KISS *SEALED* PETER CRISS 1978 KISS SOLO ALBUM FIRST PRESSING CASABLANCA

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KISS PETER CRISS 1978 SOLO ALBUM *SEALED* CASABLANCA FIRST PRESSING
PETER CRISS (KISS) 1978 SOLO ALBUM (ONE OF 4 MATCHING KISS SOLO RECORDS) SEALED ORIGINAL 1978 CASABLANCA FIRST PRESSING RELEASE RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 18, 1978 LABEL: CASABLANCA RECORDS  NBLP 7122 MANUFACTURED BY CASABLANCA RECORDS & FILMWORK, INC.
RECORDED AT: ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS, NYC ~ SUNSET SOUND STUDIOS, L.A. MASTERED & LACQUERED AT: THE MASTERING LAB, HOLLYWOOD
PRODUCERS: VINI PONCIA, SEAN DELANEY  PETER CRISS
ALBUM JACKET DESIGN: HOWARD MARKS ADVERTISING AGENCY COVER PAINTING: ERALDO CARUGATI MANAGEMENT: AUCOIN MANAGEMENT


LEAD VOCALS: PETER CRISS DRUMS: PETER CRISS & ALLAN SCHWARTZBERG GUITARS: STAN PENRIDGE & ART MUNSON BASS: BILL BODINE & NEIL JASON KEYBOARDS/SYNTHESIZERS: BILL CUOMO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on EBay I am offering up this rare, still sealed, original First U.S. Casablanca Pressing of the classic Peter Criss KISS solo album from 1978.
I've had this record sitting in my collection for decades and it's time to pass it along.
This is a STILL SEALED copy of the original 1978 Casablanca pressing, not a repressing or re-issue.
Original pressings of this album included a Poster of Peter with special 'jigsaw puzzle' edges that, when you purchased all 4 solo LP's, connected together into one large poster or mural. 
This album also included a 'Kiss Army' merchandise order form, a production/credits insert, and the custom inner sleeve, which had photos showing all 4 of the different solo releases.
This is a Sealed copy, and I can only assume that all the 'extras' are included. The album feels quite 'thick' and I presume that means that all the inserts are inside.
Again, this is a sealed original 1978 Casablanca first pressing.
In 1983/84 Polygram, who acquired Casablanca, reissued this album, but those can be identified by their different label and the Polygram address at the bottom, not the Casablanca. They also have '501' printed on the upper right rear corner of the jacket. 
The later Polygram pressings also don't include the Poster, custom inner sleeve, or any extra inserts.
~~~ I've had this record in my collection for decades. Back in the 70's we didn't keep our records in poly-lined inners and plastic outer sleeves, like we do today. Therefore, the shrink has a few smudges from years of storage, but the record underneath is in excellent, clean, crisp condition.
Any shine, reflections, dirt or smudges in my photos are from the shrinkwrap, not the record underneath. The record itself is in pristine condition.
Note that the upper corner has some very mild 'creasing' and the lower corners have some very mild 'bumping' from all those years of storage. There is remnants of an old price sticker on the shrink, not on the record.
Also note that the top right corner of this copy has a 'Cut Out' clipped corner.
That is very common to find with these particular KISS solo albums as too many were shipped to distributers and the overstock soon became 'cut outs'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE STORY BEHIND THE 1978 KISS 'SOLO' RECORDS
In 1977, in many rock fan's opinion, KISS was the greatest Rock band in the world, at the height of their fame, and at their commercial peak.
They had released six studio albums and two live albums on Casablanca, all of which were very popular and sold like crazy. In addition to records, they had their own comic books, trading cards, action figures, pinball machines and they were about to release their first feature film, 'KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'.
Their most recent classic albums, 1976's 'Destroyer' and 'Rock and Roll Over' were still selling well, and the recent 'new' release of 1977's 'Love Gun', was a huge success, their fourth platinum album in just under two years. 
In 1977, it seemed that KISS could do no wrong. Everything they put their name on turned to gold, and the sky was the limit as they looked forward to 1978.
There was just one small problem…behind the scenes, behind the make-up, cracks were beginning to show. There were feuds among various band members, tensions were high, and the band was beginning to rot from the inside out. 
All four members were exhausted and burned-out from the non-stop touring, the constant media hype and attention, the 'hiding' behind the make-up, and the stress of recording multiple albums together, each one having to be better and better, outdoing the previous, was beginning to show.
