Click here to play the podcastOn this episode, we revisit the Destroyer album and take a look at the song “King Of The Night Time World” to see how it evolved from an obscure track by a short-lived LA band into a teenage anthem by larger-than-life rock legends. We’ll listen to both versions and hear what changed & what remained. Come live your secret dream!
“King Of The Nighttime World” (Kim Fowley/Mark Anthony/Paul Stanley/Bob Ezrin) Copyright 1976 Cafe Americana, Inc/Kiss Songs, Inc (ASCAP)/Bad Boy Music/Eighth Power Music/All By Myself Publishing Co Ltd. (BMI)
The song was not written by KISS. It is a song written and recorded by The Hollywood Stars. According to one of the members of The Hollywood Stars, KISS paid them money to allow them to add Paul’s and Bob Ezrin names to the writing credits so KISS fans would think it was an original KISS song. The only thing KISS changed was the arrangement which is not a legal reason to change a copyright since anyone anywhere in the world could do the same to any song ever written. The Hollywood Stars recorded this song 2 years before KISS recorded and can be heard on their albums.
Yes, and if you listen to the episode, we discuss the history of the song and play the two songs in comparison, listening to the differences between the two. The point of this episode was to explore an example of when a band/artists covers a song, what do they change and adapt? You could argue that the person most responsible for the song was not anyone from Kiss or the Hollywood Stars, it was Kim Fowley, who also shares writing credit for the song. An excellent history of the song can be found in James Campion’s book about the making of Kiss’ Destroyer album, “Shout It Out Loud: The Story Of Kiss’s Destroyer”. He provides more details than we could fit in a 15-minute podcast.