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Too Many Mondays When Wicked Lester recorded their "album" with Ron Johnsen, little of the material they used was original. Like "Sweet Ophelia" this song came from songwriter Barry Mann and had been included on his "Lay It All Out" album (New Design Records, 1971). It was written by him and his wife, Cynthia Weil, and was even released as a single (backed with the album's title track) in 1972. The two comprised a famous and highly successful songwriting team. Ron had been the sound engineer on Barry's album, suggesting how the song came to Wicked Lester's attention. While Paul Stanley sang the song on the rejected album, a rough recording with Gene on lead vocals also circulates, which is generally thought to have been recorded during sessions including Steve Coronel. According to one Simmons calendar, a version of this song was recorded during a 15-hour session at Electric Lady Studios on May 20, 1972. Gene's vocal harmonizing starts the song. Two mixes were included on the 1999 PolyGram reel. While both are the same arrangement/recording as the earlier mix, the second is "louder" with boosted treble. The background vocals in the chorus following the piano break are also more prominent fading into the horns emerging as a flourish as the song starts to conclude. The 2000 remaster is a hybrid. At the beginning of the song the slide guitar is removed, but a completely different lead guitar overdub follows the "now I'm tired of making good and feeling bad" lyric. A different slide guitar features behind the "Sunday afternoon" lyric. It is disappointing that this version has been shortened with an egregiously noticeable edit as the final chorus commences following the break section. On vinyl the needle might jump the groove it's so bad. It's generally considered that the Gene Simmons vocal is an early Steve Coronel recording, with lead guitar of totally different character to the rest of the mixes. It clearly wasn't recorded to the same standard as the other mixes, though horn flourishes and ticking clock and other effects are present. Some of those keyboard parts/effects weren't used on later versions even if parts of this recording were retained. © KissFAQ, From "Rock And Roll All Nite: The Music of Kiss" (Used with permission).