Kiss famously released four solo albums on the same day. Just as famously, only one of them was truly worthy of the Kiss name – Ace Frehley’s
The four Kiss solo albums were all due to hit the stores on the same date – ‘Kissmas day’, September 18, 1978. They all had cool covers painted by Eraldo Carugati, reputedly right-hand man to Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel. They were being backed by a hefty $2.5 million promotional campaign. And they were all ‘shipping platinum’. It all sounded very impressive.
Subsequently, a joke emerged that became received wisdom: they shipped platinum and returned double platinum. But Gene Simmons put the record straight, telling Classic Rock: “They all sold at least a million apiece.”
The surprise – and a kick in the balls for Simmons and Paul Stanley – was that Ace Frehley’s album was the most successful. What Ace delivered was a smoking, balls-out, hard-rock record with flashes of his goofball humour. The wayward guitarist even scored a Top 20 hit with a breezy version of the Russ Ballard song New York Groove. And without Gene and Paul around, he could sing on Ozone: ‘I’m the kind of guy who likes feelin’ high…’