On this day in music history: September 18, 1978 - Casablanca Records will simultaneously release four individual solo albums by the members of KISS. The separate solo projects are done to both fulfill a contractual obligation to their record label, and to also alleviate building creative and personal tensions within the band. The albums will be launched with an unprecedented media campaign, with Casablanca spending over $2.5 million marketing them. All four titles will be shipped platinum, with the label manufacturing a total of five million LPs, cassettes and 8-track tapes. The albums will sell a respectable amount, roughly 600-700,000 copies each. However, the demand will trail off quickly, resulting in Casablanca getting hit with massive returns from retailers. Label head Neil Bogart believing holiday sales will take care of the surplus stock, presses 250,000 more copies of each album, losing even more money!!! Of the four albums, Ace Frehleys (#26 Pop) will be the most successful saleswise, followed by Gene Simmons (#22 Pop), Paul Stanley (#40 Pop) and Peter Criss (#43 Pop). The albums will be staples of record store cutout bins for several years afterward, but do eventually sell though, with sealed non cut out copies now selling at a premium price on the collectors market.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 23:00:07 +0000
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