Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved

Cover art and title

The rights to Ace Frehley's makeup were not cleared in time for release of the CD, hence the inclusion of a hybrid form of Paul Stanley's "Bandit" design that was briefly used in some early shows and promotional photos.

Album cover Art Director/Designer: Mitchell Kanner.

The album title provided inspiration for another Kiss tribute album, Kiss My Ankh. This album contains only songs written by former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent whose make-up design consisted of a golden ankh cross on his face.

Canadian, Japanese and Australian copies of the album have their respective flags in place of the American flag of the U.S. version.

Composition

"Hard Luck Woman" was performed by Kiss themselves with award-winning country singer Garth Brooks (who had admitted to being a big fan of the band during some interviews) on lead vocals.

"Calling Dr. Love" was performed by one-off band Shandi's Addiction, made up of vocalist Maynard James Keenan (Tool), guitarist Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More), and drummer Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave).

"Strutter", performed by Extreme, is an unusual recording, as it also incorporates the main riff to "God of Thunder" in the middle section prior to and during Nuno Bettencourt's guitar solo, the vocal opening to "Heaven's on Fire" into the reprisal of the lyric "But when she wants/She'll pass you by", and the chorus of "Shout It Out Loud" sung by the backing vocalist. Also, after the song has ended, Gary Cherone sings the introductory guitar lick to "Love Gun", and Nuno Bettencourt plays the first few notes of "Detroit Rock City".

Gene Simmons initially requested Yoshiki Hayashi (X Japan) to put "I" into an orchestral context, but Yoshiki preferred "Black Diamond" for it. It retains the basic structure of Kiss' version, using piano, strings and timpani in place of the traditional electric guitar, bass and drums, and was performed by the American Symphony Orchestra. Yoshiki's piece was initially only going to be included on the Japanese edition of the album, but Simmons liked it so much it was added to the track list of all editions.

Reception

The album was released to generally mixed reviews. JT Griffith from Allmusic said that the album appealed neither to die-hard Kiss fans nor to pop radio listeners, but was probably more popular within fans of the individual bands participating in this project. Although "Detroit Rock City" was released as a single, the "Hard Luck Woman" is generally considered the most popular from the set. The most interesting reinterpretation was "Deuce", "Christine Sixteen" the most faithful, while the most daring cover the slowed-down version of "Rock & Roll All Night". Deborah Frost from Entertainment Weekly commented how many songs ("Christine Sixteen" and "Rock & Roll All Night") were turned from "adolescent fantasies into bittersweet nostalgia", sounded even more inane the umpteenth time around ("Plaster Caster" and "Hard Luck Woman"), and [Deuce] "achieve[ed] what Kiss, no matter how hard it humps or thumps, never has and never will: It swings". For Chris William from the Los Angeles Times the "hewing yawningly close to the period-piece originals" are Gin Blossoms, Anthrax, Extreme and the Lemonheads. Lenny Kravitz was "at least well-suited to shift 'Deuce' from one '70s subgenre to another, though he runs out of ideas—and of song—a minute in", Garth Brooks seemed unrecognizable, while Dinosaur Jr. done the "happiest transfer". Andrea Odintz from Rolling Stone described it as celebration of unabashed pleasures of vintage hard rock, and the ingenuity award must go to Yoshiki Hayashi for his instrumental orchestral arrangement.

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles - Billboard (North America)