Be One of Us #45 - "Creatures of the Night"

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In case you haven't noticed the theme of this random countdown of songs with "of" in the title, it's 50 songs with "of" in the title. We are at #45: "Creatures of the Night" by Kiss. This entire thing, both the 1982 Creatures of the Night album, and it's title track, was a Kiss-sized mess from the get go. After alienating fans by dabbling in pop music and, worse, disco (as well as putting out what is widely regarded as one of the worst concept albums of all time,) Creatures of the Night was a promise to return to the band's hard rock roots. Drummer Peter Criss was long gone, guitarist Ace Frehley was credited as a band member, and even appeared on the album cover, but did not actually play on the album. His replacement, Vinnie Vincent, played most of the lead guitar, but not as a permanent member of Kiss. And he didn't play on the title track. Nope. Here's how it went down: Paul Stanley did sing the lead vocals and played his customary rythym guitar, but then things got very un-Kiss-like. Gene Simmons performed backup vocals, but apparently, due to his romantic fallout with Diana Ross, refused to play his bass parts. Enter Mike Porcaro of Toto. And enter Steve Farris on lead guitar (who would later find fame in Mr. Mister.) And, co-songwriter Adam Mitchell, associated with singers such as Nicollete Larson, Olivia Newton-John, and Merle Haggard, ended up redoing most of the rhythm guitar parts. To top it off, the song was only released as a single in the UK, where it stalled at #34. (Really, if you just think about it for a moment, this was actually kind of very Kiss-like. Chaos? As long as there's money to be made, Gene and Paul could care less about chaos. Just keep those checks coming! "Creatures of the Night" lunch pails and drink coasters coming soon to a store near you! And pencils. And fingernail clippers. And "Creatures of the Night" cookies. And diapers. And cigarettes. And sex toys. And...) And despite all of the turmoil, "Creatures of the Night" is one of the best tunes they ever did! Rock aaaaaaand Rolllllllll, Kiss-Style! WHOO HOOO! (Info verified by Wikipedia)