CoronaVinyl Day 127 (Commercially Unsuccessful Solo Album): Out of Control by Peter Criss

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is a commercially unsuccessful solo album.  Sometimes when a band breaks up or someone leaves a band to go solo or even if someone just does a solo album on the side, the band members' solo efforts result in huge successes (all four Beatles, Diana Ross, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Sisqo, etc.).  But there are also plenty of solo projects on the other end, where, for whatever reason, the musician's solo work just wasn't well received commercially.  Peter Criss's 1980 solo album Out of Control is one that falls into the latter category.

As the drummer and sometimes lead vocalist for KISS, Criss had been part of one of the biggest rock bands of the '70s.  While he was still technically a member of KISS when he was recording Out of Control, he only played on one song on the group's 1979 Dynasty album and none on 1980's Unmasked.  He was fired from KISS in May 1980, and Out of Control was released in September 1980.

For whatever reason, Out of Control was a commercial failure.  It failed to chart on the Billboard album chart -- which means that it wasn't even among the 200 best-selling albums in the U.S. for even a single week.  The only single from the album, "By Myself," also failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album performed so poorly that it wasn't released on CD until 1997, when the KISS reunion tour was going strong.

Criss has a great, raspy rock and roll voice, and he was the lead singer on two of KISS's highest-charting hits, "Beth" (#7) and "Hard Luck Woman" (#15), as well as several fan favorites, like "Black Diamond," and hidden gems like "Getaway" and "Baby Driver."  So, you would think his pedigree and his following in KISS would have resulted in a decent bump in sales for Out of Control.  

I've never listened to the album before, so I feel like I can offer an unadulterated perspective.  The album isn't completely terrible, but I suppose I have some theories about a confluence of events might have resulted in its poor commercial performance.  At this time, KISS had not yet taken off their makeup, so no one really knew what Criss looked like without his Catman makeup on.  The album cover doesn't help anything, as Criss appears nowhere on it.  Also, when KISS released their four "solo" albums in 1978, Criss's was the worst-performing of the four (though it still went platinum), so maybe fans were hesitant to jump into his solo work after that.  And though it likely has nothing to do with sales, the track listing on the back of the album cover bears little resemblance to the order of the songs on the album, which always pisses me off.

Most importantly, though, is that the music is all over the place.  Setting aside their foray into disco rock on Dynasty and some of the cheesier songs on Unmasked (like "Shandi"), KISS was a hard rock band, so presumably, fans expected (and wanted) Criss to follow suit.  Granted, some songs are harder rocking ("In Trouble Again") and what I would consider "mainstream rock" for the time ("Out of Control" and "You Better Run," which was a Rascals cover), but most of the songs are softer, either slower pop ballads ("By Myself," "Words," "Feel Like Letting Go") or soft rock and yacht rock-esque songs, typical of songs you would hear on Top 40 radio in the late '70s and early '80s, with synthesizers, pianos, and horns ("Where Will They Run?," "I Found Love," "There's Nothing Better," "My Life").  

I'm not saying they're all bad -- because they're not -- but just that Criss's fans and target audience perhaps weren't interest in this type of music.  That said, I just thought of an awesome tribute band:  Crisstopher Cross, a band that plays only yacht rock, but are all dressed up in Criss's KISS Catman costume.  

Favorite song from Side 1:  "In Trouble Again"

This is a really good hard rock song that could have easily found a home on just about any KISS album in the '70s.  Too bad it's the only hard rock song on the album.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "You Better Run"
"You Better Run" was a Top 20 song for the Rascals in 1966, and Criss gives it good treatment.  It's a soulful, more rocking song.