Lyn Christopher

Description

Let's start with this fact: this 1973 record is one of the most sought-after collector's items of its era. Why? Well, first of all, Lyn Christopher's self-titled album on the Paramount label is a very good album, an appealing blend of pop and R&B sounds featuring the artist's seductive voice backed by some of New York's finest studio cats, like guitarist Hugh McCracken, Blood Sweat & Tears multi-instrumentalist Lou Marini Jr., and future Back Street Crawler keyboardist Mike Montgomery. And "Take Me with You," the album's penultimate track, was sampled by Mobb Deep's Havoc, LL Cool J, 50 Cent, The Game, and memorably by the Smut Peddlers on their 2001 underground classic "One by One." But there's another very big reason why original copies of Lyn Christopher command a king's ransom (and no, it's not because it's never been reissued in any format). If you know who Chaim Witz and Stanley Eisen are, then you probably already know the answer. It's just... this album marks the first recorded appearance of KISS's Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley! They sing backing vocals on two tracks, "Celebrate II" and "Weddin'"; and supposedly it's Peter Criss doing handclaps. What's more, this album introduced legendary engineer Eddie Kramer — who, though uncredited, ran the sessions — to Simmons and Stanley, who were still calling their band Wicked Lester. Kramer then produced the four-song demo that got KISS signed to Casablanca, and the rest, as they say, is history!