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On this day back in 1950, the Caravellos from New York welcomed a bouncing baby boy to the family. Paul Charles Caravello would go on to become Eric Carr, drummer for Kiss through the 1980s. Sadly, we lost Eric on November 24, 1991, which is the same day Freddie Mercury passed. Longtime Goldmine writer — and author of the recent Kiss at 50 — Martin Popoff, celebrates Eric’s life and times with a look at the top songs of his tenure. —Pat Prince
Thanks Pat, and a pleasure to write this one up, as that ‘80s period from Kiss is rapidly and continually rising in the estimation of the Kiss faithful as the years roll on. Let’s see if we can figure out why. —Martin Popoff
20. “Little Caesar”
This Hot in the Shade track wouldn’t have made this list on merit alone, because I don’t like these funky, butt-shaking Gene Simmons stripper-rock songs as a rule. But we celebrate it because Eric Carr co-writes (with Simmons and Adam Mitchell) and then turns in a rock-solid, confident lead vocal, his only one besides the band’s “Beth” remake. As it turns out, Eric had a great voice, too, putting him right between Peter Criss and Eric Singer as capable singing drummers in Kiss. And the weird thing is, despite having a somewhat unusual voice, he sounds like Eric Singer, and even, to some extent, Peter when he’s singing higher and cleaner and not doing his lion’s roar. It’s kinda like Kiss’ version of the Genesis story.
19. “Crazy Crazy Nights”
This is just pure stupidity like “Lick It Up,” but it gets sold, partly because it’s the lead track on the mostly anemic Crazy Nights album. There’s a bit of a Charlie Watts approach to the high-hat track that helps the song, which otherwise survives on Paul Stanley’s spirit of hope in it, and then a modulation. OK, maybe it isn’t Shakespeare or Queen, but whatever it is, it’s a hair metal confection that’s hard to get out of your head once you hear it. And the British sure liked it, sending it to No. 1 on the charts, making it the band’s highest-charting U.K. single ever.
18. “Nowhere to Run”
After the failure of Music from “The Elder,” Polygram requested a course correction, with Kiss turning in four new songs (with Bob Kulick on lead guitar) to go on a European hits compilation called Killers. None of them were that great, but Paul’s “Nowhere to Run” is kind of fun because it represents Kiss in rare AOR mode, sounding very much like the commercial music of its day as practiced by Sammy Hagar, Bryan Adams and Night Ranger. Conversely, it sounds like a really good song from Paul’s 1978 solo album, albeit with brash, overly loud and reverb-laden drum production (so not the best representation of Eric).