Yesterday in 1987 Kiss released the album Crazy Nights New York City, New York Hard rock, heavy metal Status:Active Years active 1973–present Kiss (often styled as KISS) is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well known for its members black and white face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s with their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits and pyrotechnics. Counting the 1978 solo albums, Kiss has been awarded 28 gold albums to date, the most of any American rock band. The band has sold more than 40 million albums in the United States, of which 20 million have been certified by the RIAA and their worldwide sales exceeds 100 million records, making them one of world’s best-selling bands of all time. The original 1973–80 lineup consisted of Paul Stanley (vocals and rhythm guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals and bass guitar), Ace Frehley (lead guitar and vocals) and Peter Criss (drums and vocals). With their makeup and costumes, they took on the personas of comic book-style characters: Starchild (Stanley), The Demon (Simmons), Spaceman or Space Ace (Frehley) and Catman (Criss). Stanley became the Starchild because of his tendency to be referred to as the starry-eyed lover and hopeless romantic. The Demon makeup reflected Simmons cynicism and dark sense of humor, as well as his affection for comic books. Frehleys Spaceman makeup was a reflection of his fondness for science fiction and his supposedly being from another planet. Criss Catman makeup was in accordance with the belief that he had nine lives because of his rough childhood in Brooklyn. Because of creative differences, both Criss and Frehley were out of the group by 1982. The bands commercial fortunes had waned considerably by that point. Buoyed by a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the 1990s, the band announced a reunion of the original lineup in 1996. The resulting Kiss Alive/Worldwide/Reunion Tour was the top-grossing act of 1996 and 1997. Criss and Frehley have since left Kiss again, but the band continues with Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer. Stanley and Simmons have remained the only two constant members. Kiss has been named in many Top lists. They include Number 10 on VH1s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, 9th on The Greatest Metal Bands list by MTV, number one on Hit Paraderss Top 100 Live Bands, 56th on VH1s 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time, and 26th on Gibsons 50 Greatest American Rock Bands. Kiss was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ten years after becoming eligible Mercury Paul Stanley - rhythm guitar, vocals, keyboards Gene Simmons - bass guitar, vocals Bruce Kulick - lead guitar, backing vocals, bass guitar on Hell or High Water Eric Carr - drums, percussion, backing vocals (R.I.P.1991) Additional personnel Phil Ashley - keyboards Tom Kelly - backing vocals 1. Crazy Crazy Nights (3:47) 2. Ill Fight Hell To Hold You (4:09) 3. Bang Bang You (3:53) 4. No, No, No (4:17) 5. Hell Or High Water (3:27) 6. My Way (3:59) 7. When Your Walls Come Down (3:23) 8. Reason To Live (4:00) 9. Good Girl Gone Bad (4:35) 10. Turn On The Night (3:18) 11. Thief In The Night (4:06) Total Time 42:58 Crazy Nights is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, recorded in June 1987 and released on September 18 by Mercury and Vertigo in Europe. It featured keyboards which was another departure in their music style changing from their Creatures Of The Night/Lick It Up/Animalize/Asylum heavy metal sound into a light metal sound. It was re-released in 1998 as part of the Kiss Remasters series and to date is the last Kiss album to have been remastered. A relatively high number of songs from Crazy Nights were performed live during its supporting tour, but during and especially immediately following the tour most of those songs were dropped and were never performed again. Only the song Crazy Crazy Nights was retained in their setlist for the Hot in the Shade Tour which followed a couple years later, it was dropped after that tour and would not return for nearly 20 years until the Sonic Boom Over Europe Tour. This makes the album one of the least represented in the bands entire catalog over the course of their career in their setlists, behind only their 1981 commercial flop Music from The Elder. After the Asylum Tour had ended, Kiss went on couple of month long hiatus due to Gene Simmons career as an actor and a producer which made the band seem like his side job instead of primary job. For KISStory, Paul Stanley stated that he got tired of Simmons lack of commitment and one day he told him: We were in the parking lot one day, and I said to Gene: Look – youre off doing all these other things while still reaping the benefits of this band, and Im getting screwed. Its not fair for me to put in this kind of time, while somebody else who is supposed to be my partner, is not. And Gene looked at me and said: Thats fair. I could have used Genes input. But my attitude at that point was that I certainly wasnt going to listen to a guy whos off managing cabaret singers, and producing five bands, while I was trying to make an album. Simmons temporary departure gave space to Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick. Kulick had four co-writing credits and Carr one, but almost got other material on the album. Stanley had worked with Desmond Child, Diane Warren and Adam Mitchell and co-wrote songs: Crazy Crazy Nights, Ill Fight Hell to Hold You and When Your Walls Come Down with Mitchell (Ill Fight Hell to Hold You and When Your Walls Come Down with Kulick), Bang Bang You, My Way and Reason to Live with Child (My Way with Bruce Turgon also), and Turn On the Night was co-written by Stanley and Warren. As Kiss previous two albums had been self-produced, the band felt it needed to bring in an outside producer who would help the album achieve more commercial success. Producer Ron Nevison was hired to produced the album, but because of Nevisons filled schedule, the band had to wait for his schedule to clear. Nevison was chosen in part from his recent commercial success in producing platinum albums for Heart and Ozzy Osbourne. Simmons said for KISStory, When we started working on Crazy Nights, we looked for someone else to pull the cart – another person to help guide the band... So we hooked up with a producer named Ron Nevison, who Paul had wanted to work with for a while, although I never did. The album was at first called Who Dares Wins, which was Carrs idea. According to him, During a photo session our wardrobe girl had this commando patch lying around with Who Dares Wins on it, and I said: Hey, what a great idea for an album title! Then she brought it over to Paul who said the same thing. We ended up not using it because it didnt look good in print, and it sounded as if no one would understand it. The idea was dropped in June, but managed to appear on some Japanese advertisements for the upcoming album. Another title the band thought of was Condomnation, but as Stanley said, Well, Condomnation was never really the title. It was just a thought that passed through our minds and gave everyone a chuckle. The record sessions started in March at One on One Recording Studios in Canoga Park, California but later continued in Rumbo Recorders also in Canoga Park and Can-Am Recorders in Tarzana, California. In June the album was completed and it was mixed at Can-Am Recorders by Nevison, before being turned over to PolyGram in July youtube/watch?v=c13XqIp-M8U
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 16:05:57 +0000
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