Alive! |
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Released: September 10, 1975 Recorded: May 16 to July 23, 1975 Charted: October 10, 1975 Peak: 9 US, 49 UK, 3 CN, 18 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US Genre: hard rock/heavy metal |
Tracks:Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Total Running Time: 78:17 The Players:
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Rating: 4.33 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings)
Quotable:“One of the greatest live hard rock recordings of all time.” – Greg Prato, All Music GuideAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album:Alive! captured Kiss early in their career when they were first developing a reputation as a live, arena-filling stage act punctuated by “theatrics such as explosions, smoking guitar solos, fire breathing, and blood spitting.” AMG That success, however, wasn’t translating into album sales for their first three studio efforts. “Shrewdly, the band recorded Alive!, an album that packed all of the excitement of their live act” GW into an “album that catapulted Kiss from cult attraction to mega-superstars.” AMG It “is widely regarded as one of the greatest live hard rock recordings of all time.” AMG and “Kiss’ greatest album ever. An essential addition to any rock collection.” AMG It became the band’s first top-ten album, selling two million copies and spending over two years on the charts. “Listeners got the feeling that they were front-row center for white-hot takes on Deuce, Strutter, Black Diamond and Cold Gin. So vivid were the performances, one could almost smell the smoke emanating from Ace Frehley’s guitar. The live version of the previously released Rock and Roll All Nite became a radio staple.” GW Bassist and singer Gene Simmons said, “The record exploded and immediately the world changed for us. For the next three years straight, we were the number-one band in the Gallup Poll…It quickly became larger than life. And all you had to do was look out into the audience and see everyone with painted faces to understand it.” GW The album was pulled from four shows recorded during their Dressed to Kill tour in 1975: Detroit (Cobo Arena, May 16), Cleveland (Cleveland Music Hall, June 21), Davenport, Iowa (RKO Orpheum Theater, July 20), and Wildwood, New Jersey (Wildwoods Convention Center, July 23). Producer Eddie Kramer does “a masterful job of capturing the band’s live performance on record.” AMG It has been widely debated how much the album was fleshed out with studio overdubs. Simmons said, “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.” WK Kramer said a few overdubs were used to correct mistakes such as off-key notes or breaking strings, but at later said the only thing live on the album is Ace Frehley’s guitar. WK At another point he said only Peter Criss’ drums were live. WK On a VH1 special, the band acknowledged the album was “severely doctored in the studio.” WK Notes:The studio version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” was released as a single in support of Kiss’ third studio album, 1975’s Dressed to Kill. It peaked at #68 on the pop charts. When Alive! was released later in the year, a live version of the song charted, this time going all the way to #12. More than 20 years later, the song charted again, this time landing on the album rock chart on 3/30/96, in support of their MTV Unplugged album, and peaking at #13. |
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First posted 3/28/2011; last updated 9/26/2023. |
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