Fractured Mirror Snow Blind New York Grove Ace Frehley

Fractured Mirror Studio album by Ace Frehley (1978) Track 9 final song side Two
Snow Blind Studio album by Ace Frehley (1978) Track 3 Side One
New York Grove Studio album by Ace Frehley (1978) Track 6 first song side Two
by Ace Frehley

Ace Frehley is the first solo album by American guitarist and former Kiss member Ace Frehley, released on September 18, 1978, by Casablanca Records. It was one of four albums released by each separate Kiss member as a solo act, but yet still under the Kiss label, coming out alongside Peter Criss, Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons.

Ace Frehley contains the cover hit single "New York Groove", which was originally written by Russ Ballard and recorded by Hello in 1975. The song would prove to be a major hit for Frehley and boosted sales for its parent album. The album would also prove to be the most successful of the four Kiss solo albums.

In a retrospective review Greg Prato of AllMusic wrote that "of the four Kiss solo albums, the best of the bunch is Ace Frehley's", who "did not stray far from the expected heavy Kiss sound". Jason Josephes of Pitchfork concurred that it was the standout of the Kiss solo efforts, describing it as "a melange of riff rock, power pop, and just a little bit of soul". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff defined Ace Frehley as "the least pretentious, heaviest and best-selling platter of the Kiss' solo album quartet", describing the music as "solid, well-rounded simplified '70s metal".

"New York Groove", which was first recorded in 1975 by the glam rock band Hello, rose to No. 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. This was the highest chart placement for any of the singles released from the 1978 solo albums. The album reached No. 26 on the US Billboard 200 album chart. It was certified platinum on October 2, 1978, and shipped over 1,000,000 copies. It is the highest selling of the four Kiss solo albums in the Sound Scan era (1991 onwards).

Ace Frehley – lead vocals, backing vocals, lead, rhythm and acoustic guitar, guitar synthesizer, bass
Additional personnel
Anton Fig – drums, percussion
Carl Tallarico – drums on "Fractured Mirror"
David Lasley and Susan Collins – backing vocals on "New York Groove"
Bill "Bear" Scheniman – bell on "Fractured Mirror"
Bobby McAdams – power mouth (talkbox) on "New York Groove"
Production
Eddie Kramer and Ace Frehley – producers
Eddie Kramer and Rob Freeman – engineers
Eric Block and Don Hunerburg – assistant engineers
George Marino – mastered at Sterling Sound, New York

Ace Frehley is a full-blooded New Yorker, but "New York Groove" was written by an Englishman: Russ Ballard, a songwriter who until 1974 was the guitarist in Argent. He wrote the bones of the song on a plane while flying to New York City to work on a Roger Daltrey solo album - Ballard hadn't been to the city in a while and was getting "back in the New York Groove."

Ballard had written a song called "You Move Me" for the English band Hello, and when he returned to the UK, their manager asked for another song. Ballard gave them "New York Groove," which they released in 1975. Their version was a Top 10 hit in England and Germany, but made no impact in America. Ace Frehley, guitarist for Kiss, turned it into a hit Stateside with his 1978 version, which became his signature song. "A lot of people think I wrote 'New York Groove, but that was a cover."

With a big, bossy rhythm, New York Grove has elements of glam rock, a style that suited Frehley well. Russ Ballard talked about how the song come together in an interview with Classic Rock magazine: "I wanted to do a Bo Diddley beat because I thought that sort of sound hadn't been heard for a long time, so I got some maracas and a harmonica, and I started off with this 'cha-ch-ch-cha-chcha-cha' rhythm. I got the members of Hello to stand on some trestle tables with their platform boots on and they all stomped along. I had the chorus - 'I'm back, back in the New York groove' - and I wrote the rest of the words in the studio."

Frehley was still with Kiss when he released this song. In 1978, each member of the band released a solo album on the same day as part of a (mostly) friendly and highly marketable competition. Gene Simmons had the best-selling album, but Frehley had the only hit with "New York Groove."

In 2015, the New York Mets started playing New York Groove after home victories.