On 8. February 1974, Kiss’ debut studio album “Kiss” was released. Much of the material on the album was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as members of their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester. Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, while co-producer Richie Wise has stated it took just 13 days.
MAGIC – KISS KRONICLES 1973 TO 1983:
The release date is listed elsewhere as Feb. 18 but the overwhelming evidence (16 different documented sources from 1974 to 1980) confirms the correct date as the 8th. The first source to list the 18th as the release date was the error-filled “The Real Story” from 1980.
Another detail that helps confirm the 8th as the correct date is that the 8th was a Friday, and all confirmed release dates from Warner Brothers (KISS’ distributor at the time) are on Fridays. The 18th was a Monday.
Ace Frehley:
On that February day I walked into (the now-defunct) Alexander’s department store on Fordham Road in the Bronx, right across the street from Fordham University. Alexander’s stood near one of the busiest intersections in the borough. There was always a crowd hanging out nearby, and the traffic in and out of the place seemed never to slow. I’d been shopping at Alexander’s since I was a little kid—bought a big chunk of my album collection there. So you can imagine how I felt walking through the store, my heart racing as I headed to the music section. You can imagine what it must have been like for a guy who had bought his first Hendrix record—and his first Led Zeppelin record, his first Who record—in this very spot to suddenly be thumbing through the stacks of vinyl, looking for a record of his very own.
And there it was, staring out at me from a wall of new releases:
KISS
I picked it up, held it for a moment, flipped it from back to front. I smiled and laughed a little as I looked at my silver-painted face, gazing stoically from the upper right-hand corner.
Then I walked to the cash register, pulled out a ten-dollar bill, and paid for the record without saying a word.
Why, you might reasonably wonder, did I have to buy my own record? Well, because Casablanca had not yet sent me a copy. Or maybe know that when the album came out, I went to Alexander’s to see it for myself, and to buy my own copy. That’s how slowly things worked sometimes; that’s how little clout we had in those days.
I didn’t really feel offended by the oversight. Mainly I was just thrilled to be walking out of the store with my own album. I wanted to take it out of the bag and shout to everyone, “Hey, look at this: | made a record!” But I didn’t. There was some comfort in the anonymity, too. No one knew who I was, so even if I had shown them the album cover, they wouldn’t have recognized me as the person in the upper righthand corner. That would be one of the strangest aspects of the KISS phenomenon: for a number of years when we went out in public, we were seen primarily, if not exclusively, in character.
– “No regrets” by Ace Frehley
