Безумные ночи: История альбома Kiss 1987 года

Crazy Nights is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, recorded from March to June 1987 and released on September 21, 1987, by Mercury worldwide and Vertigo in the UK. This was the second album to feature the line up of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Eric Carr. The album is notable for its pop metal or glam rock sound as well as for its use of keyboards and synthesizers (unlike previous Kiss albums) a reflection of popular trends in the commercial rock genre of this time. It was re released in 1998 as part of the Kiss Remasters series and is the last Kiss album to have been remastered. A relatively high number of songs from Crazy Nights were performed live during its supporting tour, but during and especially immediately following the tour, most of those songs were dropped and were never performed again. Only the song "Crazy Crazy Nights" was retained in their setlist for the Hot in the Shade Tour which followed a couple of years later; it was dropped after that tour and would not return for nearly 20 years until the Sonic Boom Over Europe Tour. This makes the album one of the least represented in the bands' entire catalog throughout their career in their setlists, behind only Music From "The Elder" and Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions. Despite its lack of representation in live sets since, the album remains a fan favorite and is considered a classic album from their non makeup years and their 80s era.

Kiss took a different approach in creating Crazy Nights, to turn around their image after they had a downfall in their music career due to experimentation of the band's music genre and the loss of two prime members. The band had a lot to prove after their decline of success. Since the time of recording Asylum, Kiss were also under new management representation with Larry Mazur, a consultant. </blockquote>

Simmons' temporary departure gave space to Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick. Kulick had four co writing credits and Carr one, but almost got other material on the album. Stanley had worked with Desmond Child, Diane Warren and Adam Mitchell and co wrote songs: "Crazy Crazy Nights", "I'll Fight Hell to Hold You" and "When Your Walls Come Down" with Mitchell ("I'll Fight Hell to Hold You" and "When Your Walls Come Down" with Kulick), "Bang Bang You", "My Way" and "Reason to Live" with Child ("My Way" with Bruce Turgon also), and "Turn On the Night" was co written by Stanley and Warren. As Kiss' previous two albums had been self produced, the band felt it needed to bring in an outside producer who would help the album achieve more commercial success. Producer Ron Nevison was hired to produce the album, but because of Nevison's filled schedule, the band had to wait for his schedule to clear. Nevison was chosen in part from his recent commercial success in producing platinum albums for Heart and Ozzy Osbourne. Simmons said for KISStory, "When we started working on Crazy Nights, we looked for someone else to pull the cart, another person to help guide the band So we hooked up with a producer named Ron Nevison, who[m] Paul had wanted to work with for a while, although I never did." Although Simmons' participation was low for the album, he did contribute in providing Nevison with 20–25 songs that were potential material for the album, including one song called "I'm Going to Put a Log in Your Fire Place", which was ultimately not used on this or any subsequent albums.

A few other songs were recorded for the album, but not included. Kulick, Child and Stanley wrote a song called "Sword and Stone" that did not manage to get on the album because Nevison was not thrilled with the song. Kulick later stated, "I just felt really bad that Ron Nevison didn't like the song 'cause then it would have been on Crazy Nights. But I couldn't control that. And the demo that is out there in bootleg form is pretty good. We did it at Electric Lady with Eric Carr, and it's a full blown KISS track practically. I actually came up with that riff backstage on tour early on, Asylum, I think. That's what happens. Paul didn't mind as much; I felt pretty bad about that." The song was offered to Canadian rock band Loverboy, and was re recorded by their lead guitarist Paul Dean on his 1988 album Hard Core. The song was also recorded by German heavy metal band Bonfire for a Wes Craven movie, Shocker. Carr, Simmons and Mitchell wrote, "Dial 'L' for Love". Carr, who sang the song, was the primary writer, and he later passed it to Simmons and Mitchell who completed it. As Carr stated, "The song wasn't good at the time, so it didn't get on the album." A demo was made, but it did not include completed vocals. An instrumental recording of "Dial 'L' for Love" would be released on Unfinished Business in 2011. "Are You Always This Hot" is a song written by Simmons and Mitchell. In the 1980s, Simmons had the ritual of making new songs that are based on some older songs, or simply spoken, he recycled them. And "Are You Always This Hot" is one of them. It was first written by Mitchell in 1981. The Simmons demo was only released in 2017 on the box set Gene Simmons Vault. The song "Time Traveler" was recorded during these sessions and later released on the 2001 KISS Box Set. Some other songs that were written for the album, but never made it, are "Boomerang", "'X' Marks the Spot", "Scratch and Sniff", "What Goes Up", "Hunger for Love", "Dirty Blonde", "Don't Let Go" and "No Mercy", although "Boomerang" would be later featured on Hot in the Shade.

"While their melodies continue to be quarried from stone, their lyrics are written in lipstick," wrote Emily Fraser in a three star Q review. "The riffs often have purpose and force and, in the cases of 'No No No' and 'Thief in the Night', a keen, cutting edge."

All credits adapted from the original release.