Alive! (album)

Alive! was KISS's fourth album and is considered their breakthrough. Released on September 10, 1975, the double-disc set contained live versions of selected singles from their first three studio albums, KISS, Hotter Than Hell, and Dressed to Kill. It peaked at #9 on the album charts and has, to date, sold over 4 million units although the RIAA only has it listed at Gold.

Uncertainty and risk

Despite KISS' reputation as a live act, they were essentially surviving on then-manager Bill Aucoin's American Express card. Their record sales had been disappointing. Complicating matters was the fact that their label, Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records, was having financial difficulties of its own stemming from a major misstep: the label had released a double album of Johnny Carson monologues earlier in the year. However, the album was a flop, and Casablanca Records had pressed millions of copies in anticipation.

The band and Aucoin were nevertheless able to convince Bogart that a memento of a KISS show would boost their album sales and save the label.

Years later, both guitarist Paul Stanley and bassist Gene Simmons recounted that in the weeks after the release, they saw a significant increase in concert attendance. In the documentary KISS: Close Up, Stanley remembers that at one particular show in Dayton, Ohio, "the place was packed; I mean you couldn't have gotten another person in with a shoehorn".

Most of the songs on Alive! were culled from performances at Detroit's Cobo Hall, with a few others coming from a Cleveland show.

The distinctive cover art was not taken at a show; KISS' stage was constructed at a smaller facility near Cobo Hall.

The man who introduced the band at the top of the album is former KISS road manager J.R. Smalling, who worked for the band from 1974 to 1976.

Alive! was also the first KISS album to include a free promotional item; in this case a colorful eight-page booklet. The album serves as a document from their Dressed to Kill tour, although there has been considerable debate as to how much use was made of studio overdubs. Gene Simmons, however, states in his autobiography KISS and Make-Up that very little corrective work was done in the studio and that most of the studio time was devoted strictly to mixing down the multi-track recordings. He also emphasised that KISS could not have done extensive overdubbing if they wanted to, as the budget they were given by Casablanca — no thanks to the Carson album fiasco — was rather limited. Paul Stanley has noted that there's a bass mistake in the choruses of "C'mon and Love Me". He's also made comments that even though there have been live albums recorded later that make Alive! sound like it was recorded in a washroom, he has no qualms about it.

As evidenced by the track order on Alive!, "Rock and Roll All Nite" had not yet supplanted "Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll" as the band's closing number. __NOTOC__

Track listing

Disc 1

"Deuce" (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley) – 3:32
"Strutter" (Stanley, Simmons) – 3:12
"Got To Choose" (Stanley) – 3:35
"Hotter Than Hell" (Stanley) – 3:11
"Firehouse" (Stanley) – 3:42
"Nothin' To Lose" (Simmons) – 3:23
"C'mon And Love Me" (Stanley) – 2:52
"Parasite" (Ace Frehley) – 3:21
"She" (Simmons, Stephen Coronel) – 6:42

Disc 2

"Watchin' You" (Simmons) – 3:51
"100,000 Years" (Simmons, Stanley) – 12:10
"Black Diamond" (Simmons) – 5:50
"Rock Bottom" (Frehley, Stanley) – 4:59
"Cold Gin" (Frehley) – 5:43
"Rock and Roll All Nite" (Stanley, Simmons) – 4:23
"Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll" (Stanley, Simmons) – 5:45

Personnel

Gene Simmons - bass guitar, vocals
Paul Stanley - guitar, vocals
Ace Frehley - lead guitar, vocals
Peter Criss - drums, vocals

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1975	Pop Albums	9

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1975	"Rock and Roll All Nite (live)"	Pop Singles	12

External link

KISS FAQ - Alive!, Accessed on July 8, 2005.

KISS albums | 1975 albums | Live albums

Alive! | Alive!