CHAPTER 27 - Paul Stanley (1978)

“Paul Stanley” Album Notes:

Produced by Paul Stanley. Tracks 27.05, 27.06, 27.08 & 27.09 produced by Paul Stanley and Jeff Glixman. Recorded and mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York City, New York, The Record Plant, The Village Recorders, Los Angeles, California, and Trident Studios, London, England, February-July, 1978.

27.01. Tonight You Belong To Me

Produced by Paul Stanley, the majority of the first side of his solo album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York, Paul’s favored location for recording his demos. In discussions in Guitar Player magazine, Paul comments about some of this technical experimentation and the creation of the album: “I used the E Bow on quite a few [tracks]. I really found it incredibly useful. I don’t know how practical it is for live performing, because you can only utilize it on one string at a time, which really makes it a little difficult. Most of the time on [the album] when there was an E Bow there was really between three and six of them over-dubbed. They were on ‘Tonight You Belong To Me’; on the melodic line from the front of the heavy section, it’s not a keyboard, it’s the E Bows” (GPM, 1978). Steve Buslowe would play bass on this and the first five tracks. Richie Fontana would drum on this and the first four album tracks. These tracks were nearly completely recorded in late-February 1978 (Sharp, Ken – BtM).

27.02. Move On

Written by Paul Stanley and Mikel Japp. Mikel would be the only co-writer credited on Paul’s album, working on three songs with him. Mikel would be introduced to Paul by hearing some of his material via photographer Barry Levine, who suggested that the two get together to write. This song would also feature Paul’s experimentation with the E-bow. According to Paul, “They come in around halfway through the solo; there’s about six of them there” (Guitar Player Magazine, 1978). The backing vocalists on the recording would be Diana Graselli, Miriam Naomi Valle, and Maria Vidal, in other words the “Rouge” part of “Desmond Child & Rouge.” Rouge was a band that had been formed while the members was in college and were starting to build a following when they met Paul Stanley in New York.

27.03. Ain’t Quite Right

Written by Paul Stanley and Mikel Japp. The third track to utilize an E-bow. According to Paul the purpose was a result of the tool providing “a certain kind of mood, like a haunting kind of sound. To me it’s something like an oboe, or a synthesizer crossed with an oboe, and I’ve been fascinated with sounds like that ever since I can remember” (GPM, 1978). Interestingly, there are some similarities between the chorus of this song and Peter Frampton’s “I’m In You” which has lyrics that go: “Cause you gave me the love, love that I never had / Yes, she gave me the love, love that I never had” (1977).

27.04. Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me

Paul has admitted that this song would be his homage to one of his favorite bands: The Raspberries. It would contain elements that had defined their musical style, combining touches of their songs “Tonight” and “Ecstasy” (Sharp, Ken - Goldmine).

27.05. Take Me Away (Together As One)

Written by Paul Stanley and Mikel Japp. Produced by Paul Stanley and Jeff Glixman the song was recorded in Los Angeles. The only track on the album to feature Carmine Appice on drums. Notably, Carmine had been in the band Cactus, which, for a short period, included session guitarist Ron Leejack who had also been a member of Wicked Lester. Carmine recalled, “I used to hang out with Paul. When they were doing the solo albums Paul asked me to play on his - so I did” (Metal-exiles.com). Peppy Castro sang backing vocals on this song.

27.06. It’s Alright

Produced by Paul Stanley and Jeff Glixman. Craig Kampf would drum and Eric Nelson would play bass on this track and the rest of the album. This song would be one of the last completed for the album.

27.07. Hold Me, Touch Me

“Hold Me, Touch Me (Think Of Me When We’re Apart)” would be the single released from Paul’s solo album and was backed with “Goodbye.” Released in October 1978, the song wouldn’t storm the charts and would falter at #46 during a 12-week stay on the singles charts. An interesting oddity would be available in the form of a mis-pressed UK single, which accidentally included “Love In Chains” as the B-side. While being one of Paul’s favorite guitar solos (Sharp, Ken – Goldmine), he would also play all of the guitars on this track. This would be the second track on the album to include Peppy Castro on backing vocals.

27.08. Love In Chains

Produced by Paul Stanley and Jeff Glixman, this track featured a guest appearance by Steve Lacey on rhythm guitar. Steve would also do some guitar work on Gene Simmons’ solo album.

27.09. Goodbye

Produced by Paul Stanley and Jeff Glixman. This song would get a rare live performance during Paul’s solo tour of 1989, along with “Tonight You Belong To Me.” Bob Kulick, who had played guitar on the original recording, would be a member of Paul’s solo band along with future KISS drummer Eric Singer.

27.10. Tonight You Belong To Me (Alternative Mix)

The most noticeable difference on this version of the song is the acoustic guitar intro which is more basic (rough) and lacks the variable speed overlay (VSO) of the album version. Apart from that the two are essentially the same track with different production qualities. 27.10-27.12 are pretty much rough mixes of the songs. While these songs are described as being alternative mixes, take into consideration that Paul’s demos often sounded nearly identical to the fully recorded versions.

27.11. Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me (Alternative Mix)

Like the other so-called “Alternative Mixes,” this song varies mostly by production qualities. However, it is some 20 seconds longer than the album version, having a third repetition of the chorus at the end of the song during the fade out, versus the album version, which starts fading on the second chorus repetition.

27.12. Take Me Away (Together As One) (Alternative Mix)

This “Alternate Mix” is some 16 seconds longer than the album version of the song. Of the three “Alternative Mixes,” the differences between this and the album version of the song are most noticeable. Immediately, in the 25-second introduction there are multiple cymbal fills, rather than the single fill prior to the lead guitar and vocals beginning on the album version. Instead of ending with a simple fade out, as does the album version, this song continues the instrumental section before ending with an amp feedback section culminating in a single struck chord (tada). Like the other two “Alternate Mixes,” there are no lyrical or other arrangement changes on this track.