The members of the rock band KISS were hit with a double whammy of bad news. Their 1974 album Hotter Than Hell was dying on the chart, just as their debut album KISS had a year earlier. And to make matters worse, the remaining concerts of the Hotter than Hell Tour were canceled so the band could re-group. According to the book Music, Lyrics, and Life, Neil Bogart, head of Casablanca Records, told KISS to write “A song that your fans can rally behind. A song that says what you stand for and what the manifesto is.”
KISS is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. Known for their face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group attracted a following with live performances featuring fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits and pyrotechnics. But they initially struggled to translate their popularity as a live band into record sales.
Though dejected, the band rallied and got to work. Stanley came up with lyrics about rocking all night and partying all day. And Simmons came up with additional lyrics about driving the audience crazy. And then—most important of all—the band tied those thoughts together with an invitation to the fans to join them: “the party’s just begun we’ll let you in.” The result was the manifesto Bogart had requested, “Rock and Roll All Night.”
To truly capture and do justice to the band’s energy, Casablanca released a live version as a single. It reached #12 in early 1976, giving KISS their first substantial hit. According to Rock and Roll Garage, “It became KISS’s signature song and has served as the group’s closing concert number in almost every concert since 1976.” On the strength of their new hit, KISS became one of America’s most successful rock bands, a pop culture phenomenon, and one of the best-selling bands of all time with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. KISS has also earned 30 Gold albums, the most of any American band.
In order to harness its full power and be the best it can be, a tribe needs a manifesto—a mission statement of what it stands for. As Simmons has said many times over the years: “You wanted the best, you got the best!!”