"Rock and Roll All Nite"
Single by Kiss
from the album Dressed to Kill and Alive!
ReleasedApril 2, 1975 (US)
RecordedElectric Lady Studios,
New York City: February 1975
GenreHard rock[1]
Length2:49 (album version)
3:20 (7" live version)
2:34 (studio version)
LabelCasablanca NB-829 (US)
Songwriter(s)Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons
Producer(s)Neil Bogart & Kiss
Kiss singles chronology
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" / "Hotter Than Hell"
(1974)		 "Rock and Roll All Nite" / "Getaway"
(1975)		 "C'mon and Love Me" / "Getaway"
(1975)
"C'mon and Love Me" / "Getaway"
(1975)
"Rock and Roll All Nite" (Live) / "Rock and Roll All Nite"
(1975)
"Shout It Out Loud" / "Sweet Pain"
(1976)
"I Love It Loud" (Live) / "Unholy" (Live)"
(1993)
"Rock and Roll All Nite" (Unplugged) / "Every Time I Look at You (Unplugged)"
(1996)
"Jungle" (Radio Edit) / "Jungle"
(1997)
Music video
"Rock & Roll All Nite" on YouTube

"Rock and Roll All Nite" is a song by American rock band Kiss, originally released on their 1975 album Dressed to Kill. It was released as the A-side of their fifth single, with the album track "Getaway". The studio version of the song peaked at No. 69 on the Billboard singles chart, besting the band's previous charting single, "Kissin' Time" (#89). A subsequent live version, released as a single in October 1975, eventually reached No. 12 in early 1976, the first of six Top 20 songs for Kiss in the 1970s.[2] "Rock and Roll All Nite" became Kiss's signature song and has served as the group's closing concert number in almost every concert since 1976.[3][4] In 2008, it was named the 16th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.[5]

Recording

"Rock and Roll All Nite" was written by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons while Kiss was still in Los Angeles, as part of their Hotter than Hell Tour. However, during the group's concert at Cobo Hall in Detroit on January 26, 1976, Stanley introduced it as a song that was written in and for Detroit. The tour ended early (February 1975), when Casablanca Records founder and president Neil Bogart ordered Kiss to return to the studio to record a follow-up to Hotter Than Hell, which had stalled on the charts and failed to meet Casablanca's sales expectations. One of Bogart's instructions to the band was to compose an anthem, something he felt the band needed.[3][6] The song itself was inspired by the Slade song "Mama Weer All Crazee Now".[7]

They wrote the pre-chorus, Stanley wrote the chorus, and Simmons wrote the verses, borrowing parts of a song he had previously written, entitled "Drive Me Wild". The song was one of two the group recorded toward the end of the Hotter than Hell Tour prior to returning to Electric Lady Studios for the proper Dressed to Kill recording sessions.[6] For the choruses, the band and Bogart brought in a large group of outside contributors to sing and clap, including members of the Kiss road crew, studio musicians, and Peter Criss's wife Lydia. Some of the road crew used their jacket zippers to create sound.[3][8]

Reception

Cash Box said that "the undulating beat and anthem-like quality of the chorus add up to a satanic hit" and that it opens with "pounding drums and a ferocious guitar roar."[9] Record World said that the "group allows their drummer and vocals to take control of the moment as they get down to r&r basics with the best of 'em."[10]

Kiss' version appears in a 2022 TV commercial for Applebee's. In 2021, it was listed at No. 404 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[11]

Live performances

While "Rock and Roll All Nite" would eventually become a fixture in Kiss's live performances, it was not inserted into the band's setlist immediately. Nor did it immediately replace "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" as the closing number.[6] The ending of the live version of "Rock and Roll All Nite" is taken from "Getaway" (which, as indicated above, was released as the single's B-side). Kiss performed the song during the closing ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City which proved to be Ace Frehley's final performance with Kiss to date. They also performed the song live with Adam Lambert during the season 8 finale of American Idol, on May 20, 2009, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.

On December 31, 2019, this song was performed on The 70th NHK Red & White Year-End Song Festival featuring X Japan's drummer/pianist Yoshiki Hayashi.

Other versions

The original version of the song, as it appears on Dressed To Kill, does not have a guitar solo, while many later versions do have one. The Kiss Unplugged version features Ace Frehley and Bruce Kulick sharing the solo. The Unplugged version was released as a single and reached number 13 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks.[12] The original version also ends while fading away; all live versions end with the last notes of another Dressed to Kill song, "Getaway" (which, as indicated above, was released as the studio-version single's B-side). The chorus of Alive!'s version of the song is played at the beginning of "Detroit Rock City", from 1976's Destroyer.

Kiss collaborated with Japanese girl group Momoiro Clover Z on the single "Yume no Ukiyo ni Saite Mi na", consisting of the title track and a version of "Rock and Roll All Nite".

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem covered the song for the first episode of the 2023 series The Muppets Mayhem and its soundtrack.

Appearances

"Rock and Roll All Nite" has appeared on the following Kiss albums:

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Studio version

Chart (1975) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles 74
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[13] 68
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[14] 57

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[19] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Poison version

"Rock and Roll All Nite"
Single by Poison
from the album Less than Zero
ReleasedOctober 12, 1987
Recorded1987
Genre
LabelEnigma/Capitol Records
Songwriter(s)Stanley/Simmons
Producer(s)Rick Rubin
Poison singles chronology
"I Won't Forget You"
(1987)		 "Rock and Roll All Nite"
(1987)		 "Nothin' but a Good Time"
(1988)

American rock band Poison covered and released "Rock and Roll All Nite" as a single from the soundtrack to the film Less than Zero in 1987. It was released on a Poison album The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock in 2006 and again on the cover album Poison'd in 2007.

At the start of "Nothin' But a Good Time" music video, Poison's rendition of "Rock and Roll All Nite" is heard on the radio.

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Philo, Simon (2018). Glam Rock: Music in Sound and Vision. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-44227-148-7.
  2. ↑ "The Complete KISS Singles Chart Action, 1974–". The KISSFAQ. Retrieved July 13, 2006.
  3. 1 2 3 Gooch, Curt and Jeff Suhs. KISS Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. Billboard Books, 2002. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5
  4. ↑ Prato, Greg. "Rock and Roll All Nite". Allmusic. Retrieved July 17, 2006.
  5. ↑ "Vh1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs". SpreadIt. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 Gill, Julian. The KISS Album Focus, Volume 1 (3rd ed.) Xlibris Corporation, 2005. ISBN 1-4134-8547-2
  7. ↑ Wilkening, Matthew (November 9, 2011). "Kiss Founder Gene Simmons Says Band's 'Heart and Soul Lies in England'". Ultimate Classic Rock.
  8. ↑ Leaf, David and Ken Sharp. KISS: Behind the Mask: The Official Authorized Biography, Warner Books, 2003. ISBN 0-446-53073-5
  9. ↑ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. April 19, 1975. p. 22. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Single Picks" (PDF). Record World. April 19, 1975. p. 14. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 15, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Billboard singles chart history-Kiss". Retrieved February 18, 2009.
  13. 1 2 Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  14. ↑ "Cash Box Top 100 6/14/75". tropicalglen.com. Archived from the original on March 15, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  15. 1 2 "National Top 100 Singles for 1976". Kent Music Report. December 27, 1976. Retrieved January 15, 2022 – via Imgur.
  16. ↑ "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles - Week ending JANUARY 24, 1976". Archived from the original on June 9, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Top Singles – Volume 26, No. 14 & 15, January 08 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  18. ↑ Musicoutfitters.com
  19. ↑ "British single certifications – Kiss – Roll and Roll All Nite". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
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