Kiss is the debut album by American rock band Kiss, released on February 18, 1974. Much of the material on the album was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as members of their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester. Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, while co-producer Richie Wise has stated it took just thirteen days.
The album was recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City, which was owned by the company that owned Buddah Records. Neil Bogart, founder of Casablanca Records, was an executive at Buddah prior to forming Casablanca. Casablanca Records held a party at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles to celebrate the West Coast release of Kiss (February 18) and to introduce the record company to the press and other record industry executives.
In keeping with the Casablanca theme, the party included palm trees and a Humphrey Bogart lookalike. Kiss performed their usual loud and bombastic stage show, which turned Warner Bros. Records (Casablanca's record distributor) against the group. Soon after the show, Warner Bros. Records contacted Neil Bogart and threatened to end their deal with Casablanca if Kiss did not remove their makeup. With manager Bill Aucoin's backing, Kiss refused. Shortly after the release of Kiss, Warner Bros. released Casablanca from their contract.
The album's cover showed the group positioned against a black background in a pose visually reminiscent of The Beatles' With the Beatles album (Peter Criss stated that this was the visual effect the band was looking for). Ironically, Gene Simmons has stated that "Meet The Beatles" was a big inspiration to him. Three of the four band members applied their own makeup for the album cover photo, as they usually did, but Criss' makeup was applied by a professional, whose work came out looking quite a bit different from the look Criss had established, and to which he would return immediately afterward. Ace Frehley, wanting to impress the other members of Kiss, dyed his hair with silver spray paint. Not only did it not come out for several weeks, but Frehley suffered an allergic reaction to the silver in it (as can be seen in his later makeup around the eyes).According to Criss, photographer Joel Brodsky thought Kiss were literally clowns, and wanted to place balloons behind the group for the shoot. Brodsky denied this, chalking it up to imagination. As this was also the first album for the group, and they had only been together in face paint for a couple of years, they still had yet to perfect the look they would come to be known for later on, as evidenced in Simmons' rough appearance of the demon makeup, while noticeable as his, is not in the definitive form he has become known for since.Kiss is the debut album by American rock band Kiss, released on February 18, 1974. Much of the material on the album was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as members of their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester. Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, while co-producer Richie Wise has stated it took just thirteen days.
The album was recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City, which was owned by the company that owned Buddah Records. Neil Bogart, founder of Casablanca Records, was an executive at Buddah prior to forming Casablanca. Casablanca Records held a party at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles to celebrate the West Coast release of Kiss (February 18) and to introduce the record company to the press and other record industry executives.
In keeping with the Casablanca theme, the party included palm trees and a Humphrey Bogart lookalike. Kiss performed their usual loud and bombastic stage show, which turned Warner Bros. Records (Casablanca's record distributor) against the group. Soon after the show, Warner Bros. Records contacted Neil Bogart and threatened to end their deal with Casablanca if Kiss did not remove their makeup. With manager Bill Aucoin's backing, Kiss refused. Shortly after the release of Kiss, Warner Bros. released Casablanca from their contract.
The album's cover showed the group positioned against a black background in a pose visually reminiscent of The Beatles' With the Beatles album (Peter Criss stated that this was the visual effect the band was looking for). Ironically, Gene Simmons has stated that "Meet The Beatles" was a big inspiration to him. Three of the four band members applied their own makeup for the album cover photo, as they usually did, but Criss' makeup was applied by a professional, whose work came out looking quite a bit different from the look Criss had established, and to which he would return immediately afterward. Ace Frehley, wanting to impress the other members of Kiss, dyed his hair with silver spray paint. Not only did it not come out for several weeks, but Frehley suffered an allergic reaction to the silver in it (as can be seen in his later makeup around the eyes).According to Criss, photographer Joel Brodsky thought Kiss were literally clowns, and wanted to place balloons behind the group for the shoot. Brodsky denied this, chalking it up to imagination. As this was also the first album for the group, and they had only been together in face paint for a couple of years, they still had yet to perfect the look they would come to be known for later on, as evidenced in Simmons' rough appearance of the demon makeup, while noticeable as his, is not in the definitive form he has become known for since.false2023-07-26 14:57:34KISS7.620142014-04-012014-04-0135Glam MetalGlam RockHard RockHeavy MetalRock1121702116636fc377ba9-92ab-47e1-b791-169db6e866f5e1f1e33e-2e4c-4d43-b91b-7064068d3283a997e8ed-6e37-315b-bfdf-cd31f14e3fcc/media/data/media5/Music/KISS/KISS (1974)/folder.jpgKISSAlbumArtistKISSArtistKISSKISSKiss (often styled as KISS) was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973 by Paul Stanley (vocals, rhythm guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals, bass guitar), Ace Frehley (lead guitar, vocals) and Peter Criss (drums, vocals). Known for their face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid-1970s with shock rock-style live performances which featured fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits and pyrotechnics. The band went through several lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons remaining the only consistent members. The final lineup consisted of them, Tommy Thayer (lead guitar, vocals) and Eric Singer (drums, vocals).
With their makeup and costumes, the band members took on the personas of comic book-style characters: the Starchild (Stanley), the Demon (Simmons), the Spaceman or Space Ace (Frehley), and the Catman (Criss). Beginning with their 1975 live album Alive!, Kiss became one of America's most successful rock bands and a pop culture phenomenon during the second half of the 1970s. Due to creative differences, Criss departed the band in 1980, followed by Frehley in 1982. They were replaced by Eric Carr (the Fox) and Vinnie Vincent (the Ankh Warrior), respectively. The band's commercial success had declined during the early 1980s before experiencing a resurgence in 1983, when they began performing without makeup and costumes, marking the beginning of the band's "unmasked" era that would last until 1996. The first album of this era, 1983's platinum-certified Lick It Up, successfully introduced them to a new generation of fans, and its music videos received regular airplay on MTV. Vincent left the band in 1984, being replaced briefly by Mark St. John before Bruce Kulick joined the band for the next twelve years. Eric Carr died in 1991 of heart cancer and was replaced by Eric Singer.
In response to a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the mid-1990s, the original lineup reunited in 1996, which also saw the return of their makeup and stage costumes. The resulting 1996–1997 reunion tour was highly successful, grossing $143.7 million, making it the band's most successful tour. Criss and Frehley subsequently left the band again following the 2000–2001 tour, which at the time was intended to be Kiss' last. Criss and Frehley were replaced by Singer and Tommy Thayer (Criss briefly rejoined the band from 2002 to 2004), respectively. The band continued with its original stage makeup, with Singer and Thayer using the original Catman and Spaceman makeup respectively. After 46 years of recording and performing, Kiss began a four-year-long farewell tour, the End of the Road World Tour, in January 2019 and retired after performing their final show in New York City in December 2023.
Kiss is regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of all time, as well as one of the best selling bands of all time, claiming to have sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including 21 million RIAA-certified albums. Kiss has also earned 30 Gold albums, the most of any band from the United States. Kiss has 14 Platinum albums, three of which earned multi-Platinum. On April 10, 2014, the four original members of Kiss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kiss was ranked by MTV as the ninth "Greatest Metal Band of All Time", and placed tenth on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, as well as being ranked as the third "Best Metal and Hard Rock Live Band of All Time" by Loudwire magazine.