Kiss

Certain Songs #879: Kiss – “Detroit Rock City”

May 14, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Destroyer
Year: 1976

For those millions of teenagers who wondered what Kiss would do in the wake of the massive mega success of their alive, the answer came pretty swiftly — Destroyer was released a scant six months later while Alive! was still riding high on the charts.

I must be feeling charitable in my dotage, but I will give it up right here right now for one aspect of Kiss during their glory years: their willingness to flood the market with product. Or as fans would put it: their willingness to release more music!

Certain Songs #878: Kiss – “Rock and Roll All Nite (Live)”

May 13, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Alive!
Year: 1975

I’m not really a Kiss fan.

I wasn’t one of those guys who joined the Kiss Army or flocked to their concerts or bought the comic book that was made with their blood or even watched that TV show they did. And while Love Gun was the only Kiss album I ever bought (and it was totally overshadowed by my purchase of Foghat Live on the same day), it would have never even occurred to me paint the cover of that album all over a wall of my bedroom the way that one of my friends did.

Certain Songs #519: Prince & The Revolution – “Kiss”

April 27, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Parade
Year: 1986

It took Michael Jackson five years to follow up Thriller. It took Bruce Springsteen three years to follow up Born In The U.S.A. It took Madonna two years to follow up Like a Virgin.

It took Prince ten months to follow up Purple Rain.

That said, after I heard the underwhelming (despite the pure pop glory of “Raspberry Beret”) Around The World in a Day, I started a pattern with Prince that I’ve kept up for three decades: I started dipping in and out of his discography.

Why Gene Simmons Hates You

June 23, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You know what, music fans? You suck. You know how I know that? Because Gene Simmons thinks that you killed the record industry.

Look, when I was your age, a band like KISS would come out with an album, and it would get played on the radio, and then you would ride my bike down to Tower Records and buy the album.

Multiply that action by millions of kids — an army! — and boom! the guys in KISS were zillionaires. Just like that. It was all so simple. It didn’t even matter of those albums were mostly singles and filler, because that’s how the game was played.

And nobody ever played it better than KISS, who were — all things considered — an OK hard rock pop band with a handful of undeniable songs, but not all-time-greats. Not musically.

As marketers, however, they were the best ever. Not even Madonna comes close to the sheer marketing chops that KISS showed from day one. Until, that is, the market changed.