Welcome again to Bottom Feeders, your weekly look into songs that charted no higher than #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 1980s. This should be a fun week, with more rock ‘n’ roll storytelling on our hands. Download and enjoy some songs, and while you’re at it, give me your Kiss story.
Kiss
“Shandi” — 1980, #47 (download)
“A World Without Heroes” — 1981, #56 (download)
“Lick It Up” — 1983, #66 (download)
“Heaven’s on Fire” — 1984, #49 (download)
“Tears Are Falling” — 1985, #51 (download)
“Crazy Crazy Nights” — 1987, #65 (download)
“Reason to Live” — 1987, #64 (download)
“Let’s Put the X in Sex” — 1989, #97 (download)
“Hide Your Heart” — 1989, #66 (download)
Kiss sets all kinds of marks as part of this series. Their nine tracks here are the most of any artist so far (there will be an artist with ten in the future) but the most remarkable thing is that these are the only nine tracks to chart in the decade. That kind of speaks to the remarkable career they’ve had: not one Top 40 song in the decade and yet the record company kept releasing singles. Now, granted, in most cases the songs you’re hearing were the first off an album and the second one didn’t chart, so the initial impact wasn’t exactly stellar.
As a rock ‘n’ roller at heart, I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never seen Kiss live. I’ll see them on some reunion tour at one point; I think I have to as a rock fan, but I have no need to pick up a kiss record from the ’80s. I’m sure most of you will say the same thing as it’s no secret that Kiss isn’t exactly the greatest studio band in the world.
Let’s look at how the decade unfolded for Kiss. Unmasked was the first album of the decade and featured “Shandi” as the first single. It was the last with Peter Criss as the credited drummer though he didn’t actually play on the album. The album has more of a pop feel than the more popular Kiss records but hadn’t yet went to the pure ’80s sound.
Music From ‘The Elder’ was released in 1981 and ended up spawning probably the best single out of all the tracks here, but it was Kiss’s worst-selling album. It was also the last record they made with Ace Frehley until Psycho Circus.
Without touring, they came right back in 1982 with Creatures of the Night which is probably the strongest album of the decade for Kiss which of course means that it had no singles chart. The catchy as hell “I Love It Loud” comes from this album though and that became a concert staple. This was the first album with Vinnie Vincent on guitar.
But what about those BPAs that really weren’t all that bad?