They changed their stage names to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, respectively, auditioned a new drummer and lead guitarist, and formed the band Kiss by the end of January 1973.

Although Kiss achieved massive success, Wicked Lester's album recorded for Epic has never been officially released in its entirety.

[3] In August 1970, Coronel recommended rhythm guitarist Stanley Eisen[4] from his 1970 band The Tree,[5] who had actually been rejected by the group after a previous audition.

[4] In early 1971, Rainbow played its first show, which consisted of two sets performed at Richmond Community College in Staten Island(which Klein had attended[7] and graduated with a BA in Education degree[8] in 1970[9]).

[6] On August 7, 1971 Wicked Lester recorded an acoustic demo tape of 20 songs with the line-up of Klein, Eisen and Coronel.

[11][12] Coronel was replaced by session musician Ron Leejack (Ronald Jackowski, ex-Cactus) on December 15th, 1971,[4] and the group continued their efforts to finish the album.

Leejack officially resigned on January 15th 1973, only 2 weeks before the first Kiss show with Criss and Frehley but he may not have been active in the band since late 1972 as he also claims to have toured as the last guitarist of The Rascals that same year.

[1] In November 1972, the reimagined group (now a trio featuring Simmons, Stanley and Criss) arranged a showcase with Don Ellis, the Epic Records executive who earlier had rejected Wicked Lester's album.

[4] While one Epic executive, Tom Werman,[15] was impressed by the power and theatrics of this new incarnation of Wicked Lester, Ellis once again turned them down.

[16] In early December, Paul Stanley placed an ad in The Village Voice stating, "LEAD GUITARIST WANTED with Flash and Ability.

[4] One audition was by Paul "Ace" Frehley who showed up wearing different-colored shoes, walked into the room without saying a word, hooked up his guitar and started playing.

[18] The recording of Wicked Lester's album, which began in November 1971 at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, took place over multiple sessions and was finished in July 1972.

Various versions and mixes have made it to bootleg circles, some with Coronel not credited which indicates that Leejack eventually replaced all his guitar parts.

[24] CBS Records, which owned the rights to the album, remixed it and planned to release it in late 1976 to capitalize on Kiss's popularity at the time.

[26] The band bought Bogart's share and eventually released three of the tracks, "Keep Me Waiting," "She," and "Love Her All I Can", in 2001 as part of a five-disc box set.