Editing Peter Criss (section)

=== Kiss ===
[[File:KISS cat face.svg|thumb|left|The Catman]]<!-- do not remove w/o discussion on talk page, his former makeup is an integral part of who he is -->
After the demise of his band Lips, Criss placed an advertisement in the [[Eastern United States|East Coast]] edition of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ''Magazine'', which read:

{{blockquote|EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music.  Peter, Brooklyn.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kissarmysweden.net/38-ar-sedan|title=38 år sedan|website=Kissarmysweden.net|date=April 11, 2010}}</ref>}}

The advertisement was answered by [[Paul Stanley]] and [[Gene Simmons]], who were looking for new members for their band. [[Ace Frehley]] was added to the lineup in December 1972, and the band was named Kiss later that month. However, Simmons describes first meeting Criss in his book ''Kiss And Make-Up'' thusly:

{{blockquote|One afternoon I run across an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine that said "Drummer available – Will do anything." I called the guy on the telephone, and even though he was in the middle of a party, he took my call. I introduced myself and said we were starting a band and that the band was looking for a drummer, and was he willing to do anything to make it? He says that he was, right away.}}

Simmons later in the chapter describes going to a small Italian club in Brooklyn to meet the drummer: "The drummer started to sing, and this [[Wilson Pickett]]-style voice came out of him. Paul and I said, 'That's it, that's our drummer.' His name was Peter Criscuola."

Kiss released [[Kiss (Kiss album)|their self-titled debut]] in February 1974. Throughout the band's initial lineup, Paul and Gene would sing the majority of the songs on each studio album, with Peter, and later Ace, contributing vocals for one or two songs. Throughout his Kiss career, in his original tenure and on the Reunion-era album ''[[Psycho Circus]]'', Criss was the lead singer on several songs which turned out to be radio-hit and/or live favorites, including "[[Black Diamond (Kiss song)|Black Diamond]]", "[[Hard Luck Woman]]", and "[[Beth (song)|Beth]]".

Criss had collaborated on a demo originally titled "Beck", a song that was eventually reworked to become the ballad "[[Beth (song)|Beth]]", a Top 10 hit for Kiss on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 7 in 1976. The song remains the highest-charting song for Kiss in the United States and it earned them a [[People's Choice Awards|People's Choice Award]] for "Young People's Favorite New Song" in 1977, tied with "[[Disco Duck]]". The song was actually written before Criss had joined Kiss, while he was still a member of Chelsea. Criss came up with the melody for the song while on a train to New York City from [[New Jersey]] where the band practiced. He and Penridge wrote the song together.<ref name="behindthemask">David Leaf, Ken Sharp ''Kiss: Behind the Mask – Official Authorized Biography'' Warner Books, 2005; {{ISBN|978-0446695244}}, pg. 268</ref> A demo exists of the song from 1971.<ref>CD, KISStory, Demos and Rare Songs, Vol 3, songs 1 & 2, 2008</ref>