As Kiss' previous two albums had been self-produced, the band felt it needed to bring in an outside producer who would help the album achieve more commercial success. Producer Ron Nevison was hired to produce the album, but because of Nevison's filled schedule, the band had to wait for his schedule to clear. Nevison was chosen in part from his recent commercial success in producing platinum albums for Heart and Ozzy Osbourne. Simmons said for "KISStory", "When we started working on "Crazy Nights", we looked for someone else to pull the cart, another person to help guide the band...So we hooked up with a producer named Ron Nevison, who Paul had wanted to work with for a while, although I never did." In the ""Crazy Nights, it's 25 years strong"" KissFAQ interview, Ron Nevison describes the efforts band members put into the album: “Well, this was the only album I did with them. I do know that Gene wasn’t there all the time. Obviously Bruce was and, to some extent, Eric. Mostly, a majority of the work on that album I did with Bruce and Paul. The bass tracks were cut initially, and Gene was only needed for lead vocals. I must say that most of the time he was there, he was in the back of the studio reading “Variety.” Although Simmons' participation was low for the album, he did contribute in providing Nevison with 20–25 songs that were potential material for the Crazy Nights album, including one song called "I'm Going to Put A Log In Your Fire Place", which was ultimately not used on this or any subsequent albums.