small so I had to enlarge it. The result is that the title is blurred. And it's still undersized, I only enlarged the title at 150% because if I made it full size it would have looked even blurrier

Also, I had to darken eveything to match the title's black background. Much detail is lost, but a lot does remain. Also nothing is in the right place because I had no template of any kind to work with (unlike the red one). I just winged it. I do think it's better than what's on available on Google. Not as good as the red one I did though.

So here it is. I suspect that it might look pretty good when printed at CD size.

Awesome work!! Thank you kindly.

[Australia1980]

Ask and you [sometimes] shall receive...

There were problems because I had to take the title from the one you posted but that was way too small so I had to enlarge it. The result is that the title is blurred. And it's still undersized, I only enlarged the title at 150% because if I made it full size it would have looked even blurrier

Also, I had to darken eveything to match the title's black background. Much detail is lost, but a lot does remain. Also nothing is in the right place because I had no template of any kind to work with (unlike the red one). I just winged it. I do think it's better than what's on available on Google. Not as good as the red one I did though.

So here it is. I suspect that it might look pretty good when printed at CD size.

Awesome work!! Thank you kindly.

Glad you like it. I took a minute to move things around and change the cropping. The positioning of everything is now really close to the positioning on the one you posted. I figured out that in slideshow mode they would both appear at the exact same size and I could toggle back and forth between the two and really see what's what.

Hopefully the one you posted is the way the actual album is...

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Hopefully the one you posted is the way the actual album is...

Actually I hate to say it, but I just noticed the original release has their portraits bigger/closer together:






But you've done enough! Thanks again

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Also a few hi-res pics from the iTunes Store. May or may not be as good as the ones you have...

[Hi I'm Witz]

I never get tired of looking at those images! Those are such amazing portraits!!

I asked earlier but got no response. What do you guys think about the songs that were chosen for The Best of Solos compilation? I feel like they really missed the mark in terms of choosing the best material from each solo album. If I were doing this compilation I would have chosen the following songs from each...

ACE:

1. Rip It Out
2. Snow Blind
3. New York Groove (this is not my 3rd favorite song from Ace's album but considering the success of the single you can't really leave it off.)

Gene:

1. Radioactive
2. Tunnel of Love
3. See You Tonight

Paul:

1. Tonight You Belong To Me
2. It's Alright
3. Wouldn't You Like To Know Me

Peter:

1. I'm Gonna Love You
2. Hooked On Rock and Roll
3. Easy Thing

[Four-Who-Are-One]

I didn’t buy the individual solo albums for literally decades after I got this so I never questioned the Aussie track list.

After hearing Ace’s album I agree there were lots of other strong tracks on there. And yes, See You Tonight is a good ‘un from Gene, but Mr Make Believe is probably my favourite track from all four.

[tasmith72]

Awesome job! I did my own a few years ago, I included 20 songs for mine

Seriously nice work dude.

Thanks, man!

[Australia1980]

Hopefully the one you posted is the way the actual album is...

Actually I hate to say it, but I just noticed the original release has their portraits bigger/closer together:






But you've done enough! Thanks again

No, mine is way off from the actual album. I suspected that everything was too small, but didn't know what was what.

So I fixed it again. I couldn't leave it the way it was. If you're going to do something, do it right. Everything is real close now, and the titling is almost the correct size.

Anyway, here it is. i think this thing came out pretty good after all.

[Australia1980]

Also a few hi-res pics from the iTunes Store. May or may not be as good as the ones you have...

These are really nice! Thanks for posting them. I think they're pretty comparable to what I have, but they're bigger!

PS i-Tunes...do you need to sign up and have an account to get album artwork?

[Australia1980]

Okay this really is the final version here, I pasted in new names because they were blurry on mine and because the newest pic you posted had good ones.

[Australia1980]

Replaced blurry titling with the one from your post. All done now

[Australia1980]

final final.

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Awesome!!! Thanks for your tireless efforts

And you don't need to be an iTunes member to get the artwork, you can search for it here: https://bendodson.com/projects/itunes-a ... index.html

(If you search under Germany it even has the alternative logo!)

[Australia1980]

Awesome!!! Thanks for your tireless efforts

And you don't need to be an iTunes member to get the artwork, you can search for it here: https://bendodson.com/projects/itunes-a ... index.html

(If you search under Germany it even has the alternative logo!)

Glad you like it. I actually printed it last night, put it in the CD I made, I guess as an alt. cover. It prints real nice, the overblown contrast actually translates pretty well to the cardstock. Same with the bright red in the Euro version I did

Thanks for the link!! what a great site

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Here's another higher-res version, not as high-res as then individual ones, but interested to see how you feel about the quality...

[Easy Catman]

Here's another higher-res version, not as high-res as then individual ones, but interested to see how you feel about the quality...

This would have been a great cover for the recent vinyl box set nice!

[Four-Who-Are-One]

Cancel that, repost!

[acevog75]

So IDK if Best Of Solo Albums was ever released on CD, but I recently came across my cassette from back in the day and decided to make a CD of my own. I had a hard time finding good scans of the vinyl, so I opted to make my own cover. For the front, I took someone's digital rendering and replaced the images by shrinking down some very high quality scans that I had of the actual solo albums and pasting them in. Also, I pasted in a logo from a scan of a vinyl reissue.



The back cover...I just took a decent scan and cleaned it up and pasted in the Phonogram logo from another scan because i thought it was cool. Also I moved a couple things and cropped the edges so that the artwork/tracks end up bigger when printed. Also I numbered each track because it's for CD.



Anyway, I ended up spending some time on these, so I figured I'd share. If you're inclined to make your own Best Of Solo Albums CD, they'll give you a head start.

https://imgur.com/a/ZxfjLnJ

PS was Best Of Solo Albums ever released on CD?

That track listing isn’t what I would call the best of the solo albums.