The title of Kiss Alive! screamed for attention, and it came. This double-live album turned Kiss into superstars.
But the band was not an overnight success – quite the opposite.
Their first two studio albums, both released in 1974, sold poorly. The debut, titled simply Kiss, peaked at No.87 on the US chart. The follow-up, Hotter Than Hell, limped to No.100.
The band’s record company was Casablanca, founded by the flamboyant Neil Bogart. The label would eventually become a powerhouse during the disco era, but at the start of 1975 times were hard.
In an unorthodox move, Bogart decided that he should produce the third Kiss album himself, and in fairness he did a decent job with it. But while that album, Dressed To Kill, reached the US Top 40, it had no hit single.
With pressure building, Kiss and Casablanca rolled the dice.
A live album was a no-brainer for a band that had built its reputation on stage with a theatrical show. But a double album was costly, a high‑stakes gamble.
As Kiss bassist Gene Simmons recalled: “It was a live-or-die situation for Casablanca. They didn’t have any hits. We hadn’t even had a gold record. But we just decided that we were going to do a live album. And we were going to make it a double live album.”
They named it Kiss Alive! – and its story was told in detail in the 2003 book Kiss: Behind The Mask by Ken Sharp and David Leaf.
The band knew exactly where the live album should be recorded – in the cities where they could pull the biggest audiences. And in 1975, there was no city in America that loved Kiss like Detroit did.
As rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Paul Stanley said: “We could play small auditoriums around the country, but in Detroit we were the governor, we were it! It was a very special relationship. I’ve said it a thousand times – Detroit opened its arms and legs to us!”
For a producer, they chose Eddie Kramer, who had cut their demo years earlier. “I was disappointed that I didn’t get to produce Kiss’s first album,” Kramer later admitted. “Politics prevailed. But when it came to the live album, I decided to go for it because of the challenge of making those guys sound great.”
A total of four shows were taped in 1975 – at Detroit’s Cobo Hall on 16 May, in Cleveland, Ohio on 21 June, in Davenport, Iowa on 20 July and in Wildwood, New Jersey on 23 July.
Later, there was overdubbing at Electric Lady studios in the band’s hometown, New York.
Kramer revealed: “It was somewhat recreated in the studio, but faithfully to the point where it sounded live. You do what you do to make the record sound great.”
Drummer Peter Criss added: “A lot of things were touched up. A lot of vocals, harmonies, guitar parts, bass parts, definitely drum parts. Just little parts because when you play live you play faster because your adrenalin is pumped up.”
However, as Paul Stanley said of the finished product: “It really captured the live experience in terms of what it felt like in the audience. That was the whole idea of Kiss Alive! It was an album that totally immersed you in the show.”
The album began with a rabble-rousing, hyperbolic introduction from roadie J.R. Smalling that would echo down the years: “You wanted the best and you got it, the hottest band in the land… Kiss!”
Across four sides of vinyl were definitive performances of classic songs including Deuce, Firehouse, Black Diamond, Cold Gin and Rock And Roll All Nite.
The cover of Alive! – photographed by Fin Costello during rehearsals – had the band in a typically over-the-top pose. But it was the photo on the back cover, also by Costello, which resonated most powerfully with Kiss fans: two Detroit teenagers, Lee Neaves and Bruce Redoute, holding a homemade Kiss banner, the vast expanse of the Cobo Hall behind them.
“When Alive! came out and we saw that photo, we were astounded,” Redoute said. “It was a dream come true.”
In Kiss: Behind The Mask, lead guitarist Ace Frehley said of Alive!: “If that album bombed we would have been dropped from the label. But I knew the record was gonna be great because I believe the only way to capture Kiss is with a live record.”
Alive! was released on 10 September 1975. The extracted live version of Rock And Roll All Nite reached No.12 in the US.
In its slipstream, Alive! rocketed to No.9 in January 1976.
It was the hit that saved Casablanca Records. The hit that transformed Kiss into a pop culture phenomenon.
And for the members of the band, life would never be the same again.
As Gene Simmons said: “The wild thing about success is that before you have it, you can’t really comprehend it. But then, when you’re immersed in it, it’s a completely new world with no rules. And you’re king of the hill.”
As Kiss manager Bill Aucoin recalled: “We decided to do a live album because it was less expensive than recording a studio record. I used my American Express card to finance Kiss on tour because the record label couldn’t afford to give us any more money.”
Then, with Alive!, everything changed.
“That was when we went from literally having mo money to getting a check for $2 million,” Aucoin said. “All I can remember is staring at those zeroes. I must have counted those zeroes a thousand times.”
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.