The Story and Meaning Behind “Beth,” the Lush Ballad That Gave KISS Their Biggest Pop Hit

Remember the hair metal craze of the late 1980s? Well, there was a reason each of those bands almost invariably included an earnest ballad on their albums, usually with the intent of releasing it as a single. They’d seen the examples of so many of their hard-rocking predecessors, who often enjoyed their biggest commercial success when they slowed it down a bit.

For example, KISS, known for their crunching, unrelenting rock anthems, made their highest incursion into the pop charts with the tender “Beth” in 1976. Here’s how the song came to life and, almost against the band’s intent, turned into such a big smash.

A Rescued Ballad

Before he was a member of KISS, Peter Criss, the band’s drummer, was in a short-lived New York City group known as Chelsea. One of the other members, Mike Brand, had a wife named Becky. And Becky wasn’t all that crazy about the way that Chelsea practiced to all hours of the night.

It got to the point Criss and fellow Chelsea member Stan Penridge wrote a song mocking the calls this woman made to the studio in almost nonstop fashion. They never recorded the song with Chelsea. But years later, Criss, wanting to add something of his own creation to the KISS album Destroyer, brought the song to the band.

It’s at this point in the story we should inject the details behind the creation of “Beth” have been in dispute pretty much since the song became a hit. Penridge has maintained the version of the story told above, while Criss has claimed his loneliness about behind away from his then-wife Lydia inspired it. (Lydia has also claimed to have helped with some of the lines in the song.)

Meanwhile, both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who were generally in charge of the writing for the bulk of KISS’ material, have denied Criss had much at all to do with the writing, suggesting Penridge was largely the writer of the original version. Keep in mind that relations between Criss and that duo have long been strained, so it’s difficult to know where the truth exactly lies.

What is certain is that Bob Ezrin, who had gained fame working with Alice Cooper and produced Destroyer, also served as a catalyst for the song’s success, helping with the lyrics and devising the lush orchestral score that would back up Criss’ vocal performance. (Approximately 19 people have claimed credit for changing the song title from “Beck” to “Beth,” so it’s perhaps best we don’t get too far into that.)

“Beth” found its way onto Destroyer to give Criss a showcase, and the band snuck it on as the B-side to “Detroit Rock City,” the third single released from the album. But a funny thing happened: DJs locked onto “Beth” and started playing it in favor of the A-side. KISS realized the opportunity and flipped the two songs in a rerelease, and it led to “Beth” hitting No. 7 on the charts.

Behind the Meaning of “Beth”

Whatever the snide origins of the song might have been, it’s impossible to deny “Beth,” in the version that we all know and love, came out sounding like a heartfelt, tortured testament to trying to keep a relationship going while in a job that takes you away from the other person. Future power ballads ranging from Journey’s “Faithfully” to Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home” are beholden to it.

Criss’ performance, and the aching melody, does a lot of the work. You can hear the genuine pain in his voice when he complains, Me and the boys are playing / And we just can’t find the sound. He also makes time to present her side of the story: You say you feel so empty / That our house just ain’t a home.

Just a few more hours, he promises, before asking a question for which there’s no good answer: Oh Beth, what can I do? The rock ballads that would follow “Beth” in the years to come owe a lot to it, although few of the wannabes were executed quite so well.

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Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage