Overview
- On the Professor Of Rock podcast, Gene Simmons said Peter Criss "had nothing to do" with writing Beth, crediting Stan Penridge and attributing the piano middle to Bob Ezrin.
- In Billboard, Criss called the account "not correct," saying he co-wrote the original demo Beck with Penridge and worked with Ezrin at the Record Plant on the slower, orchestrated version.
- Criss said Ezrin retitled the song Beth, altered tempo and structure, and expanded his core melody with orchestration.
- Ezrin told Billboard his memory conflicts with Simmons’s version and that, as he recalls, the original was written by Criss and Penridge before he slowed it down and created the piano part.
- The 1976 hit remains officially credited to Criss, Penridge and Ezrin, peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100, and earlier interviews by Penridge in 2000 disputed Criss’s authorship.