Rock And Roll All Nite

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss wrote this track, which became their signature song and was usually played as the last song in their encores. Stanley told Bruce Pollock: "Originally Gene and I would tend to help each other fill in the gaps. 'Rock and Roll All Night' came about because we felt we needed an anthem, a song that could be the rallying cry for all of our fans. So I went back to the hotel and came up with the chorus and the melody. Then I went down to see Gene and he came up with the verses. We used to write a lot like that. As Gene and I became better writers we became either less willing to bend on our individual ideas, or it may have been that we both figured our songs would be stronger if developed by the person who wrote them."

"Rock And Roll All Nite" is the song that defined Kiss' musical identity, which at the time wasn't clear. They wore costumes and makeup, but without a unified theme: Gene Simmons was a demon, Paul Stanley a star chile, Ace Frehley a spaceman, and Peter Criss a cat. It wasn't coming together, and they were struggling. Kiss released their first two albums nine months apart in 1974: Kiss and Hotter Than Hell. Both put up modest sales figures and their Hotter Than Hell tour wasn't helping. Neil Bogart, the head of their label (Casablanca Records) stopped the tour and had them hunker down to write a song that would define who they were as a band, using the Sly & the Family Stone song "I Want to Take You Higher" as a model. In the book Music, Lyrics, and Life, Stanley says Bogart asked them to write "A song that your fans can rally behind. A song that says what you stand for and what the manifesto is." The plan worked, but not right away. The studio version, released on April 2, 1975 and included on their third album, Dressed To Kill peaked at #68 on the Hot 100. But the song is best experienced live, fueled with the energy from the crowd. To capture this energy, Casablanca released a live version, recorded at Cobo Hall, Detroit, on May 16, 1975, as a single later that year. This version reached #12 in early 1976, giving Kiss their first substantial hit. It also anchored Alive!, their first of many Gold-certified albums.

This was featured in the 1993 movie Dazed And Confused. It also appeared in these films: Why Him? (2016) The Nice Guys (2016) Gulliver's Travels (2010) Role Models (2008) Less Than Zero (1987)