Forty-five years ago today -- September 10th, 1975 --KISS released their breakthrough album, Alive!
Captured at shows that year in Detroit, Cleveland, Davenport, Iowa and Wildwood, New Jersey, the two-record set contains a cross-section of 16 songs from their three previous studio albums --KISS, Hotter Than Hell and Dressed to Kill.
The first single, "Rock and Roll All Nite," followed on October 14th, 1975 and is the version that still gets played on radio to this day.
The album is a tip of the hat to 1972's Slade Alive!
While many live albums are contractual obligations,Alive!was a last ditch effort to save the band's fledgling label, Casablanca, as well as a way to finally capture how the band really sounds as their studio albums failed to capture that intensity.
However, due to that high intensity, producer Eddie Kramer had to re-record numerous parts of it, except for Peter Criss' drum tracks.
Even the audience tracks were amplified, something Gene Simmons says they wanted.