It was no secret that drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley were the two, very hard-partying, wreckless, rock'n'roll animals in the band, and by 1977 they had both developed troublesome substance-abuse issues. 
Their care-free 'Let's party!' lifestyle often irritated, and put them in frequent conflict, with both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who were much more restrained, serious, and career/business driven individuals.
Stanley and Simmons were clearly 'in charge' of the band, and dominated the songwriting, song selection for the albums, and lead vocal duties, forcing Peter and Ace to the background.
Peter Criss and Ace Frehley wanted more input and say in the band's music. They were essential to the band and the Kiss sound, but felt like their skills and opinions were not acknowledged or respected.
Peter Criss was particularly pissed off. After all, he sang and co-wrote the band's biggest hit to that point, 1976's "Beth" which 'saved' the band's career back then, and led to their fame and fortune, but he seemed to get no praise or acknowledgement for his efforts.
Things came to a head sometime during late 1977, when both Criss and Frehley threatened to quit the band and go solo, fed up over these ongoing issues.
Manager Bill Aucoin and Casablanca Records owner Neil Bogart came up with a novel idea to try to hold the band together.
The band's original Casablanca contract included a stipulation that would allow the individual band members to record 'Solo' albums sometime in the future, and it was time to use that option.
It was decided to let all four members take a much-needed 'break' from each other, and record their own individual solo albums.
The grand, ambitious plan was to let each band member record their own solo album, in their own style, with their own choice of music, and their own choice of fellow musicians. Each member would be able to have complete creative control over their own record. This would let each member, especially Peter and Ace, make their own musical statements, and blow off some steam, independent of the other members. 
The 4 solo albums would then all be released together, on the same day, with similar looking album covers and design, to unify them all together as common Kiss project.
This way, Casablanca would also end up with 4 times as much new 'product' to sell than if the band just made a new, single, stressful, album together. It seemed like a win-win proposition for everyone involved.
The project was one of the most extravagant album launch campaigns ever: the simultaneous release of solo albums by all four members of KISS. No other group had ever attempted such an outrageous thing.
Casablanca launched a massive promotional campaign, investing about $2.5 million on marketing for the new 'solo' project. 
Recording the solo albums would take some time, so to keep faithful Kiss fans and the large Kiss Army interested and continuing to buy records, Casablanca Records quickly released a new 2-LP 'Greatest Hits' album, which contained one 'new' track, a dance remix of the debut album's "Strutter", re-titled "Strutter '78."  This was included to make Kiss fans who already owned all the previous records, buy it for the one 'new' track. Ingenious marketing.
While that album raced up the charts, eventually going double Platinum, the individual band members finished up some final work on their upcoming 'Phantom' film, and then went their separate ways to start working on their solo albums; far away from each other, in separate recording studios, and with their own choice of accompanying musicians.
Each member had an August deadline to submit their project, and by early September, the project was assembled and ready to go.
On September 18, 1978, Casablanca Records, in an exceedingly well-coordinated media event, released the 4 self-titled solo albums from each of the members of KISS ~ Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley.
Casablanca Records shipped 1.25 million copies of each member's solo album to music stores and distributers all across America, flooding the market with new Kiss product. Each of the 4 new solo albums instantly qualified for "Platinum" sales status, before a single copy was actually sold.
The records all had a cool unified look. Very similar cover art featuring each band member's portrait, the individual’s name in the corner and the KISS logo in the other corner.
The records all used the same color scheme and lettering fonts throughout, and the bandmembers all dedicated their albums to each other as a show of unity. 
~~ Casablanca just assumed that every Kiss fan would snatch up copies of each of the 4 Solo albums, leading to Millions of copies sold, and multiple Millions of dollars in profit, but that's not how it worked out.
Casablanca failed to realize that most of the people who purchased Kiss albums were younger and didn't have piles of cash laying around to buy 4 different expensive records at once.
The 4 new solo Kiss albums shipped out "platinum" but selling "platinum" was something completely different.
Some Kiss fans immediately grabbed up all 4 records, but others had to be more selective, choosing which one to buy. Some fans only purchased one, or two.
I can still clearly remember my gang of high-school buddies back then, each buying only one of the 4 records. Then I, having the best audio gear of the bunch, made cassette tape copies of them all for the others. That way, we got all the new KISS music, but kept costs to a minimum. Many other Kiss fans did the same thing. The albums didn't sell like Casablanca had hoped.
Casablanca pressed way more records than they sold in 1978, and the overstock hit the cut-out bins in record stores faster than just about any other record in history. 
