Crazy Nights - Album Background

Album Background

After the Asylum Tour had ended, Kiss went on couple of month long hiatus due to Gene Simmons' career as an actor and a producer which made Kiss seem like his side job instead of primary job. For KISStory, Paul Stanley stated that he got sick of Simmons' lack of commitment and one day he told him:

We were in the parking lot one day, and I said to Gene: "Look – you're off doing all these other things while still reaping the benefits of this band, and I'm getting screwed. It's not fair for me to put in this kind of time, while somebody else who is supposed to be my partner, is not." And Gene looked at me and said: "That's fair." I could have used Gene's input. But my attitude at that point was that I certainly wasn't going to listen to a guy who's off managing cabaret singers, and producing five bands, while I was trying to make an album.

Simmons' temporary departure gave space to Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick. Kulick had four co-writing credits and Carr one, but almost got other material on the album. Stanley had worked with Desmond Child, Diane Warren and Adam Mitchell and co-wrote songs: "Crazy Crazy Nights", "I'll Fight Hell to Hold You" and "When Your Walls Come Down" with Mitchell ("I'll Fight Hell to Hold You" and "When Your Walls Come Down" with Kulick), "Bang Bang You", "My Way" and "Reason to Live" with Child ("My Way" with Bruce Turgon also), and "Turn On the Night" was co-written by Stanley and Warren.

As Kiss' previous two albums had been self-produced, the band felt it needed to bring in an outside producer who would help the album achieve more commercial success. The result was Ron Nevison, a producer who made platinum albums for Survivor, Chicago, Heart, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Who, Meatloaf and Ozzy Osbourne. Simmons said for KISStory, "When we started working on "Crazy Nights", we looked for someone else to pull the cart – another person to help guide the band… So we hooked up with a producer named Ron Nevison, who Paul had wanted to work with for a while, although I never did. But because of Nevison's filled schedule, the band had to wait for awhile.

The album was at first called "Who Dares Wins", which was Eric Carr's idea. According to Eric, "During a photo session our wardrobe girl had this commando patch lying around with 'Who Dares Wins' on it, and I said: "Hey, what a great idea for an album title!" Then she brought it over to Paul who said the same thing. We ended up not using it because it didn't look good in print, and it sounded as if no one would understand it." The idea was dropped in June, but managed to appear on some Japanese advertisements for the upcoming album. Another title the band thought of was "Condomnation", but as Paul said, "Well, Condomnation was never really the title. It was just a thought that passed through our minds and gave everyone a chuckle." The record sessions started in March at One on One Recording Studios in Canoga Park, California but later continued in Rumbo Recorders also in Canoga Park and Can-Am Recorders in Tarzana, California. In June the album was completed and it was mixed at Can-Am Recorders by Ron Nevison, before being turned over to PolyGram in July.