On 26. April 1974, Kiss returned to Bell Sound Studios for two days of sessions that resulted in the recording of “Kissin’ Time,” initially intended to only be non-album single in conjunction with the planned national Casablanca-sponsored kissing contest. As a result the album was remixed on May 10. with the new song replacing “Deuce” as the first track on side two. Copies of the original “NB” Warner album release soon started to appear with the song included resulting in what has become the definitive version of the album.
The original rather dated bubble-gum lyrics needed to go in order for the song to serve its promotional purpose. According to Kenny, “We sat there, we all had pads and pencils, and we just went around the board. And we went, ‘Alright, well… they’re Kissin’ in’… and somebody would go, ‘Detroit’! And we’d go, ‘Alright, they’re kissin’ in Detroit.’ And that’s how it went. We re-wrote the song in like twenty minutes. We changed it to some Rock ‘N Roll cities, and shit like that, and went in and cut it. And that came out on the second pressing of the same first album”. Gene disputes Kenny’s story suggesting in his biography that he rewrote the song by himself. Paul, Gene, and Peter shared the lead-vocals on the verses. The recording of “Kissin’ Time” caused plenty of problems for the band and they may be considered unwilling victims in the creation of the song. Kenny Kerner recalled, “That was the only fight we had during the recording of that entire album! And the fight was not with us and the band, it was the band and the producers against the record company”. Neil Bogart had many visionary ideas, but he’d also had major success in the brief “bubble-gum” musical movement of the late-60s. He could pick a gimmick out of the air, and this one seemed perfect for his band, and was simply a way he thought he could get more exposure for the band (but probably more importantly for Casablanca). While the band and producers weren’t enthusiastic about the idea, they didn’t have any choice. Neil ultimately held the purse-strings, and a newly signed band lacked any clout to go against the person who was ultimately their boss. They caved in.
The chart performance of the album was hardly staggering, even with all of the promotional efforts. It debuted at position #211 and immediately stagnated, but by June had risen to a high position of #87. This high point was undoubtedly the result of some of the exposure garnered by the “Kissin’ Time” single and related promotional hype. The single was released on May 10, backed with “Nothin’ To Lose.” That B-side had generally been ignored by radio when released (as an A-side) in March. Like the album, “Kissin’ Time” didn’t trouble the charts only reaching #83 during a five week chart run. On Cashbox the single did marginally better, during a four week run, reaching #79. Still, while performance on either chart was not spectacular it was notable as the band’s first charting single. The single helped raise the album on the charts even though, at that point, it was not even included on any pressings of the album! Everything surrounding this promotion was pure Neil Bogart. He envisaged a massive media campaign around the song and kissing contests around the nation. Casablanca issued a press release with his usual amount of hype detailing the contest: “This is one of the largest promotions in the history of radio… we are trying to get Howard Cosell to cover our finals for ABC ‘Wide World Of Sports’… Tying in with the Kiss promotion is the release this week of a new single by Kiss especially recorded for the contests… Each participating station in ‘The Great Kiss Off’ will be given 250 Kiss T-shirts, 500 posters promoting the station and the contest… The winners will be flown May 31 to Los Angeles to see and meet Kiss as they perform at the Long Beach Auditorium. From there they will depart on an 8-day cruise to Acapulco to recuperate”.
It is likely that at least some of the late-May shows that they performed “Kissin’ Time” in their set, but it certainly didn’t survive long. According to Gene the song, simply “didn’t feel right for us.” They had essentially been bullied into recording the song and they weren’t going to go out of their way to include it in live shows since it really hadn’t been that successful anyway. Regardless, it was too danceable and clashed with the band’s “thunderock.” Neil had apparently indicated to the band that the single would only be used in conjunction with the contest promotion. However, when the opportunity arose Casablanca reissued the album with the track, even before their split from the Warner Brothers distribution deal in the summer.
