“You wanted the best, and you got it!” The ultimate KISS battle cry opens their first live album, a double record that would come to define KISS more than anything else they have done. Almost fifty years later, KISS Alive! stands tall as a masterpiece.
KISS ALIVE!
Produced by Eddie Kramer
Released 10 September 1975
Side 1
Deuce (Simmons)
Strutter (Stanley/Simmons)
Got To Choose (Stanley)
Hotter Than Hell (Stanley)
Firehouse (Stanley)
Side 2
Nothin’ To Lose (Simmons)
C’mon And Love Me (Stanley)
Parasite (Frehley)
She (Simmons/Coronel)
Side 3
Watchin’ You (Simmons)
100 000 Years (Simmons/Stanley)
Black Diamond (Stanley)
Side 4
Rock Bottom (Stanley/Frehley)
Cold Gin (Frehley)
Rock And Roll All Nite (Stanley/Simmons)
Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll (Stanley/Simmons)
There was no way to get here without the groundwork of music that had been created with Kiss (1974), Hotter Than Hell (1974) and Dressed To Kill (1975). KISS had by now become a popular concert attraction, and they could fill their set with a non-stop barrage of great songs. In a bind about how to make KISS’ records appeal to radio and a bigger audience, Aucoin management and the Casablanca record company decided to hire Hendrix and Zeppelin engineer Eddie Kramer to make a live album with the band.
Kramer had worked with KISS on their original demo, recorded over a couple of busy days in March 1973. The rapport between band and producer had been strong, and the evidence of KISS Alive! and some further records to come suggests that Kramer would have been the ideal choice for the band’s first trilogy of studio albums. The live project was an opportunity for Kramer to (pun intended) set the record straight.
It might be easy to forget that when KISS Alive! (its title a homage to the 1972 Slade Alive! album) propelled KISS to stardom in late 1975, there were no visual companions like DVDs or music videos on TV, much less an internet where you could find recordings on YouTube. This double live album had to be judged on what it presented musically, even if the gatefold sleeve was utilized to great effect in building the KISS mythology. And so, 50 years later, it should be reassessed by the music it presents, not the pop culture phenomenon it gave birth to.
The album was recorded in spring and summer of 1975 in Cleveland (Ohio), Davenport (Iowa), Wildwood (New Jersey), and – most highly publicized – at Cobo Arena in Detroit (Michigan). Kramer would then cobble together the recordings in challenging overdubbing and mixing sessions at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.
With the right producer involved (Kramer) it is hard for KISS to go wrong here, since their first three studio albums had fostered a unique body of material to choose from. Kicking off with the “You wanted the best” introduction by road manager J.R. Smalling and a hi-octane version of Deuce, there is not one filler song here. From Firehouse through Black Diamond to the definitive version of Rock And Roll All Nite that would provide KISS with their first near-hit, the set is superb. The playing is charged and full of attitude, the singing suitably over the top, and it is evident that KISS have at this point grown into a seasoned live spectacle. KISS Alive! was significantly augmented and re-recorded in the studio, like so many great live records. Pretty much only the drums were left untouched, but who cares when the end result sounds as devilishly unpolished as this?
The album also features a classic drum solo by Peter Criss, featured in a red hot 100 000 Years that Simmons already blood-spit into action, which reminds the listener to not always take Simmons’ and Stanley’s infamous Criss-bashing to heart. It is difficult to imagine what KISS would have done at that time without their resident Catman handling the rhythms in his own very particular way. On this album, Criss wins the Man of the Match award, giving KISS its pounding pulse like the sun would never rise again.
If you ever get the chance to listen to the Robert (Bob) Ludwig mastering of the album, strictly the blue-label first pressing from 1975 with “R.L.” etched in the vinyl, you will hear the best KISS Alive! there ever was. Subsequent to that, later vinyl masterings in the 1970s are good, as are the first edition CDs from Japan in 1986 and North America in 1987. In any case, the album is a stone cold classic.
Not surprisingly, KISS Alive! celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025 with a full-blown super deluxe edition that includes several untouched concerts that were taped for the album and recently remixed by Eddie Kramer. However, the KISS Alive! remaster itself, by the dependable Bernie Grundman, is no match for the 1975 Bob Ludwig version.
It’s hard to overestimate the impact that KISS Alive! had on yours truly, headphones on and volume cranked up, eyes closed to imagine what it must have been like to be there, to experience the magic and mystery firsthand. Music was my initiation to classic era KISS, not make-up or pyrotechnics. And KISS Alive! was it. Ultimately this concert record would become the work against which all other KISS albums would forever be judged.
Place in KISStory:
6/6 MASTERPIECE
5/6 Great
4/6 Good
3/6 OK
2/6 Disappointing
1/6 Crap
STRANGE WAYS 