Retro Video of the Week: "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You II" by KISS

Monday night, I had the pleasure of seeing the fourth-to-last KISS live show ever, and sadly, my seventh and final KISS live show ever -- assuming this weekend's shows in Madison Square Garden are, in fact, the last two concerts the band will ever perform.  The band's End of the Road tour started in January 2019, and I took my kids to see the 19th show on the tour in early March 2019.  Of course, COVID meant the tour was put on hiatus for much of 2020 and 2021. I didn't expect them to return to Chicago, but you better damn well believe that I wasn't going to pass up the chance to see them one last time.  And they were predictably fantastic.

To call KISS iconic is an understatement.  Setting aside the unmistakable face paint, the merchandising (KISS coffin, anyone?), and the rabid following they've had for nearly 50 years, they revolutionized the concert-going experience, bringing pyrotechnics, explosions, fire breathing, smoking guitars, elevated drum platforms, and, of course, blood spewing to the stage.  Every time I've seen them, they've given 100% and they're still as tight of a live band as there is around.  I hope you had a chance to see them live at some point in your life, and if you didn't, you missed out on a hell of an experience.  As the house announcer before every show says, "You wanted the best, you got the best."

So in honor of KISS, I'm giving you a Russ Ballard song.  Written by Ballard -- who also wrote Ace Frehley's 1978 "solo KISS" hit "New York Groove," among many other songs for other artists over the years -- and originally released in 1973 by British rock band Argent (with Ballard on lead vocals and guitar), "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You" was a Top 20 hit in the UK, but didn't crack the Billboard Hot 100 in the states.  

Fast forward 18 years, and the most important time-traveling movie sequel of 1991 needed an anthem for its closing credits.  Enter KISS.  The band modified some of the lyrics -- hence the modified title "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You II" -- and gave it a late '80s/early '90s hard rock makeover, but it's otherwise a pretty faithful cover.  And I'd be lying if I said it didn't turn our pretty damn great.

It's also kind of a bittersweet song.  Not because I'm an atheist, so I don't believe any deity gave rock and roll to me, but because it's the last song with drummer Eric Carr, who died from heart cancer at age 41 a few months after the song was released.  He wasn't physically well enough to play drums on the song, but he did sing backing vocals, including during the a cappella part.  He also appeared behind the drum kit in the video, with a wig on, as he had lost all his hair from chemotherapy by that point.  Eric Singer -- who has been KISS's drummer since Carr's death, save for 1996 to 2000, when the original lineup reunited -- played the drums on the recorded version of the song, marking his first recording with the band.  The song was also the first KISS song since 1981 on which both Gene and Paul shared lead vocals.

It wasn't a huge hit in the U.S. -- only reaching #21 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart -- but it was a big hit internationally, reaching the Top 10 on the pop charts in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland.  In addition to being featured on the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack, it was also a track on the band's underrated 1992 album Revenge.

The video features the "unmasked" band members playing the song in an empty airplane hangar, as was the fashion back then.  Interspersed are shots of KISS shows from the '70s in full makeup.

This was the song played over the PA after the end of the show Monday night, as the house lights came on and people slowly filed out of the arena.  So it will always be the first song I heard after the last KISS concert I attended.