A while ago I saw a social media post entitled the “Top 20 Non-Makeup Kiss Songs”. It got me to thinking three things. First, how much I miss non-makeup Kiss. Second, how different the selections I was about to read would differ from my own. Lastly, this would make a great podcast topic. So it was then that I decided not to open the article and keep it under wraps until we had time to record this episode.
It’s no secret that the Meister and I are huge Kiss fans. I jumped on at Lick It Up (the first non-makeup album in 1983 and the Meister’s first album was Crazy Nights (we will forgive him for that). All in all, Kiss released seven studio albums sans makeup and a couple of bonus tracks that were included on a greatest hits compilation. These albums were the soundtrack to our adolescence. These were the albums we would be waiting outside the record store on release day in complete anticipation.
NON-MAKEUP KISS ALBUMS
1983 – Lick It Up
1984 – Animalize
1985 – Asylum
1987 – Crazy Nights
1988 – Smashes, Thrashes and Hits (Greatest Hits) included 2 new songs, Let’s Put The X in Sex and You Make Me Rock Hard.
1989 – Hot In The Shade
1992 – Revenge
1997 – Carnival Of Souls: The Final Sessions
CGCM’s Top 20 NON-MAKEUP KISS SONGS
So we decided to separately compile our own top 20 songs of the non-makeup era and discuss them with all of you. We also kept the social media picks a secret and reveal them along with our picks.
As much as we would love to play all of these picks for you in one huge celebration, the rules of the radio prohibit that. It’s ok though because we have a plane. It seems there is an abundance of artists that have covered Kiss music from the non-makeup era and we have collected a few of those to entertain your ears as we celebrate the greatest band in the land…KISS!
