It took him a while to fully break out of Earth’s orbit, but Ace Frehley had a long and successful solo career following his initial departure from Kiss in 1982.
Battles with substance abuse and a five-year reunion with his former bandmates caused Frehley to vanish in comet-like style for long stretches during ’80s, ’90s and ’00s. But then Frehley ramped up to a recording pace few of his peers could match, reeling off five studio albums between 2014 and 2024.
Here’s a ranked look back at the best solo or Frehley’s Comet songs released after the original Spaceman’s departure from his famous former band.
READ MORE: Top 10 Ace Frehley Kiss Songs
With the exception of the previously barely known “Into the Night,” we’ll be skipping the many songs Frehley covered during his career. It’s also important to remember that Frehley was still a member of Kiss when he released his debut solo album in 1978 – so you won’t find “New York Groove,” “Rip it Out” or any of that album’s other numerous highlights here.
No. 20. “Separate”
From: Second Sighting (Frehley’s Comet, 1988)
One of the few high points of the rushed and too-often Frehley-less second album from Frehley’s Comet, “Separate” featured a unique half-spoken vocal from Frehley over a slow-boiling guitar riff.
No. 19. “Rockin’ With the Boys”
From: Spaceman (2018)
The second single from Spaceman was an assurance to his lover that he’d eventually return home, as soon as he was done playing music with his bandmates. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same story Peter Criss crooned in Kiss’ 1976 single “Beth.” It actually made sense because Frehley wrote the “Rockin’ With the Boys” chorus in the ’70s, and just had to wait for the right verse and bridge to turn up.
No. 18. “Off My Back”
From: Spaceman (2018)
A clearly frustrated Frehley used a jangly guitar riff to tell his girlfriend that it was way beyond time they went their separate ways on this Spaceman highlight.
No. 17. “Something Moved”
From: Frehley’s Comet (Frehley’s Comet, 1987)
Make no mistake, Frehley’s Comet was meant to be a band, with singer and multi-instrumentalist Tod Howarth sharing the spotlight and lead vocal duties with Frehley. His soaring vocals served as a nice counterpoint to Frehley’s more unique singing style on this track from their debut.
No. 16. “Breakout”
From: Frehley’s Comet (Frehley’s Comet, 1987)
This song dates back to Frehley’s Kiss days. He and the band’s second drummer Eric Carr wrote it together when the group was recording 1981’s ill-fated Music From ‘The Elder.’ After Carr’s death in 1991, Kiss included a demo of the song on their 1992 album Revenge, since it featured the only extended drum solo Carr had ever recorded in the studio. Frehley dedicated “Breakout” to Carr every time he played it live.
No. 15. “Walkin’ on the Moon”
From: 10,000 Volts (2024)
Many of Frehley’s best songs seemed to feature interstellar settings or themes, which made sense given the spaceman persona he inhabited in his former band. “Walkin’ on the Moon” found him professing a love that can’t be contained by just one planet.
No. 14. “Calling to You”
From: Frehley’s Comet (Frehley’s Comet, 1987)
Except for the second half of the guitar solo, you’d be hard-pressed to recognize this as an Ace Frehley song. But as catchy keyboard-boosted late ’80s hair metal goes, it beats just about everything on Kiss’ Crazy Nights, which was released the same year.
No. 13. “Up in the Sky”
From: 10,000 Volts (2024)
The best song from Frehley’s newest solo album was a lament for the state of the world with a hope that maybe that UFO he saw that one time might save us. More than 50 years since Frehley and Kiss released their debut album, who could have predicted he’d still be such a unique creative force – or even alive?
No. 12. “Genghis Khan”
From: Anomaly (2009)
Weird Ace Frehley is always the best Ace Frehley, and here’s one of the greatest examples of that rule. If he ever written any verses for this song, they were thrown out the window in favor of six minutes of smoking guitar riffs occasionally broken up by Frehley wishing the first Khan of the Mongol Empire – who had been dead for nearly 800 years by the point – the best of luck in the afterlife.
No. 11. “Immortal Pleasures”
From: Space Invader (2014)
The second album Frehley released after his five-year reunion with Kiss ranks among his most impressive work. Its songs featured titanic progressive-rock tinged riffs, sophisticated textures and a sense of grandeur that he never recreated. The wistful “Immortal Pleasures” found him looking back on his past accomplishments and seeking even loftier heights.
No. 10. “Shot Full of Rock”
From: Trouble Walkin’ (1989)
For his third album in as many years, Frehley ditched the Frehley’s Comet moniker, took over all the lead vocals for himself, and delivered his sharpest, most focused collection of hard rock in more than 20 years. Just about every track on Trouble Walkin’ holds up all these years later, but this locomotive opening number stood out particularly well. In typical frustrating and ironic style, once Frehley found the winning formula he went into hibernation again – finally emerging seven years later as part of the massively successful Kiss reunion tour.
