The Shallow End of the Pool

My daughter's latest musical obsession is The Click Five. If you ever watch any music video channels you've probably seen the video, since it airs roughly 97 times a day (I've seen it 27 times since yesterday). They describe their sound as "Power Pop," comparing themselves to Cheap Trick and The Cars. At any rate, my daughter saw on the band's official website that if you pre-ordered their debut CD "Greetings From Imrie House" directly from the site, it would come with a booklet autographed by the band (this actually has nothing to do with the story, but I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do, and it made her year when it came in the mail).

As fate would have it, on the very same day that she got the CD, she came to me rather sheepishly with a pretty bizarre question: "Hey Dad, did you ever notice something in the video?" As mentioned earlier, I have seen the video numerous times; the basic "plot" is that The Click Five land on the roof of a school via helicopter, and all the kids sneak out of class to catch the impromptu performance. The only thing I did notice was that the bewildered teacher who can't figure out where his students have gone is played by Peter Brady. But I had mentioned this to her earlier so I knew it wasn't that. I told her I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, so she said the words that she never wanted to say: "In the beginning when they show the school, I think the sign says Paul Stanley Prep."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Now, she has always made fun of my lifelong obsession with KISS, even insisting that I not pick her up from school wearing any KISS T-shirts lest she die of embarrassment. So, the fact that her favorite band may have been paying homage to the legendary KISS frontman had to be devastating. But I needed proof. We hopped onto the web and checked out the video there, although if we had just turned the channel to MTV Hits it probably would have been on within 10 minutes. Sure enough, the school's billboard clearly read PAUL STANLEY PREP. Intrigued, I needed to dig deeper. My first stop was to KISS' official website to see if anybody there noticed it. As it turned out, I didn't need to go any further, as a banner headline jumped out at me: "Paul Stanley and The Click Five." I read the story and laughed some more. My daughter, who had since retreated to her room, called out to ask what was so funny. "Bring me your CD," I shouted back. She bought it over and I took it from her, pulled out the booklet, and flipped it open to show her what I knew it already said: Track #6, co-written by Paul Stanley. "Oh, man," she moaned, "that was my favorite song!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Since this discovery, I have gotten her back for nearly 11 years of being teased. She can't say anything bad about KISS anymore. It's a minor moral victory, but I'll take it.

P.S.: I have since listened to the entire CD, and it's not bad for what it is. "Power Pop" just like they advertised, although a bit more bubblegum than either Cheap Trick or The Cars. In addition to the Stanley co-write, a few tracks were written with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains Of Wayne, who do Power Pop better than just about anybody else currently out there. And Elliot Easton of the guitars supplies some guitar work. Plus, the keyboard player is actually rocking a kee-tar on the back photo. Anyone who rocks the kee-tar is OK in my book.