Hold Me, Touch Me (1978)

Performer: Paul Stanley                                          Writer: Paul Stanley
Highest US Chart Position: #46                              Label: Casablanca
Musicians: Paul Stanley, Bob Kulick, Doug Katsaros, Eric Nelson and Craig Krampf

The marketing department at Kiss Inc. was absolute genius. In early 1978 they leaked a rumor--that wasn’t really a rumor--that the members of Kiss were pursuing individual projects and recording their own albums. Now at that time I was into country-rock and hardcore pop like Barry Manilow and ABBA, but even I reacted with dismay to the actual rumors that this meant Kiss was breaking up the band. Along with that, however, came the frisson that they might actually reveal their identities. The reality was almost as disappointing as the breakup rumors. In a revelation that would be mirrored in their later album Unmasked, the members of Kiss, as members of Kiss, released solo albums as part of a marketing campaign that was admirable in its audacity. Most record fans at the time had difficulty shelling out the money for a double album, and it took acts like ex-Beatles George Harrison and Paul McCartney to have the fan base to release triple albums. But in doing this, Kiss managed to coerce the entire Kiss Army--including my little brother--into buying what was in essence a quadruple album. Now that was an amazing feat. The only member of the band I was interested in musically was Paul Stanley and so I bought his album and, well before the release of the single, was drawn to his ballad “Hold Me, Touch Me.”

What all of the solo albums allowed the members of the band to do was work with different types of musical palates and other musicians, as well as making different types of song choices and even, in the case of the other three, a cover song. Paul Stanley’s album was the only one with all original material. The most noticeable deviation from standard Kiss instrumentation here is the piano work of Doug Katsaros. The only other ballad the band had recorded as a group was “Hard Luck Woman,” written by Stanley and sung by Peter Criss as a follow up to “Beth,” which had no members of the band playing on it. Acoustic guitar and piano open the song with strings in the background. Stanley is no ballad singer, but the soft cushion of the music definitely helps him as much as possible. Drums and bass enter as soon as the vocal, the lament of a narrator who is leaving his woman before a long journey. Another aid to Stanley’s singing is the wall of background vocals assisting him on the chorus. The guitar solo that ends the song, and probably played by Bob Kulick, is a model of simplicity and yet builds gradually up the neck until it hits the final high note of the song. It was a great way to end the tune and winds up being much more satisfying that the other ballad on the album, “Take Me Away,” which is more of a rock ballad.

The single was backed by the closing track on the album, “Goodbye,” a standard rocker that feels a bit like a throwaway in the context of the album as a whole. “Hold Me, Touch Me” was definitely angling for crossover radio airplay but couldn’t quite crack the top forty, peaking at number forty-six in December of 1978. Still, it was the second-highest charter of the four albums, second only to Ace Frehley’s cover of Russ Ballard’s “New York Groove.” Gene Simmons’ “Radioactive” reached number forty-seven, a notch below Stanley, while Peter Criss had two singles released from his solo album and neither managed to chart in the Hot 100 at all. In the end, Paul Stanley’s album feels more like a Kiss album than any of the other three, primarily due to his distinctive vocals and song choices, and so it would have been interesting to see one of his rockers released as a single as well. Still, “Hold Me, Touch Me” remains one of the more memorable songs on the album, and a potent reminder for me of the winter of 1978.