That explains why so many copies of those original albums, like this copy, have a 'Cut Out' notch, drill hole, or clipped corner.
Back in 1978, these Kiss solo records were everywhere, but original Casablanca pressings are hard to find today. Casablanca had to 'Eat' much of the overstock, destroying many copies. Not many of the originals survived. 
The later 80's Polygram re-issues are much more common to find today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There were many mixed feelings and mixed reactions when these Solo albums were fist released in the fall of 1978.
As a Kiss fan, I think all 4 of the Solo albums are quite excellent and each one has some fantastic music. Each one has it's own merits; it's own pluses and minuses.
At the time, they weren't very well received, mostly because fans were expecting them all to sound just like the other Kiss albums, just more 'personalized'
They were so 'different' from what fans had expected from KISS that people reacted negatively. They are all great albums on their own, but because they weren't 'KISS" albums, they were seen as inferior and 'junk' by most fans back in 1978.
With the passage of time, each of these solo albums has earned respect and they have now been recognized as the terrific albums that they truly are. 
Classic 70's rock vinyl enthusiasts are now trying to find these original pressings to add to their collection.
These albums were never meant to be actual KISS albums. These solo albums were meant to show a bit of the creativity and origins of what each band member was inspired by, and wanted to express, but were limited to doing so as members of KISS.
Each band member approached their own project in different ways, and the end results are quite different from one-another, but are all fascinating,  and are all excellent albums to have in any rock collection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paul Stanley's solo record was the most "Kiss-sounding" of the four.
Paul's personal taste in music was already a big influence on the overall sound and style of Kiss, so he didn't feel like he needed to branch out or explore new territory. The music on his solo album doesn't stray far away from that classic Kiss sound.
Paul knew that his strength was in straightforward, guitar-driven rock n' roll, so he stayed close to that style. After all, it's the sound that made KISS so successful in the first place.
Paul was at the peak of his powers in 1978 and it shows on this album.
The album starts off with a nice one-two punch of "Tonight You Belong To Me" and "Move On" and his 1978 Solo album is fantastic and is still popular to this day.
The only 'dud' is the syrupy ballad "Hold Me, Touch Me"
~~~ Ace Frehley, Kiss' lead quitarist, was also at the peak of his powers in 1978 and he delivered a very strong solo record.
Like Paul, he didn't try to stretch his boundaries too far and stayed with a rocking style that suited him best.
Ace used Kiss producer Eddie Kramer to make his record. He recruited old buddies Anton Fig on drums and Will Lee on bass guitar to round out his small band.
Up to that point Ace had only sung lead vocals on two Kiss tracks: "Shock Me" and "Rocket Ride," so it was very cool to hear him take lead vocals on every single song.
It opens with the great rocker "Rip It Out" and never lets up until the terrific instrumental closer "Fractured Mirror." It contains the standout tracks "Ozone," "Snow Blind" and "New York Groove."
"New York Groove" was the only true 'hit' single out of all 4 solo albums, peaking at #13 on the Billboard singles chart. Kiss performed the song live in concert up until the very end.
Ace's solo record was a classic, guitar-based hard rock album, the 'heaviest' and most popular of the four, and still very popular today.
~~~ Gene Simmons, Kiss' Bass player, delivered the most strange and diverse solo album of the four. It's a mixed bag of styles and included many well-known special guests, ranging from Helen Reddy to Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick.
Like the other member's solo albums, there are several hard rock tracks, but also some Funk, Beatles-inspired pop ballads, and even a cringe-worthy, album-closing cover of "When You Wish Upon A Star," the Disney ballad.
Gene’s solo album was the highest charting album of the four, reaching #22 on the Billboard charts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PETER CRISS' SOLO  ALBUM
This is actually a terrific album by Peter, the drummer for KISS. A solid effort with a few really great songs. 
This album came out of the gates strong in 1978. It had the highest debut position on the Billboard charts out of all four, and peaked at No. 43.
Peter's solo album was the only one to have 2 different singles released from it.
Peter's album sold well, had some great material, and was loved by his very dedicated fans, but it ended up being the least successful of the four solo albums. I personally think Ace's album is the best of the 4 solo releases, but Peter's album is a close second.
Criss was excited to finally have the spotlight to himself, and to show Kiss fans, and other listeners, a different side to him than the Cat-faced Rock'n'Roll drummer that he was known as.
"My album reflected my musical tastes" he later claimed.
