Beth (song)

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Beth
Kiss
publication 1976
length 2:45
Genre (s) Rock music
text Stan Penridge
music Peter Criss , Stan Penridge , Bob Ezrin
album Destroyer

Beth is the title of a single from hard rock band Kiss that was released in September 1976 and made it to seventh place on the Billboard Hot 100 . The song, which came from the album Destroyer , stayed in the charts for 21 weeks and was the band's biggest commercial success to date.

Emergence

Peter Criss, drummer at KISS , played with Stan Penridge in the band Lips between 1970 and 1972 and wrote numerous songs with Penridge. One of the titles they wrote was called Beck . The lyrics came after Penridge simply wrote down guitarist Mike Brand's answers, which he gave to his wife Becky on the phone when she called during Chelsea rehearsals and asked him to come home and not spend so much time with his bandmates . While working for Destroyer , Criss brought in the title, but received little response. Bob Ezrin edited the title with Criss; together they changed the lyrics and orchestrated the song.

From the album Destroyer , which was released in March 1976, three singles had already been released by September 1976, all of which did not meet the expectations that the band and management had after working with producer Bob Ezrin. The titles in question were Shout It out Loud (March, 31st), Flaming Youth (June, 74th) and Detroit Rock City (September, 44th). Beth was on the B-side of Detroit Rock City . After radio DJs began playing the ballad , the record company, Casablanca Records , reacted very quickly, releasing the track as a single, and the song made it into the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100.

Beth was accepted into Kiss' live program; Criss sang the title to a playback , as there was no band-suitable arrangement of the title. It wasn't until 1995, when Kiss performed on MTV Unplugged , that the newly arranged song was played by the group itself. For a few years, the song was played by the whole group with acoustic instruments at KISS live shows and sung by Eric Singer .

Cover versions

From a technical point of view, Beth was covered several times, but always by artists who had something to do with the creation of the song: When Kiss released the best-of album Smashes, Thrashes & Hits in 1988 , it was a re-recording of the title, but not here was sung by Peter Criss, but by Eric Carr - for the production only the vocal track of the title originally recorded in 1976 was replaced by the version sung by Carr. His vocals were recorded in the same studio in which Peter Criss recorded the title.

Peter Criss recorded the song again himself, namely in 1993 for the self-titled EP of his band Criss .

In the US hit series " Glee ", "Beth" appears in the episode "Much Theater!" also covered by Mark Salling and Cory Monteith.

swell

  1. http://www.billboard.com/#/song/kiss/beth/6707586 Chart info on Billboard.com
  2. ^ Lydia Criss: Sealed With a Kiss. Lydia Criss Publishing, ISBN 1-56849-739-3
  3. Musician / Songwriter Stan "Doc" Penridge Dead at 50, obituary by Dale Sherman on Stan Penridge , kissasylum.com (English), accessed April 6, 2020
  4. PETER CRISS And PAUL STANLEY Spar Over 'Beth' Songwriting Credits, blabbermouth.net (English), accessed April 6, 2020
  5. ^ Dale Sherman: Black Diamond - The Unauthorized Biography of Kiss ; Collectors Guide Publishing Inc., 1997, ISBN 1-896522-35-1

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