Gene Simmons once picked his favourite songs of all time
Kiss have always had a bit of a legendary status about them. Weezer, amongst many other bands, have cited them as a household favourite and their track ‘In The Garage’ features several references to the iconic New York band. To understand more about the band, we turn to Kiss singer Gene Simmons, who once revealed his influences and named his favourite songs.
Of all the Kiss catalogue, Simmons’ favourite tune of his own band is ‘Goin’ Blind’ from Kiss’ 1974 album Hotter Than Hell. The track is about a 93-year-old man vying for the romantic affection of a 16-year-old girl. Reportedly the narrator is an old sea captain.
Simmons said, “‘Goin’ Blind’ was a song I wrote with my school chum Stephen Parnell. In those days, I didn’t think much about lyrics, and I have no clue about why I sat down and wrote a letter called ‘I think I’m going blind’. Except I thought it was terribly romantic. It was about an old guy; I remember a movie called Hemingway‘s The Old Man and The Sea, and my vision of that was the old man and a mermaid.”
A further favourite track of Simmons’ related to Kiss is the Toad The Sprocket cover of Kiss’ legendary ‘Rock And Roll All Nite’. The track appeared on the 1994 tribute album Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of the band.
Simmons said of the cover version: “I put together a Kiss tribute album because I didn’t wanna wait for anybody else to do it. I called everybody I could think of, and somebody offered up told Toad the Wet Sprocket, and they decided to record ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’, which was a curious case, and they had complete latitude to do what they wanted with the song. And what came out was a fascinating sound which changed the drumbeat and even had a different passage going into the chorus. But if anything, it reminds me of Jackson Browne.”
Check out the complete list of Simmons’ favourite tunes below.
Gene Simmons’ favourite songs:
- ‘Friday On My Mind’ – The Easybeats
- ‘Concrete And Clay’ – Unit 4 + 2
- ‘Baby Workout’ – Jackie Wilson
- ‘Sleepwalk’ – Santo & Johnny
- ‘Running with the Devil’ – Van Halen
- ‘Love Theme’ – Barry White and Love Unlimited Orchestra
- ‘Magic’ – Pilot
- ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ – Toad the Wet Sprocket
- ‘Goin’ Blind’ – Kiss
Simmons also recalled seeing an early incarnation of fellow glam rockers Van Halen. He selected their track ‘Running with the Devil’ as one of his favourite tunes. Simmons also revealed that after being amazed by their performance, he offered to produce their demo recordings.
Recalling the night, he said: “A band I saw in its infancy in a place called ‘Starwood’, it was a club in Los Angeles. They were the warm-up band to the headliner, and it was just a club band. I went backstage and immediately convinced the band, Eddie, Alex, and Roth, obviously that they should not sign with a yoghurt manufacturing company guy who was gonna support them but that I would fly them to New York and produce their demo at Electric Lady studios, and I did. I worked with the band trying to figure out what arrangement worked, what didn’t, and we picked 15 songs, and they were recorded on a 24-track, and this was their demo.”
