Connor McGrath
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Released: March 19, 1975
Label: Casablanca Records[/alert][/one_third]After the failure of their first two albums, KISS was in such dire financial straits that they couldn’t afford to hire an outside producer for their third album, Dressed to Kill.
Casablanca head Neil Bogart head to step behind the panel to produce. Bogart actually had a minor hit in the ’60s under the name of Neil Scott but had little experience in musical production. Bogart’s bubblegum flavored tastes gave the album a poppy sheen that the first two albums lacked and the album managed to sneak into the Billboard Top 40 and score a regional hit with “C’Mon and Love Me”.
The songs themselves were a slight step back from the first two albums IMO but that hardly seemed to matter. Word of mouth about KISS’ now legendary live act was spreading like wildfire. They had transitioned from opening act to headliners and were making the move from clubs and theaters to arenas.
KISS comes Alive!
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Released: September 10, 1975
Label: Casablanca Records[/alert][/one_third]KISS had seen marked improvement with every album but had still fallen well below the lofty expectations of their record label and the band was losing money hand over fist. They took a gamble and decided to try and attempt to capture their live act on record!
KISS is three albums in and has garnered a lot of media attention and some success regionally in the Midwest but are losing thousands of dollars every day. They’re more or less living on their manager’s American Express card and to add insult to injury, Casablanca spent millions of dollars producing and promoting a double album of Johnny Carson’s monologues from The Tonight Show, which sold about exactly as well as you’d think an album like that would sell. KISS wasn’t exactly eager to jump back in the studio after churning out three albums in a little over two years so they decided to take a gamble and hire legendary engineer Eddie Kramer to go on the road with them to record their act. Casablanca and KISS thought it was a low-risk, moderate rewards gamble. A live album didn’t cost much so at least they wouldn’t lose money like they did with their first three albums.
KISS Alive! surpassed all expectations, becoming a surprise smash. It became the band’s first Top 10 hit on the Billboard album charts and the lalbum’s version of middling Dressed to Kill album track “Rock and Roll All Night” climbed to #12 on the singles chart. Over the years, the album served as a landmark for live albums. Even the avowed KISS haters at Rolling Stone Magazine placed the album in their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In the upper half of the list even!
Next time on Connor’s KISS Korner: KISS sees if the success of their live album will translate into studio magic as they team up with celebrated producer/coke-head Bob Ezrin for their biggest risk yet, their fourth studio album Destroyer.
