One of the best obscure KISS tracks. Great hooks, especially on the pre-chorus ("girl you want me to cry..."), where harmonizing the melody with a G works well, turning what would otherwise be a simple Am-F-G progression into Am7-Fadd9-G. The key change from Cm to Am and back again is also nice. Probably Paul's best vocal performance on a record, the extremely high belting does a great job of conveying the desperation in the song. And the lyrics ("pleasure and pain feel the same when the night is through", "you've got my heart in a hangman's noose, pull the rope and make it tight", etc...) do a good job of depicting relationships accurately (as opposed to the idealized fairytales in most pop/rock music).
It’s not a terrible song but the recording is a touched up demo like most of that album, sonically it’s awful. Plus it was never released as a single. They thought Read My Body (blatant rewrite of Pour Some Suga On Me) was a potential single, it appeared on the hype sticker of some pressings. Always liked both that and King of Hearts from the same album. They’re blatant Bon Jovi trend hopping songs though, they don’t sound like KISS. Paul ruined that band by turning it into Bon Jovi lite, he was so jealous of Bon Jovi since he introduced him to Desmond Child.
They should have brought back Nevison. I hear Bon Jovi in King of Hearts and Hide Your Heart. Not in any of Paul's other songs from HitS, nor in Eric's song, nor in Gene's songs. I never minded the Bon Jovi copying, I like Bon Jovi.
Hot In The Shade is close to being my favourite KISS album (definitely top five). It's packed with songs strong enough to be hits and this was definitely one of them.
Hot In the Shade is pretty mixed - a step up from Crazy Nights, but without any really standout tracks (unlike Crazy Crazy Nights), and at 15 songs, at least 5 tracks of filler.
“Hide Your Heart” is a Bon Jovi rip. “Read My Body” is a Def Leppard rip. If I trimmed the album to my preferred ten tracks (you can’t make up for quality with quantity), both would go. But “You Love Me to Hate You” would make the cut, as confusing as I find the chorus lyrics.
One thing I’ll say in favour of HITS is that, despite the conventional narrative, Revenge is not necessarily a “huge step up” quality wise, in terms of songs - the improvement is Ezrin’s production.
Yeah, for me, Revenge is a massive step down songwriting-wise. It's the only KISS album with none I like at all. The Ezrin production was great though, obviously.
Because it's a crap song, BusNoise/Conestoga Rankin/etc. Also, your hero Eric Carr didn't play on it.
It's simple. Does the program director like it, well enough to try it. Do the listeners like it well enough? If so, it at least gets airplay. Enough stations add it, it has a chance to be a hit. Also, is it the right length to get airplay, does it have language issues, or other standards and practices issues?
I assume it wasn’t a serious comment by Terrapin, but you are of course correct. The syrupy “Forever” from the same album was of course a big hit.
The singing in the bridge and chorus are off and don't sound that great.. this song has potential if Paul and Gene had hired a producer that may had re-arranged or changed the song to work
Yeah, the song sounds kind of annoying. I think most radio listeners hearing this back in the day would have switched to something else. There wasn't much hit potential. You're right that better production might have helped. It still wouldn't be a great song but it would sound better.
Because Kiss weren't writing "hits" in the late 80's. And even bringing in Desmond Child could not fix that.
It’s a throwaway chug a chug a, at a time when hair metal bands were doing much much better. But lest we cry for Gene and Paul, the album did go gold, but the song is not single worthy. The chorus performance can’t save the subpar production and performance on the verses, sounds like a demo, with standard hackneyed lyrics.
Except, of course, they picked up only their second ever US top ten single from the very album that the subject of this thread comes from.
When the chorus arrives I'm out, Paul is out of his comfort zone and is basically unlistenable to my ears (very annoying). One of several tracks on this album that belong in the KISS dumpster.
This song has always been my favorite track from this album. Not sure why it was never put out as a single. Would it have topped the charts? No. But a great tune I think.
Some of Gene's songs are very bad here (i.e. Boomerang), they should have replaced that one with Street Legal. Much better song. Crazy Nights has better production. There's nothing wrong with mimicking another style if you do it well. Carnival of Souls is mimicking Alice in Chains, and it is great. You don't like "Take It Off"? "Girl you want me to cry..." is a very strong hook. What's off about the signing? The production isn't great, but the song itself is terrific. That's my favorite part of his vocal range. I wish he had done an entire album in that range.