Peter Criss – 1978
I’ve been dreading this moment. I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about this record.
1. I’m Gonna Love You – A swingingly inoffensive honky tonk completely with jangly piano and 70s era variety show backup singers.
2. You Matter to Me Rupert Holmes. Billy Joel. AOR soft rock. That’s what we’re talking about here. Perfectly fitting with the times. In a era of Dan Hill and pap like “I Like Dreamin'” I prefer this.
3. Tossin’ and Turnin’ Cover of the Bobby Lewis hit. Criss turns it into something that sounds like it was recorded for the Brady Bunch Variety Hour. The whitest soul you’ve ever heard.
4. Don’t You Let Me Down So far, everything on this record feels like a toss back to an earlier, softer era. This doo wop style mid tempo ballad shows off Criss’s voice in a way that suggests, nay, reminds, you that he was the best singer in Kiss. He might be the only actual singer in Kiss, really.
Most of this stuff, I’ve learned, was written pre-Kiss, when Criss was in a band called Lips. When you toss “Beth” in to this mix you get a real sense that Criss was, musically, unsuited to being in the Simmons/Stanley project. Criss embraces the softer edges of rock and that’s probably why this record has been so maligned over the years. It’s not great by any means, but the first side is nowhere near as callous and offensive as the Gene Simmons offering.
5. That’s the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes Anyone remember The Hudson Brothers? This sounds like The Hudson Brothers. Or what I remember The Hudson Brothers sounding like.
6. Easy Thing Schmaltz ballad that would have been written and rejected by Olivia Newton John.
7. Rock me Baby Another piano driven, swingin’ horn section mid-tempo rocker. Not written by Criss, not very memorable. Not offensive.
8. Kiss the Girl Goodbye Okay. This is crap. Stupid lyrics laid on a bed of disposable “music” in such an unctuous idiom that it screams “please love this as much as you loved Beth”. But you can’t. Because it’s horrible.
9. Hooked on Rock and Roll And we’re back to the honky tonk. By now I get the sense that they have run out of material and are desperately trying anything. But, being devoid of inspiration, this is what you end up. I wonder what Paul Stanley would have done with this. No, I don’t.
10. I Can’t Stop the Rain Wait. HERE is the Bethy ballad. Go for it, Pete. Shoot for the moon. Why not?
In the end, Peter Criss is nowhere near the disaster it has been reported. In fact, while it isn’t as inspired as Ace’s record, it’s not as anonymous like Paul Stanley’s Kiss retread. And it’s not a thunderingly colossal implosion like Gene’s, While I will probably never listen to it again, that doesn’t mean it’s terrible. Pound for Pound its about as good as Rick Springfield’s Wait for Night.
Grade C
A Side: I’m Gonna Love You, You Matter To Me
BlindSide: Tossin’ and Turnin’, Don’t You Let Me Down
DownSide: Easy Thing, Kiss the Girl Goodbye
