BEST OF KISS (IMHO) - GHOST PLAYERS

[RJhog (Admin)]

I became a Kiss fan when I was still a kid.  Looking back, I always thought that every song I heard was performed entirely by Kiss' original 4 members, and at the instrument that they became known for.  As a matter of fact, I thought that into my young adult life.  I loved the music and I never really researched whether or not anyone different played on any given album. 

Enter the internet.  Now we all know.  Not only did Kiss hide the fact that Peter Criss had left the band, they did the same when Ace Frehley left the band.  And to top that off, they let many folks go uncredited for their work when they needed somebody to finish something up or when a band member just wasn't capable of performing.  On top of that, we now know that sometimes a band member would play a different instrument than their usual instrument (like Eric Carr playing bass on I Still Love You).

Thus the inspiration for my first "Best Of (IMHO)" post.  I used www.kissfaq as reference (and it's truly a marvelous site for a Kiss fan).  I started my list with all of the songs that Kiss have recorded that had someone other than the current (at that particular time) official band members on the recording.  Then I threw out the '78 solo albums, because although they were official Kiss recordings, it just didn't seem right to use them here.  I also threw out any songs that had someone perform an instrument other than guitar, bass or drums, since that's Kiss' main instruments.  And finally, I tossed any songs where official band members played something other than their main instrument.  That left the songs that had a "ghost player", someone who was uncredited for their work, but had played either drums, bass or guitar on the song in question. 

***Special Note - My goal is to keep all of my "Best Of (IMHO)" lists at 10 songs, no more, no less.  This serves to increase the difficulty of creating the list***

So, without further explanation or delay, here are my choices:

1. Nowhere To Run (Killers) - Bob Kulick (Bruce's brother) on lead guitar
2. Save Your Love (Dynasty) - Anton Fig on drums
3. Exciter (Lick It Up) - Rick Derringer on guitar solo
4. All American Man (Kiss Alive II) - Bob Kulick on lead guitar
5. Naked City (Unmasked) - Anton Fig on drums
6. Sure Know Something (Dynasty) - Anton Fig on drums
7. Flaming Youth (Destroyer) - Dick Wagner on guitar solo
8. Thrills In The Night (Animalize) - Jean Beauvoir on bass
9. Take It Off (Revenge) - Kevin Valentine on drums
10. Dark Light (Music From The Elder) - Bob Ezrin on bass

There's my list folks.  I have included a music player for your listening pleasure.  Please click here to listen.

[Scott]

What!? KISS had ghost players? hahahaha.

Interesting list. I cant say I know that much about who played on what. I know pretty much from Destroyer through Creatures it was all over the place though. So I am surpirsed to see other players after Creatures, maybe I shoudnt be.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Well, I know now that they had ghost players quite often, but that really doesn't change anything for me. Kiss has always been about the music to me. I know it's not complicated, but I sure do love it. And I relied heavily on Kiss.faq.com to supply me with the info of who played on what.

[Niels (Mod)]

I allways thought that Anton Fig did a great job, as "replacement" for Peter Criss. His drumming on Ace's first solo-album, especially "Rip it out" is classic!!

Is'nt it mostly "Ghost-players" on Nowhere to run? The few "new" tracks on the "KISS Killers"-album sounded to me like they were from a Paul Stanley solo-album.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Well, I'm pretty sure Bob Kulick played lead guitar on all 4 new tracks for Killers. According to Kiss.faq.com, Paul Stanley played bass on at least 3 of the songs. It's not listed, but I would imagine it's Anton Fig on Drums, so yeah, It's basically 4 Paul solo songs. Of which, two (Nowhere To Run and I'm A Legend Tonight) are very good, the other two (Partners In Crime and Down On Your Knees) are the first two "not good" songs that Paul wrote that actually made a Kiss album (my opinion of course).