New York Groove

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,'" he told Songfacts. "But that was a cover."

With a big, bossy rhythm, the song 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."