The other three members of Kiss made solo albums that were generally hard-rocking and guitar-driven, and not very different than the style of Kiss, but Peter Criss made an album that was quite different from the group's trademark sound. 
~~ The songs on this album include
I'm Gonna Love You You Matter To Me Tossin' And Turnin' Don't You Let Me Down That's The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes Easy Thing Rock Me Baby Kiss The Girl Goodbye Hooked On Rock And Roll I Can't Stop The Rain
~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter Criss had several 'obstacles' to overcome in order to make his solo album.
Firstly, he had recently been involved in a serious car accident that left him with multiple broken ribs, broken hands & fingers, and a smashed up face.
This made playing drums painful and difficult, and as a result, Peter only plays drums on several tracks. 
The injuries to his face and nose also made his singing voice sound 'different' than on earlier Kiss songs, but his confident, smooth, smoky, warm, hearfelt and honest vocals are excellent on this album.
The other issue is that by 1978, Peter's troublesome substance-abuse issues were out of control, which affected both his mind and his music.
Also, as a drummer, Peter wasn't as musically 'connected' with other musicians and songwriters as Paul and Ace were, so he had a tougher time putting together a band for his solo project. 
He used mostly top-notch studio session musicians and backing singers, mostly hand selected and assembled by his Producer Vini Poncia, a frequent Kiss collaborator.
There's some excellent guitar work by a very young guitar wizard Steve Lukather as well as the veteran session player Elliott Randall.
~~ Despite these 'obstacles', Peter Criss managed to make an excellent solo album.
His album is not as 'hard-rocking' as the other 3, and instead of flashy guitars, this album explores other styles of music and focuses on Peter as a songwriter and singer.
Peter was slightly older than his bandmates and was exposed to more soul, doo-wop and R&B groups of rock n' roll's formative years than the others were.
Peter incorporates those influences into this solo album, giving it a slicker, smoother, retro-flavored feel. There's some white blue-eyed Soul, and Motown-inspired old-school bluesy R&B with horns and backup singers. He does an excellent cover of Bobby Lewis' "Tossin' and Turnin.'"
There are also some fantastic rock songs, not blazing hard rock like his bandmates were doing, but competent, grooving, soulful rock songs.
There's a hint of 1970s soft rock, and there are 1 or 2 soft ballads, with Peter obviously trying to replicate and recapture the success of 'Beth.'
Most of the basic tracks were laid down at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, but then the tapes were taken out to studios on the west coast, as far from NY and it's influences as possible, to flesh out, polish, and develop into the final tracks on the album.
~~~ Peter was not a natural songwriter and was running short on time to find songs to record, so, as a fascinating insight for early Kiss fans, he chose to include 4 songs that he co-wrote very early in his career with his pal Stan Penridge.
Stan "Doc" Penridge was deeply connected to the early classic era of KISS and co-wrote several songs for the band.
Stan was the guitarist in Peter Criss's pre-Kiss band LIPS and 4 of the songs on this album are re-workings of songs from an early 1972 LIPS demo session performed at Bell Sound for Neil Bogart, then a boss at Karma Sutra Records.
The 4 early LIPS songs, reworked for this solo album are; “Baby, Don’t You let Me Down” “I’m Gonna Love You” “Hooked On Rock N Roll” and “That’s The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes”. 
Neil Bogart turned down Peter's band LIPS at the time, but would soon be deeply involved with KISS after he formed Casablanca records a year later.
All of the Kiss member's individual solo albums were all dedicated to each other, but as another nod to Peter's Pre-Kiss days, Peter dedicates this album "To Ace, Paul & Gene and to Michael Benvenga."
Benvenga was, as most of you kardcore Kiss fans know, the Guitarist, and sometimes Bass player in Peter's pre-Kiss bands Chelsea and LIPS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The response to the four solo albums, in 1978, was lukewarm at best. 
Millions of the solo albums were sold, but Casablanca's hopes that every loyal member of the KISS Army would snap up all four albums, generating huge profits, didn't turn out as planned.
The Solo album project was meant to appease Peter and Ace, giving them their own outlet and voice, in order to help ease inner band tensions, but all it did was put Casablanca on the verge of bankruptcy and make the band situation even worse.
All 4 members felt that their individual albums were great, and that each one demonstrated the style and direction that the band's music should follow. Now there were even more arguments and disputes about where to take the band's music next, and who's music should lead the way.
The most successful solo album turned out to be Ace Frehley's, which contained the only true "hit" single out of the four, an excellent cover version of "New York Groove". Ace's solo album helped support his claim that he should have more 'say' in the band's musical direction.
