KISS was more than just a little smart when it came to cashing in on their fame. They knew that people were joining the KISS Army all over the place. Sales of Alive! and Destroyer were on the rise. They enticed people to buy their first three albums by bundling them together and throwing in a booklet and poster. This bundling practice is currently in full swing in the DVD market. Go to Wal-mart and look at how many DVD’s feature two or more films packaged together like all the Lethal Weapons or Police Academy movies in one box. KISS did that in 1976. That’s how I got the first three albums.
I still remember when The Originals came out. I stood in the J.C. Penney record section looking at the back of the cover. Could this be right? The first three KISS albums are in here uncut? I compared the track listings carefully. So I can get the rest of the KISS albums for less than buying two of them sold seperately? I finally was satisfied that I was reading this correctly and then convinced mom to buy it for me by demonstrating the value over buying each of the three individually.
At first I was knd of disappointed by the studio versions of some of the songs I had grown fond of on the live album. On KISS Alive! Strutter and Firehouse were so much faster and more energetic. These studio versions seemed so slow and tired. Since it was KISS, I still listened. I found things to like on each of the albums. Of course I scrutinized the album covers, fascinated by the evolution of their make up from record to record. More importantly, my record collection had grown to five KISS albums.
If you take some time and look KISS up on Wikipedia on anywhere on the web, you’ll find that what seemed so cool to me as a 5th grader reads more like the basis for the movie This Is Spinal Tap. Even the album names seem kind of Tap-ish: Hotter Than Hell, Dressed To Kill, Destroyer, Rock And Roll Over, Love Gun, Creatures Of The Night, Lick It Up, Aninmalize, Psycho Circus. Combine that with all the toys, bubble gum cards and KISS Meets The Phantom TV movie and it adds up to something seemingly silly in retrospect, but it was so awesome until I reached middle school.