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Ace Frehley will always be my choice pick for the guitarist of Kiss. Ace Frehley was the original guitarist and in my Metal opinion, the best at lead guitar for Kiss. I few posts ago, I stated that my favorite Kiss solo album of all time is Paul Stanley. I cannot backtrack that sentiment, the Paul Stanley album is for me, #1. With that said, out of the four Kiss solo albums, Ace Frehley is clearly my #2 choice. My fellow peer in Metal blogs over at The Metal Files, (a cool Metal Music blog that is worth the visits), commented his favorite Kiss solo album is Ace Frehley… this spurred me into delving into the Ace Frehley solo album once again. I do own the Ace Frehley solo album, (released on September 18, 1978), a record that has been with me for decades. I actually bought this Ace Frehley vinyl from a cut-out bin, from a small department store named Woolworths, back in the very early 1980’s. My Ace Frehley album has the top right corner actually cut off, therefore, that is probably why it was in a cut-out bin! Despite the cosmetic damage that this album cover suffered, the album itself and the large fold-out poster of Ace Frehley that was included with the album, never sustained damage from the cut-out process. (Each Kiss solo album had a large fold-out poster of the respective Kiss musician inside the album sleeve, with each of the four posters interlocking together, through die cuts, to form one giant Kiss collage, if you will).

Now, I have not ever owned the Ace Frehley solo album as a CD… until today. A trip to Best Buy had me, as usual, walking the CD aisles and staking out some Heavy Music that would pacify my Metal hunger. Well, Classic Heavy Metal has done it again… the Ace Frehley solo CD caught my eye, it was about time to upgrade my vinyl copy after all. I paid $7.99 for this Ace Frehley CD today, that is cheaper than buying a steak and a whole lot more gratifying too. “Rip It Out” and “Speedin’ Back To My Baby” are the first two tracks… I tag these two songs as being my two favorites. These songs have that Ace Frehley vibe happening, vocally of course, yet the guitar of Ace is so incredibly vintage. To plop a CD into the car stereo on the ride home and have the very first two songs crank like this… all I could say to myself as I drove was… Space Ace Rocks. As I continued to listen to Ace Frehley, it was a consistent reminder to me, as to how Rock legit his solo album was and still is. When I was much younger, back in 1978, I bought the 45 rpm of “New York Groove”, with the “B” side being “Snow Blind”. Both of these songs I do put on a Metal pedestal for the memories they stir… I was just a young, little dude playing this 45 record back in 1978, CD’s and ipods were non existent and The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox – in a one game playoff for the American League East Division title. Plus, I had no bills to pay back in 1978 either. Ace Frehley as with all of the Kiss solo albums, bring back memories that money just can’t buy.

This Ace Frehley solo album did reach platinum sales status, (one million or more copies sold), peaking at #26 on the U.S. Billboard album charts as well. My fellow Metal blogging peer at The Metal Files commented Ace Frehley did not write “New York Groove”… Russ Ballard did. “New York Groove” peaked at #13 on the U.S. Billboard Singles chart. Not to sound like a television music show judge, excuse me by saying… Ace Frehley nailed it with “New York Groove”. Aw, heck, Ace Frehley nailed it on all nine songs too.

This entry was posted on August 9, 2009 at 3:23 am and is filed under 1970's classic rock albums, 1970's classic rock songs, 1970's classic rock music, 1970's hard rock, 1970's heavy metal, 1970's heavy metal albums, 1970's heavy metal music, 1970's Rock, 1970's rock music, Album Review, classic hard rock, classic hard rock music, classic heavy metal albums, classic rock, classic rock albums, classic rock music, classic rock music facts, cool album covers, essential classic rock albums, essential hard rock albums, essential heavy metal albums, essential rock albums, heavy metal album covers, heavy metal album review, heavy metal albums, heavy metal guitarists, heavy metal music, heavy metal solo albums, heavy metal solo artists, heavy metal solo vocalists, heavy metal vocalists, Metal, Music, old school heavy metal, rock music, vintage hard rock albums, vintage heavy metal albums, vintage rock albums with tags 1970's classic rock albums, 1970's classic rock music, 1970's hard rock music, 1970's heavy metal albums, 1970's rock music, 1978 ace frehley solo album, ace frehley guitarist, ace frehley kiss guitarist, ace frehley solo album, Album Review, best buy, classic heavy metal, classic rock, classic rock albums, Hard Rock, hard rock music, Heavy Metal, heavy metal album review, heavy metal music, kiss, kiss heavy metal band, kiss solo albums 1978, Music, new york groove song 1978, rock music, woolworths department store. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.