~~ Just six weeks after the 4 Solo albums were released, the band's made for TV feature film, 'KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park' premiered around Halloween on NBC.
It was watched by millions and received decent ratings, but the film was cheap, cheesy and cartoonish. Many longtime hardcore Kiss fans felt that it proved that the band had lost it's hard rock edge and had 'sold out', creating 'merchandise' instead of meaningful music.
Stung by the underwhelming response to both their solo albums and their cheesy movie, the band realized that their next project had to be something outstanding and special. Kiss was facing a 'do or die' situation.
The band regrouped in early 1979 and began to work on their next studio album, 'Dynasty'. Fans were eager for new KISS music. It had been two years since their last studio album 'Love Gun', and fans were expecting great things, but nobody expected what came next.
The first single released from the upcoming album was 'I Was Made For Loving You.' KISS had gone Disco! Most Kiss fans thought that their rock 'n roll heroes had lost their minds! 
That was the beginning of the end for Kiss. Rock music was changing drastically by 1979 and it was clear that Kiss didn't have a clue, and had lost it's heavy rock roots.
~~~ When Kiss returned to the studio to work on 1979's 'Dynasty' album, Peter was still recovering from his car crash, still battling his addictive demons, and was in no particular rush to rejoin his bandmates.
Criss only performed drums on one track of the new album. This was quietly hidden from fans by the band and Kiss' management. Peter was secretly replaced by Anton Fig for the other songs on 'Dynasty'.
Peter Criss did play on the much-hyped 1979 "Return of Kiss" tour, but his heart wasn't in it. During shows on the tour, the band performed one song from each of the solo albums trying to hype their slagging sales.
By his own account, Peter intentionally sabotaged three of the final five shows by playing at the wrong tempo, causing his bandmates to, temporarily, fire him at the end of the tour.
Criss' name and face appeared on the cover of subsequent Kiss albums, 1979's 'Dynasty', 1980's 'Unmasked' and 1998's partial-reunion 'Psycho Circus', but he was barely involved. He only played drums on a grand total of two songs and sang on two others.
Peter Criss made 2 more solo albums in the early '80s, The abtly titled "Out of Control" (1980), and "Let Me Rock You" (1982), but then mostly vanished from the public eye.
Ace Frehley also left Kiss in 1982.
Simmons and Stanley tried to keep the KISS machine rolling along with a rotating cast of replacement players, but their glory years were over, and their best music was way in the past.
In the mid-'90s, Peter joined up with Ace Frehley, and the two old mates performed on a brief co-headlining tour. A clean, sober Peter Criss later joined his old bandmates, reforming the original lineup of Kiss, for a highly successful series of world tours. 
He left Kiss for good in 2004, released one more solo album in 2007, and retired from live performances in 2017.
For me, 'Black Diamond' is the best Peter Criss performance on a Kiss record.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a beautiful, clean, still sealed, original Casablanca first pressing of Peter Criss' 1978 KISS Solo album and belongs in any proper heavy rock vinyl collection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the album cover in my pictures.
Any shine, glare, dirt or scuffs are on the shrink-wrap. The acrual record underneath is in beautiful condition.
The record is sealed, so I can't show the labels, sleeves or vinyl, but it's all assumed to be minty clean.
Original Casablanca First pressings like this contained a Poster, custom inner sleeve, and other inserts, which I assume are all enclosed. 
The record feels 'thick' suggesting everything is included.
I purchased this copy over 40 years ago and have taken great care of it since. The shrinkwrap has a few very minor spots, but overall it looks great.
Due to the shiny shrink, this album is hard to photograph, but I took pictures from every angle to show how nice it still is.
As I mentioned, this has a 'cut-out' clipped uppper right corner and the lower corners are very mildly 'bumped' from decades of shifting around on my record shelves, but it's still a fantastic, original pressing copy.
The artwork is bold and bright and this is a very nice survivor.
This record has been sleeved sine the 1980's and stored vertically and properly for decades.
This copy is all original and a real gem. I'm sure you'll be very happy and pleased with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare, still sealed, as described, and presumed to have all the original inserts and a minty vinyl pressing. I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. 
Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
My grading is fair and honest. I have had over 3,500 happy and satisfied EBay customers over the years, with 100% positive feedback, and I have been buying/selling on EBay for well over 25 years, so please bid with confidence!
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far. Sorry to go on and on, but there's so much to say about this timeless album and the story behind it.  -- JOHN