KISS co-founder, guitarist, and rock music icon Ace Frehley has sadly passed at the age of 74. To honor the memory of one of the coolest guitarists and vocalists to ever grace the KISS lineup, let’s take a look at just a few songs where Ace Frehley sang lead… and made these songs even better.
“Shock Me” from ‘Love Gun’ (1977)
“Shock Me” is a pretty obvious shoo-in for this list. A standout song from Love Gun, this 1977 hard rock classic was written by Ace Frehley, and he also sang lead on the song. In fact, “Shock Me” was Frehley’s first KISS song to feature his lead vocals. All guitar tracks are also by Frehley.
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The inspiration for this song came from a potentially dangerous situation Frehley found himself in during the band’s Rock and Roll Over Tour. Apparently, Frehley was nearly electrocuted when he touched a metal staircase during the band’s opening number. The staircase was ungrounded, and the electric shock caused by his guitar sent him flying. He (thankfully) recovered quickly, though he said that he couldn’t feel his hand for the rest of the concert.
“Torpedo Girl” from ‘Unmasked’ (1980)
This absolutely wild song from Unmasked features the lead vocal stylings of Ace Frehley, and he also offered all the guitar and bass tracks on the song. Frehley also sang lead on “Talk To Me” and “Two Sides Of The Coin”, but I feel like “Torpedo Girl” is a bit on the underrated side. Frehley also co-wrote this song with record producer Vini Poncia.
“Into The Void” from ‘Psycho Circus’ (1998)
This track’s a special one. In fact, the whole of Psycho Circus is a special album. It was the first album in decades to feature all four of the original members of KISS, since the 1979 album Dynasty.
Ace Frehley sings lead on this one, and Peter Criss plays drums. Both artists almost didn’t end up on the record at all. The lore goes that Paul Stanley really did not want them involved and paid them handsomely not to record. Thankfully, they both got on “Into The Void”, at least, plus a couple of other tracks. This whole album doesn’t get much love among critics, but it is nice to hear Frehley on “Into The Void”.
Photo by Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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