On 8. September, 1980, Peter Criss released his first solo album after leaving Kiss, “Out of Control”. The album would sell extremely poor making Peter unable to tour for the album. A couple of the songs were originally demoed for Kiss’ “Dynasty” album. Recording for the album began in March 1980, when Criss was still officially a member of Kiss. The album sold poorly, and was not re-released on CD until 1997, as the Kiss reunion tour was underway. The album artwork was created by Todd Schorr from an idea by Criss. Criss’ wife at the time, Debra Jensen, served as the inspiration for the blonde woman in the foreground, toward the left side, of the front cover.
Peter Criss:
“I began working on Out of Control, my first post-KISS album, even before the announcement had been made that I had left KISS. After years of hearing Glickman and Marks constantly telling me I was out of control, I thought I’d give them a sly shout-out. Stan Penridge, my longtime musical partner, came up to my place at the Claridge House, and we wrote all day. We’d get a bottle of red wine, roll a couple of joints, and go to work. Sometimes we’d write for fifteen hours straight. And the time that we weren’t writing, wed sing Lennon-McCartney harmonies for the hell of it. It was incredibly liberating to make my kind of music again.
When we had a bunch of songs, I was ready to record with Vini Poncia again, but something came up and Vini couldn’t do it. He suggested I use a friend of his named David Wolfen, who had worked with Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand and had produced Dusty Springfield and Paul Anka. He wasn’t exactly chopped liver.
The songs were heavier than the stuff I had done on my KISS solo album. It was like going back to my roots and pulling out Nautilus and the Sounds of Soul and adding some British metal to it. I thought the fans would love it.
We went up to RCA Studios on Forty-eighth Street, where Elvis had recorded a lot of his early stuff. Imagine how excited I was to record in that same big room where Elvis had done his classic tracks. Stan and I put together a great street-sounding band with a Young Rascals-New York sound. They were all white Italian kids, but their harmonies sounded soulful. I was so in love with them I was going to take them out on tour.
David Wolfen had come up with a song for me called “By Myself,” which really was about me starting all over. “For once in my life I got a chance, I’ll take it I’ve waited so long, and baby this time I can make it by myself / Starting over again.” We were going down that road looking for another “Beth.” Who wouldn’t want another People’s Choice?
The sessions went well, and it was time to come up with an album ‘cover. Originally I wanted to put my face on the cover, since nobody had seen it all those years in KISS, but Bill and Howard Marks thought it was too soon to expose my face. So I wound up designing a cover that featured 2 jukebox blowing up and shooting out all these 45s, and one of them was “Out of Control.” I also had an artist draw Deb, and we put her in the lower left-hand side of the frame, running from the exploding jukebox. It had a real pop-art Warholian feel to it, and Deb looked great.
We could have put an actual photo of Deb naked on the cover and the album wouldn’t have sold. I could have written contemporary versions of “Yesterday” and “Eight Days a Week,” and it wouldn’t have mattered because the record company buried the album. After four months the record had gone nowhere, and I went up to Bill’s office.
“Come on, Bill. What did I do wrong?” I asked.
He got up and closed the door.
“I don’t want anyone to hear this, this is heavy,” he said. “They black-balled you. The record isn’t going anywhere, and they made sure of that. God forbid you should come out with your first record and it was a hit. They actually threatened to take a hike if your record did well. So the record company buried it.” Out of Control was released in Europe, but you could hardly find it a all in the States.”
– “Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and out of Kiss” by Peter Criss.
On 8. September, 1980, Peter Criss released his first solo album after leaving Kiss, “Out of Control”. The album would sell extremely poor making Peter unable to tour for the album. A couple of the songs were originally demoed for Kiss’ “Dynasty” album. Recording for the album began in March 1980, when Criss was still officially a member of Kiss. The album sold poorly, and was not re-released on CD until 1997, as the Kiss reunion tour was underway. The album artwork was created by Todd Schorr from an idea by Criss. Criss’ wife at the time, Debra Jensen, served as the inspiration for the blonde woman in the foreground, toward the left side, of the front cover.
Peter Criss:
“I began working on Out of Control, my first post-KISS album, even before the announcement had been made that I had left KISS. After years of hearing Glickman and Marks constantly telling me I was out of control, I thought I’d give them a sly shout-out. Stan Penridge, my longtime musical partner, came up to my place at the Claridge House, and we wrote all day. We’d get a bottle of red wine, roll a couple of joints, and go to work. Sometimes we’d write for fifteen hours straight. And the time that we weren’t writing, wed sing Lennon-McCartney harmonies for the hell of it. It was incredibly liberating to make my kind of music again.
When we had a bunch of songs, I was ready to record with Vini Poncia again, but something came up and Vini couldn’t do it. He suggested I use a friend of his named David Wolfen, who had worked with Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand and had produced Dusty Springfield and Paul Anka. He wasn’t exactly chopped liver.
The songs were heavier than the stuff I had done on my KISS solo album. It was like going back to my roots and pulling out Nautilus and the Sounds of Soul and adding some British metal to it. I thought the fans would love it.
We went up to RCA Studios on Forty-eighth Street, where Elvis had recorded a lot of his early stuff. Imagine how excited I was to record in that same big room where Elvis had done his classic tracks. Stan and I put together a great street-sounding band with a Young Rascals-New York sound. They were all white Italian kids, but their harmonies sounded soulful. I was so in love with them I was going to take them out on tour.
David Wolfen had come up with a song for me called “By Myself,” which really was about me starting all over. “For once in my life I got a chance, I’ll take it I’ve waited so long, and baby this time I can make it by myself / Starting over again.” We were going down that road looking for another “Beth.” Who wouldn’t want another People’s Choice?
The sessions went well, and it was time to come up with an album ‘cover. Originally I wanted to put my face on the cover, since nobody had seen it all those years in KISS, but Bill and Howard Marks thought it was too soon to expose my face. So I wound up designing a cover that featured 2 jukebox blowing up and shooting out all these 45s, and one of them was “Out of Control.” I also had an artist draw Deb, and we put her in the lower left-hand side of the frame, running from the exploding jukebox. It had a real pop-art Warholian feel to it, and Deb looked great.
We could have put an actual photo of Deb naked on the cover and the album wouldn’t have sold. I could have written contemporary versions of “Yesterday” and “Eight Days a Week,” and it wouldn’t have mattered because the record company buried the album. After four months the record had gone nowhere, and I went up to Bill’s office.
“Come on, Bill. What did I do wrong?” I asked.
He got up and closed the door.
“I don’t want anyone to hear this, this is heavy,” he said. “They black-balled you. The record isn’t going anywhere, and they made sure of that. God forbid you should come out with your first record and it was a hit. They actually threatened to take a hike if your record did well. So the record company buried it.” Out of Control was released in Europe, but you could hardly find it a all in the States.”
– “Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and out of Kiss” by Peter Criss.