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08-18 KISS Album Details
06-22 KISS Wrapping Up New Album
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KISS traces its roots to Wicked Lester, a New York-based rock and roll band led by co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Simmons (born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel on August 25, 1949) and Stanley (born Stanley Harvey Eisen in Queens, New York City on January 20, 1952) fired the other members of Wicked Lester in 1972 after Epic Records rejected an album recorded by the group.In late 1972, Simmons spotted an ad in Rolling Stone placed by Peter Criss, a drummer "willing to do anything." Criss (born Peter Criscuola on December 20, 1945 in Brooklyn, New York City) auditioned for and joined Wick ...read more
KISS traces its roots to Wicked Lester, a New York-based rock and roll band led by co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Simmons (born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel on August 25, 1949) and Stanley (born Stanley Harvey Eisen in Queens, New York City on January 20, 1952) fired the other members of Wicked Lester in 1972 after Epic Records rejected an album recorded by the group.In late 1972, Simmons spotted an ad in Rolling Stone placed by Peter Criss, a drummer "willing to do anything." Criss (born Peter Criscuola on December 20, 1945 in Brooklyn, New York City) auditioned for and joined Wicked Lester, now a trio. In January 1973 the group added lead guitarist Paul "Ace" Frehley (born April 27, 1951 in the Bronx, New York City) after being extremely impressed with his audition. That month, the Wicked Lester name was dropped and the band became KISS.
Stanley is credited with coming up with the name and the logo, while Frehley came up with the idea of making the "SS" look like lightning bolts, because he said that it "looked cool." The letters happened to look similar to the insignia of the Nazi SS, a symbol that is now illegal to display in Germany. Therefore, in Germany, all of the band's album covers and merchandise used a modified version of the logo, in which the "SS" looks like a backwards "ZZ."
The first KISS performance was on January 30, 1973, for an audience of three at the Popcorn Club (renamed Coventry shortly afterward) in Queens. In June of that year, the band recorded a five-song demo tape with producer Eddie Kramer, which eventually wound up in the hands of former teen pop singer and Buddah Records executive Neil Bogart.
After a handful of showcase concerts in the summer of 1973, former TV director Bill Aucoin offered to become the band�s manager. With the help of their new manager, KISS became the first act signed to Bogart's new label, Emerald City Records (which was shortly afterward renamed Casablanca Records).
The band entered Bell Sound Studios in New York City on October 10, 1973 to begin recording their first album. On December 31 the band had their official industry premier at the Academy of Music in New York City. It was at this concert that Simmons accidentally set his hair (which was coated in hairspray) ablaze while performing his inaugural firebreathing stunt.
KISS's first major tour started on February 5, 1974 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, and the band�s self-titled debut album, KISS, was released on February 18.
The album's cover showed the group positioned against a black background in a pose visually reminiscent of the Beatles' With the Beatles album. (Three of the four band members did their own makeup for the album cover photo, as they usually did; but Criss's makeup was done by a professional, whose work came out looking quite a bit different from the look which Criss had established beforehand, and to which he would return immediately afterward.) Peaking on the charts at #87, the album was a modest success and featured a group of songs that would become staples of the band�s live act -- "Strutter," "Deuce," "Cold Gin," and "Black Diamond."
Casablanca and KISS promoted the album heavily throughout the spring and summer of 1974. On February 19, the band performed "Nothin' to Lose," "Firehouse" and "Black Diamond" for what would become their first national television appearance, on ABC's Dick Clark's In Concert (aired March 29). On April 29, the band performed "Firehouse" on The Mike Douglas Show.
This broadcast included Simmons's first televised interview, a conversation with Douglas in which Simmons declared himself "evil incarnate", eliciting titters from an uncomfortable and largely confused studio audience.
The presence of the costumed, made-up Simmons on Douglas's mid-afternoon middle-aged talk show caused a palpable sense of tension to both the host and the audience, which Simmons seemed to enjoy, as he intentionally exascerbated it by frequent exhibitions of tounge-flashing. This tension was then punctured by a spontaneous humorous exchange between Simmons and another of the show's guests, comedienne Totie Fields, which caused even Simmons to break character and laugh.
The band flew to Los Angeles in August to begin recording their second album, Hotter Than Hell, which was released in on October 22, 1974. The only single, "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll," failed to chart and the album stalled at #100. « hide |
Similar Bands: Alice Cooper, Queen, Van Halen, Skid Row, Pantera
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