KISS -- Dressed to Kill

Dressed to Kill has always been a favorite KISS of mine. It's noted for its very short run time (fifteen minutes each side and almost no guitar solos). The cover isn't one of the most attractive I've seen (the guys are wearing business suits and posing on a street corner in New York), but the songs are awesome. Two of them, Love Her All I Can and She are songs from Wicked Lester Days (a band Paul and Gene were in together) and appeared on the Wicked Lester album.

Paul and Gene hated the Wicked Lester album so much they scraped together the money and bought the rights to the album back from the record company, who panned to release it when KISS started hitting, just so the album would never be see the light of day. Happily, they saw fit to use two of the tunes, which turned out excellent on the Dressed to Kill..

Dressed to Kill also features a killer Peter Criss vocal on a song penned by Ace Frehley called Getaway. Two kick ass Gene Simmons tracks, Ladies in Waiting and Two Timer are also present. Paul puts in top notch performances with Anything for My Baby and one of my favorite tracks, Room Service.

The album also features Rock Bottom, C'mon and Love Me (which became a big KISS classic, and, of course, Rock and Roll All Nite (which hit its stride on the Alive album).

The album was rushed because KISS were on tour and being urged to keep the records coming out at the same time, hence the inclusion of a couple tracks already written and the short running time of the songs. What could have been a big mistake turned out, I think, to be one of KISS' jewels.