Black Diamond 2: Excerpts
Chapter One: "Official United States Releases"
In America, the KISS catalog began in February 1974 with each album being released in vinyl, audio cassette and 8-track cassette forms. 8-Track, for those of you reading who are too young or too fried to remember the '70s, was a very popular format for many years. This had to do with the affordability of the format and the ready availability of fitting your car's radio deck with an 8-Track cassette player. The phenomenon died out at the beginning of the 1980s as audio cassettes took over that market. Another contributing factor was the lack of space available on the 8-Track, sometimes cutting a song in half to switch from one portion of the tape to another, plus the seemingly routine task of pulling mangled bits of tapes eaten by the machine during play. The last 8-Track tape to be sold commercially in America was CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, while LICK IT UP was available for a short time through such record clubs as Columbia House.
Speaking of Columbia House, this record club also released some of the KISS album in 4-Track Reel-to-Reel format during the later part of the 1970s. Reel-to-Reel was already a dying format as the 1970s began, with the complication of setting the tapes up on the machine for either side of an album, and the expense of the equipment making it a limited sales item and rarely sold to the audience that were buying KISS albums (although it did give one the ability to play things backwards easily). Because of the scarcity of this format which was sold only through the record clubs they will not be discussed below, but it should be pointed out that such items do exist and could be of interest to fans.
Vinyl remained a popular form until the late 1980s when compact discs became the latest rage. Many of the major countries listed below began phasing out vinyl, leaving the fans with only audio cassette and CD available for purchase. Yet, vinyl has been making a limited comeback as of late, with a collectors' market being discovered for limited releases of albums in vinyl form.
1984 saw the first KISS CD in America with the original release of ANIMALIZE. All subsequent commercial albums from this point on would be released on compact disc, audio cassette and vinyl until the release of REVENGE in 1992. Both REVENGE and ALIVE III was released in CD and cassette form only in American from Polygram, although REVENGE was available in vinyl form as an import item from England shortly after its release and in the fall of 1994 as a limited-edition color-vinyl after the success of the limited-edition ALIVE III album. While there were rumors of ALIVE III being release on vinyl in a limited-edition run a few months after its release, it was not until August 1994 that such a pressing was done in. This, along with a limited release vinyl version of REVENGE were made available only through a small distributor in Warren, Ohio. Still, interest from record collectors for limited vinyl editions of new albums has increased over the past few years; which can be seen with the simultaneous release of both MTV UNPLUGGED and YOU WANTED THE BEST . . . . on CD and vinyl, with the vinyl versions each containing one more musical track than the American CD counterparts. As of July 1997, however, GREATEST KISS has yet to be released on vinyl.
In 1986, Polygram took on the task of releasing the earlier KISS albums on CD, with the catalog completed on May 23, 1990, with the reluctant pressing of MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER". Before this final release, many of the albums were available only on CDs imported from Europe or Japan, and many of these are still floating around in fan circles today. Early European CDs can be rooted out with the orange-brown, swirling Casablanca logo which can be seen on the discs themselves. The Japanese CDs are more readily apparent with the Japanese lettering found on the CD covers. With the exception of foreign-only albums or mixes (such as KILLERS, or the Japanese-only version of MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER"), all of these reissues (whether domestic or foreign) are taken from the same recording sources.
Which, as will be seen, is not necessarily a good sign. Many of these CD reissues are of average to sub-par value to the average listener or collectors. From deletion or misspelling of song titles, illogical track listings, to bad production and rerecording of the albums onto disc, many of the albums are a disappointment to fans expecting the usually high standard of craftsmanship that used to come with the group's recordings. Even a much-rumored "box set," which was finally released in 1989, turned out to be nothing more than the first four studio albums in a simple clear plastic sleeve.
Many of these CD were released in batches during the later part of the 1980s. Since the KISS catalog began with vinyl in 1974 (and vinyl releases are still listed in the first in the current catalog), these will take precedent below over such other variations as CD, cassettes, etc. Since CD is now the preference of many fans, with each album below will be a section dealing with CDs and differences found between these and the original vinyl editions which may be of value to fans.
As of July 1997, rumors are still running through fan-circles of KISS working on a CD box set, tentatively titled MONSTER OF ALL BOX SETS, containing previously unreleased material (the same material they swore did not exist in interviews back in the '70s and '80s). This is an extension of the original plans for the KISSTORY book (finally released in 1995), which was to have been released with a single CD of such material. Considering some of the other plans that KISS has announced through the years, it may be some more time before this is released, however. In related news, Polygram plans to reissue the KISS catalog on CD beginning on July 15, 1997 in cleaned-up form, with remastered tracks and corrected packaging (including a promised return of the "extras" that came with many of the
released during the 1970s). In fact, such reissues have already occurred in Japan (see Chapter Six for more details). Thus, one way or another, the American releases for KISS may never end.
The first four remastered CDs were KISS, HOTTER THAN HELL, DRESSED TO KILL and ALIVE! In August four more CDs are to be released, DESTROYER, ROCK AND ROLL OVER, LOVE GUN and ALIVE II. September 1997 is to see five remastered CDs, DOUBLE PLATINUM and the four solo albums; while, October 14 is to see the final four remasters, DYNASTY, UNMASKED, MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER" and CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, along with the very first appearance of the album
recorded in 1995, tentatively titled CARNIVAL OF SOULS.
Each remaster included a page of text written by Robert Conte, which appeared underneath the CD holder in each jewel case. With the exception of the first album (for reasons understandable), all of the remasters have been faithful in appearance in the original vinyl versions of the albums. Each CD included a see-through spine that states, "KISS THE REMASTERS. A gold sticker was also included that stated each album was remastered from the original master tapes.
The remasters were done by Joseph M. Palmaccio at Sterling Sound, New York City, New York in 1996. Bill Levenson supervised the project, while Mitchell Kanner designed the packaging of each album for the new series of CDs.
One important note for fans wishing to track down first pressings of the older KISS albums is that of the record label used on the vinyl itself. All original pressings from KISS through DESTROYER, with the exception of THE ORIGINALS, appeared with a blue Casablanca Records label, featuring a silhouette of the Casablanca skyline, with (a long-haired) Bogie to the left and two palm trees to the right. Both THE ORIGINALS and ROCK AND ROLL OVER featured a full label logo with a detailed drawing of the entrance to Casablanca, along with three camels lingering outside of the gates. All albums between ROCK AND ROLL OVER and DYNASTY featured the standard logo of a film crew working on a Casablanca movie set; and, with the exception of DOUBLE PLATINUM, featured part of the album's cover superimposed. DYNASTY and UNMASKED displayed the poster inserts on the label, while MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER" used a full logo of the album cover. With the move of the band from Casablanca to Mercury, the label became a standard black. The only exceptions have been the promo album FIRST KISS . . . LAST LICKS, KISS MY ASS, MTV UNPLUGGED and YOU WANTED THE BEST, YOU GOT THE BEST! (see each album below for more details).