Kiss

Kiss came out of New York City in 1973 and decided that rock and roll needed more greasepaint, more fire and more blood. Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons shared lead vocals on guitar and bass, Ace Frehley played lead guitar, and Peter Criss drummed, and each of them hid behind makeup and a comic-book alter ego: the Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman and the Catman. The show was the point, a circus of fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, rockets and a drum kit that floated into the air, all built on big, dumb, glorious riffs.

The records came fast: KISS and Hotter Than Hell, both in 1974, then Dressed to Kill with "Rock and Roll All Nite", the party anthem to end all party anthems, and Destroyer in 1976, which added the thundering "Detroit Rock City", "Shout It Out Loud" and the ballad "Beth". By the second half of the decade they were a pop culture phenomenon, not just a band.

Criss left in 1980 and Eric Carr took his stool; in 1983 they wiped off the makeup for Lick It Up, and MTV put the videos into regular rotation. The original four reunited, in full paint, in 1996 for their most successful tour, and the band played its final show in New York City in December 2023. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the original lineup in 2014.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.