The Song Stuck in My Head This Morning

I rarely get songs stuck in my head anymore, mostly because of the memory issues brought on by the heart attacks I suffered back in June 2015. (I have enough trouble remembering the code for the bathroom at work, much less the lyrics to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" or "A Day in the Life.")

This morning, though, I've had a particular song running through my brain. A power ballad, in fact, from a most unlikely source:

Kiss.

"Beth" isn't really a Kiss song, though. It was recorded with only one member of the group in the studio, and the least likely to do so: Drummer Peter Criss. He'd co-written the song (with Stanley Penridge) as "Beck," short for Becky, the wife of a bandmate in a group Criss belonged to before Kiss (according to Wikipedia, anyway).

Gene Simmons was apparently opposed to including the song on a Kiss record, and I kind of get his point: the band was known for hard rock, big sound, tongue-wagging and blood-spitting--not gentle ballads devoted to lonely spouses. Cooler heads prevailed, though, and "Beth" made it onto the very Kiss-tastically named "Destroyer" album.

And it went on to be the group's highest charting single.

So there.

(EDITED TO ADD: With this entry, I've written four this year--one more than the last two years...combined.)