Kiss Songs - Beth Lyrics

Kiss - Beth

Kiss - Beth Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Destroyer
Released: 1976

Beth Lyrics

Beth I hear you calling
But I can't come home right now
Me and the boys are playing
And we just can't find the sound

Just a few more hours
And I'll be right home to you
I think I hear them calling
Oh Beth what can I do
Beth what can I do

You say you feel so empty
That our house just ain't our home
I'm always somewhere else
And you're always there alone

Just a few more hours
And I'll be right home to you
I think I hear them calling
Oh Beth what can I do
Beth what can I do

Beth I know you're lonely
And I hope you'll be alright
'Cause me and the boys will be playing all night

Writer/s: CRISS, PETER / EZRIN, BOB / PENRIDGE, STANLEY
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Beth

This song dates back to a band called Chelsea, which future Kiss drummer Peter Criss was in with the guitarist Stan Penridge from 1970-1972. Criss and Penridge came up with a song called "Beck," which was about the wife of their guitarist Mike Brand, whose name was Becky. She was constantly interrupting their band practices asking when Mike was coming home, and the song was a joke directed at him.

In August 2000, less than a year before Penridge died at age 50, he explained to the KissFAQ : "'Beck' was written, almost word for word, from Mike Brand's responses to his wife's constant calls that interrupted our rehearsals. It got to the point where I wrote down his remarks over a period of three or four days in what I called my 'wizard book.' It was merely a small notebook I carried to jot down silly sayings, sketch in, to save ideas. If you look at the lyrics and view them as a hen-pecked hubby's remarks to his nagging wife you'll see what I mean. Just pause after every sentence and pretend there's a bitch at the other end of the line. You'll catch it - I'm sure. Absolutely not responsible at all. Another poorman's copyright by me in '70."

Penridge and Criss recorded a demo of "Beck" but never released the song. In 1976, after Criss joined Kiss, he and Penridge revived the song and with the help of producer Bob Ezrin, they changed the title to "Beth" and made it more sentimental, changing the end of the first verse from:

"I know you love complaining, but Beck what can I do?"
to
"I think I hear them callin', Oh, Beth what can I do?"

A piano ballad not typical of Kiss' sound, this was released as the B-side of "Detroit Rock City," which was the third single from the album, following "Shout It Out Loud" and "Flaming Youth." These three first single releases were hard-driving anthems in the style of Kiss' previous hit "Rock And Roll All Nite," but the song that got the most attention was "Beth." Radio stations began playing the song, and the record company responded by flipping the sides of the single, with "Beth" becoming the A-side about six weeks later. It became the biggest hit for Kiss, and their only their only song to get significant airplay on Top 40 radio and even - gasp - Adult Contemporary formats.

Stan Penridge co-wrote and played guitar on most of the songs on Peter Criss' 1980 solo album Out of Control. Criss was best man at Stan's wedding (Ace Frehley was also in the bridal party) and they worked together for a few years after Criss left Kiss. In 2000, Penridge filed a lawsuit claiming he was owed money for some of the songs he wrote with Criss that Kiss recorded, including "Baby Driver," "Dirty Living," and "Baby, Don't You let me Down."

Peter Criss sang lead, as he did on several Kiss songs, including "Black Diamond" and "Hard Luck Woman." He was the only member of the band to perform on this song - Dick Wagner played the acoustic guitar and an orchestra was brought in. Wagner had toured with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, but was living in New York and taking session work at the time. He wasn't credited on the album, but remembers also playing on the tracks "Sweet Pain" and "Flaming Youth."

Live performances of this song were a bit of a problem unless Kiss had an orchestra handy. When they didn't, Peter Criss would move to the front of the stage and sing it to a recorded backing track.

This song is a source of contention between Peter Criss and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley. Criss was fired from the band in 1980, and while he participated in reunion tours, he was replaced by other musicians: first Eric Carr and then Eric Singer (on later tours, Singer would sometimes sing this song like Criss used to).

As the co-writer/singer of Kiss' biggest hit, Criss stakes a solid claim to the band's legacy, but Stanley has maintained that Stan Penridge wrote just about all of "Beth," and Criss contributed very little to the song. "Peter had nothing to do with it," Stanley told Rolling Stone in 2014. "It was a lifeline that Peter hung on to validate himself, but it wasn't based on reality."

The rift between Criss and Stanley runs far deeper than a dispute over this song. When Kiss was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, Stanley and Gene Simmons refused to reunite with the original lineup and ultimately decided not to perform at the ceremony.

Sitcom writer Paul Simms named the obnoxious secretary character from NewsRadio Beth after this song. The character had "no last name." (thanks, Brett - Edmonton, Canada)

Peter Criss married his first wife, Lydia, in 1970. They were still together when this song became a hit, which lent some veracity to the lyric about coming home to see your girl. In 1978, their relationship turned rocky when Criss took up with Debra Jensen, who was Miss January in Playboy that year. Peter and Lydia divorced in 1979 (with Lydia getting a reported $1 million settlement), and Peter and Debra were later married.

In our interview with Lydia Criss , she claims credit for coming up with the name "Beth." According to Lydia, Gene Simmons didn't want to call it "Beck" to avoid confusion with the guitarist Jeff Beck. She says she suggested "Beth" because she was thinking about the woman Neil Bogart of Kiss' label Casablanca Records was married to: the former Beth Weiss. Like the original inspiration for the song, Becky Brand, Beth was also a twin.

Lydia also says that she provided the line "You say you feel so empty that our house just ain't our home." She explained: "I was working for six years of our marriage and supporting Peter. When I finally stopped working, I said, 'I feel so empty. I feel like this house isn't even my home.' And he put that in the song. Because I was used to paying the bills, and being a Scorpio, kind of controlling things. When I moved, I didn't have control anymore, so I felt a little empty, and they put it in a song."

This was used in a 2015 commercial for the Volkswagen Passat where a husband gets a call from his wife, Beth, that shows up on his car information system. He ignores it, and runs off to join their kids for some fun and adventure. Driving home with the kids asleep in the back seat, he tells the vehicle: "Text Beth: What can I do?" The reply: "Pick up milk."