On 15. June 1982, Kiss’ second compilation album “Killers” was released. It was released only outside the US, but quickly became available as an import. Of the album’s twelve songs, four were new compositions recorded specifically for it: “I’m a Legend Tonight,” “Down on Your Knees,” “Nowhere to Run” and “Partners in Crime.” These new songs were recorded at the behest of Phonogram, in response to the commercial failure of 1981’s “Music from The Elder”.
By 1982, Kiss’ commercial popularity was at its nadir. 1980’s “Unmasked” had barely achieved gold certification in the United States, and the band toured exclusively outside the US for the first time in their career that year, aside from one show in New York which introduced Eric Carr as their new official drummer. “Music from The Elder” fared even worse, as it failed to gain any certification, and the band did not tour behind it at all. The album, released in November 1981, was off the charts by February 1982.
Phonogram (the parent company of Kiss’ label Casablanca Records) then requested that Kiss record four new songs, to be included on an upcoming greatest hits album. Phonogram requested hard rock songs specifically, in contrast to the progressive rock-style of “Music from The Elder” The album cover featured the streamlined look the band had adopted during the Elder period.
Numerous outside songwriters and session musicians were employed for the writing and recording of the four new songs on “Killers”, as well as the subsequent album, “Creatures of the Night”. Songwriter and musician Mikel Japp, who co-wrote three songs on Paul Stanley’s 1978 solo album, co-wrote “Down on Your Knees” with Stanley and Bryan Adams. Adam Mitchell, another outside songwriter, was brought in by producer Michael James Jackson.
Despite being pictured on the album’s cover art (from the photo session for “Music from The Elder”), lead guitarist and co-founder Ace Frehley did not participate at all in the production of “Killers”. He had essentially ended his active involvement with Kiss in late 1981, although he would not officially leave the group until the end of 1982, after the release of “Creatures of the Night”. His replacement for the “Killers” sessions was Bob Kulick, who had previously substituted for Frehley on a handful of studio tracks on 1977’s “Alive II”; however, whereas Kulick had been asked to mimic Frehley’s playing style when recording for “Alive II”, he was permitted to employ his own techniques for “Killers”. The four new songs were considered a “primer” for Kiss’ next release, while some fans have indicated that fan club memos at the time listed Frehley as “temporarily out of action,” possibly due to a car accident or something similar, and originally listed Vinnie Vincent as a temporary replacement for Frehley.
