Geoff Barton | Team Rock

New York Groove is Ace Frehley’s very own personal anthem. The track is as synonymous with the ex-Kiss man as his silver superhero suit and smokin’ six-string.

Frehley was born and raised in the Bronx, so the Big Apple is his kinda town. And New York Groove is his kinda song – even though he didn’t actually write it. Nevertheless, when Ace barks the line ‘It’s gonna be ecstasy… this place was meant for me’ above that foot-stomping rhythm, you can sense the native pride shivering down his Spaceman spine.

“A lot of people think I wrote New York Groove. It’s not a myth that I’ve perpetuated, but that’s the way it is. I wish I would’ve wrote the song, though. I would’ve made a lot more cash out of it, ha-ha-hargh!” Frehley chuckles in his inimitable style.

In fact New York Groove was written by Russ Ballard and recorded originally by Hello, the glitter-popstrels who enjoyed a brief burst of fame in the mid-70s. Three years before Frehley included New York Groove on his self-titled 1978 solo album, Hello’s version was a hit all over Europe. It got to No.9 in the UK and No.7 in Germany.

Ballard takes up the story: “In 1975 I’d just finished producing Roger Daltrey’s solo album, Ride A Rock Horse. I got it cut in London but Roger said to me: ‘People say Bob Ludwig’s cuts are louder at Sterling Sound in New York. Do you fancy flying out and doing a cut there?’”

Ballard, the former guitarist with Argent, hadn’t been to New York for a while. “While I was sitting on the plane I got out a pen and paper and started thinking of the phrase ‘back in the New York groove’. That’d be a good title for a song, I reckoned; the whole idea of someone going back to New York and singing about the experience.”

Returning to the UK, Ballard met up with Hello’s manager, Dave Blaylock, who asked him: “Have you got any more songs my band might be interested in?”

Ballard had written Hello’s debut single, You Move Me. Hello had also demo’d another Ballard song, Can’t Let You Go, which had become a Top 40 hit for Barry Ryan.

Ballard replied: “I haven’t got a song exactly, but I’ve got this title, I’ve got this kind of idea…”