Crazy Nights
Occupation
- Vocals, rhythm guitar: Paul Stanley
- Vocals, bass guitar: Gene Simmons
- Vocals, lead guitar: Bruce Kulick
- Drums, Vocals: Eric Carr
Crazy Nights is the thirteenth studio album released in 1987 the hard rock band Kiss.
Genesis
Between the publication of Asylum 1985 Crazy Nights two years were - until then the longest pause between two Kiss studio albums. Sales of Asylum had been good, the tour was quite successful, but the band could not achieve big gains. To fill the gap between releases, PolyGram released on May 18, 1987, the first home video of the band, Exposed, which contained some video clips of the 1980s, which were coupled as part of a loose background action.
Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons came to the conclusion that a "big " album was needed to stimulate interest in Kiss again. They had produced both previous albums themselves and came to the conclusion that a well-known producer might be able to bring the band back forward. They decided on Ron Nevison, who was known for the paralyzed careers of other artists with his productions (1984 Survivors Vital Signs 1985 or 1986 Ozzy Osbournes Hearts Heart The Ultimate Sin) to have pushed back.
Working title for the album was Who Dares ... Wins; in Japan it was even advertised shortly before the publication with this title. Production fell from very pop, but the band also put more emphasis on musical quality than on simply just bring a new product to market.
The band made ready are thirteen tracks on the album, there were only eleven of them used. One of the songs, Sword and Stone, Bruce Kulick and the Paul Stanley had written was recorded for their album Point Blanc in 1991 by the German group Bonfire and asked for the soundtrack to Wes Craven film Shocker available. The second title used was not Hide Your Heart, the Paul Stanley had written with Desmond Child and Holly Knight. Hide Your Heart was recorded and released in 1989 for the newly released album Hot in the Shade. The Song Thief in the Night, the Gene Simmons had written with Mitch Weissman, had been taken in 1984 by Wendy O. Williams for her album WOW.
Crazy Nights is the first fully digitally recorded album of the band.
The cover of the album showed the circularly arranged photos of the band members on a broken mirror. The images used for it had the photographer Walter Wick added, as is held in black and white group photo on the inner sleeve of the record. Similar to the album Rock and Roll Over the band logo was positioned at each of the corners. On the back showed the cover of Mark Weiss and Glen La Ferman taken individual photos of the members who took one quarter of the plate shell. In the center was already used in 1974 for the album Hotter Than Hell Chikara symbol (力), which was placed between the tracks of the A and the B-side.
For the CD edition, the text page contained in the LP edition, which had been on the back of the inner shell was omitted. The CD contained only a four-page insert sheet with the cover photo on the front, the group photo on the left and the Chikara symbol on the inside right and the individual photos on the back. In contrast to the LP edition the group photo in the CD was colored.
Publication
The album was released on September 14, 1987, it reached # 29 in the Billboard Top 40 album chart and # 17 in the separately managed CD charts.