No. 9. “Change”
From: Space Invader (2014)
By his own admission, Frehley cheated death more than once, and endured several bouts with substance abuse before finally getting permanently clean. This made him uniquely qualified to deliver the self-help message featured on “Change” – and he paired it with an absolutely crushing guitar riff to make sure it stuck in your head.
No. 8. “Rock Soldiers”
From: Frehley’s Comet (Frehley’s Comet, 1987)
Drug and alcohol addictions were a big part of the reason Frehley left Kiss back in 1982. But his problems didn’t stop there. For the opening song on his first post-Kiss solo album, Frehley told the story of the 1983 police chase and car crash that nearly took his life: “I cried ‘I am invincible’ / Said I was high above the law / But my only high was just a lie / And now I’m glad I saw.” Then, over a military marching beat from his old buddy Anton Fig, Frehley played a couple of guitar solos that reminded us exactly why it was so good he survived.
No. 7. “Words Are Not Enough”
From: Live Plus 1 (Frehley’s Comet, 1988)
Yes, the keyboards were cheesy and dated, and yes, the whole thing was very poppy. But “Words Are Not Enough” seemed purer of intent than some of the other Frehley’s Comet would-be anthems. Also, his guitar work somehow still sounded awesome in this rather synthetic setting.
No. 6. “Outer Space”
From: Anomaly (2009)
The biggest problem with the two ’80s Frehley’s Comet records was Frehley’s attempt to fit in with the pop-metal sound that was dominating the charts at that time. Happily, this problem was largely rectified with Trouble Walkin’, and one record (and two decades) later completely eliminated with songs like “Outer Space.” The LP found Frehley employing a more aggressive, beefed-up hard rock sound than in the past. Rather than trend chasing, however, the results felt like honest, natural extensions of ’70s classics like “Rip It Out” and “Rocket Ride.”
No. 5. “Foxy and Free”
From: Anomaly (2009)
Once again torturing fans, this time with a seven-year wait after leaving the Kiss reunion, Frehley popped up with Anomaly in 2009. As if to compensate, the album featured Frehley’s strongest set of tunes since his 1978 Kiss-era solo effort. “Foxy and Free” started off with all the restraint of a bull released from a rodeo pen, but soon settled into a more melodic, typically offbeat head-bopper, complete with loads of cowbell.
No. 4. “Into the Night”
From: Frehley’s Comet (Frehley’s Comet, 1987)
Covering the Russ Ballard song “New York Groove” back in 1978 paid off big time for Frehley, giving him both the biggest hit song and best-selling album among the group’s four simultaneously released solo albums. So choosing another Ballard composition as the first single from his post-Kiss debut nine years later made a lot of sense. But where “Groove” was a celebration of life in the big city, the sophisticated and surprisingly serious “Into the Night” looked at the darker side of urban life. It was a pretty bold choice for a comeback single, and it worked very well creatively, heightening expectations for Frehley’s new solo career.
No. 3. “Past the Milky Way”
From: Space Invader (2014)
Frehley goes psychedelic! Over a trippy, churning blend of acoustic and electric guitars, Frehley credited and thanked his then-fiancee, Rachel Gordon, for putting his life back on track: “Since I met you / Everybody tells me when we’re together / I’m a better man.” He was clearly a better songwriter: Alongside the expected rockers, “Past the Milky Way” was just one of several tracks on Space Invader that found Frehley exploring new, more complex and layered material very successfully.
No. 2. “Remember Me”
From: Trouble Walkin’ (1989)
Ironically enough, the most surprising experiment on Frehley’s third post-Kiss album, the blues-influenced “Remember Me,” proves to be one of its most enduring triumphs. The stripped-down musical and lyrical structure suited his voice and personality perfectly. Most importantly, it also served as an absolutely fantastic showcase for his guitar soloing, which hadn’t sounded this confident, well-paced and hummable since the late ’70s.
No. 1. “Inside the Vortex”
From: Space Invader (2014)
There was a definite comet-like pattern to Frehley’s solo activities. Five years passed between his departure from Kiss and the first three-album blitz of his solo career, seven between Trouble Walkin’ and his reunion with Kiss, seven more until 2009’s Anomaly and five more before Space Invader arrived. Luckily, his albums became more worth the wait each time. “Inside the Vortex” rides an absolutely massive riff through the cosmos, with Frehley’s icy, detached Vulcan vocals contrasting with his warm guitar sound perfectly.
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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
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