Format 7" Label Mercury 814 671-7 (US) | Length 3:56 | |
Released September 18, 1983 (US) Recorded Right Track Studios,
New York City: 1983 Writer(s) Paul Stanley, Vinnie Vincent | ||
"Lick It Up" is a song by the American hard rock band Kiss. It is the title track on the group's 1983 album. Written by Paul Stanley and Vinnie Vincent, the song was released as the record's first single. The track was a top forty hit in the U.K., Switzerland, and Canada, although it stalled on the U.S. charts.
A staple of the band's live performances, the group has performed the song over 1,300 times as of August 2015 due to its fan favorite status.
Song information
A video was made to promote the single. It was the first music clip to feature the band without its makeup. The video premiered on MTV on September 18, 1983 in a half-hour special hosted by J.J. Jackson. Despite the hype and promotion for the single, it stalled at #66 on the American Billboard Hot 100. However, the song broke into the Top 40 in several other countries.
Kiss has performed "Lick It Up" on most of its tours since the single's release. The track was featured on the group's live albums Alive III and Kiss Symphony: Alive IV. It also appears on 2001's The Box Set. It is the only song from the band's unmasked era that has been regularly played live since they returned to wearing their trademark makeup in 1996.
The guitar bridge after the second iteration of the chorus was intended to be a full-fledged guitar solo, however, it is said that the solo recorded by Vinnie Vincent was not approved for the song, and he was asked by Gene Simmons to make another solo. Upset, Vincent made a bridge followed by a breakdown instead.
The song is featured in the TV series The Sopranos and in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, on the V-Rock radio station. The Kiss Symphony version appears in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground.