Kissin’ Time is a song by the American rock and roll singer Bobby Rydell, released as a single in 1959 on Cameo-Parkway Records. The track was Rydell’s fourth single and became his first Top 20 hit, going all the way to #11.
These days, the song is probably best known in the form of a cover version recorded by KISS in 1974. But, let’s start at the beginning.
Born in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, Bobby Rydell was considered a teen idol in his younger years. He was very young when he started, still only 17 years old when he broke through in 1959. After three unsuccessful singles for small companies, he signed a recording contract with Cameo Records. They offered him the chance to record Kissin’ Time, which brought him to the charts in a big way.
The song was written by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann, the founders of Rydell’s label, who decided to take matters into their own hands and make Rydell a hit. When in doubt, go for the cheap pop you get from mentioning the places that the audiences are from. By carefully selecting Rydell’s main live markets, as well as several of the larger cities (to cover larger potential audiences, of course!), the song describes the new kissing craze that is sweeping the lands, with the singer also telling his baby to be ready for incoming smooches.
They’re kissin’ in Cleveland, Kansas City, too
They’re wailin’ in Wildwood, back at Waterloo
They’re smoochin’ all over, even in St. Loo
So uh-baby get ready, I’m a-kissin’ you
Oh baby ‘cause summertime is kissin’ time USA
So treat me right, a-don’t-a make-a me fight
The Battle of New Orleans tonight
This is pure cheese and nothing but cheese, but catchy cheese. Most importantly, it worked. In the US, the single became a summer hit, quickly rising to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #29 on the Hot R&B Sides chart.
It probably did not hurt that the song strongly resembles Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen both musically and thematically. Berry had a hit with his song just the year before, where he is calling out a number of towns in the exact same way. The difference is that “they’re really rocking and rolling” rather than kissing. The verse melodies of the two are also pretty much identical. Even with the best of intentions, it is hard to see the song as anything but a subtle rewrite of at least the verses, with the chorus melody at least adding something new to it.
In later years songwriters have been sued for far smaller likenesses than this, but this was not common practice in the late 1950s. However, when The Beach Boys made their own version of that very same Chuck Berry song in 1963 called Surfin’ USA, Berry had reached his limit. He sued for plagiarism and won, having been co-credited as Surfin’ USA‘s writer ever since. One can wonder why this didn’t happen for Kissin’ Time as well, but for whatever reason, Berry let that one slide.
In 1960, Rydell joined a package tour through Australia with The Everly Brothers, Billy “Crash” Craddock, Mark Johnson, The Champs, and The Crickets. Ever the entrepreneurs, the record label had him record an Australian version of Kissin’ Time to coincide with the tour. Changing the lyrics into “They’re kissin’ in Sydney. Perth and Brisbane too…” was as effective as it was simple, and the audiences ate it up.
It was his following single, We Got Love, that became his first million-album seller, earning gold disc status in the process. For the next few years, he was riding high with success after success with singles like Wild One, Swingin’ School, Volare, Sway, and Good Time Baby.
During the first half of the 1960s, Rydell had numerous hit records on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His recording career earned him 34 Top 100 hits. He left Cameo Records in 1964, signing with Capitol Records. That might have been a bad move, as that pretty much signals the end of his hitmaking years. By this point, the so-called ‘British invasion’ had arrived, and acts such as Rydell suffered a dramatic decline in popularity. Even though he was the same age as most of the new and emerging rock bands, he still musically came from a different era and represented something else.
Rydell got by through turning to acting, and started appearing in several television programs. In the 1970s and 80s he continued to perform in nightclubs, supper clubs and Las Vegas venues. Rydell’s only hit after 1965 was a disco re-recording of Sway in 1976, which reached the adult contemporary music charts.
Unfortunately Allen Klein’s ABKCO company acquired the ownership of his entire Cameo output (pretty much his golden years) and kept declining to make it available. In effect, it was like Rydell’s biggest hits didn’t exist any longer. This situation lasted until 2005, when ABKCO finally started doing archive releases.
This means that when KISS covered Kissin’ Time in 1974, their version of the song was the only one available. The original was off the market, in Allen Klein’s vaults. Still, getting a new version out there was not straightforward work. KISS wanted nothing to do with the song and refused to record it. It only happened because Neil Bogart, president of their record label Casablanca Records, more or less strong-armed them into recording it amid much resentment.
So why did KISS do it?
KISS had released their eponymous debut album that same year. The record struggled to stay on the charts and the group was in need of a single that would help. Neil Bogart knew that a catchy single could save the record. He was desperate for the band to get a Top 40 hit, and he felt that nothing on the first album was suitable for that.
The KISS book Behind the Mask contains several quotes from people on how it all came about. Kenny Kerner, one half of KISS’ early producer duo, said: “One of the promotion people at Casablanca came up with the idea of kissing contests all across America, where the people that kissed the longest would get some kind of a prize. Neil said, ‘Yeah! You know what we could do? We could take that old Bobby Rydell song Kissin’ Time and redo that and put it on the record and then release it as a single to coincide with the national kissing contest!’ When the band heard that, we all flipped out. It was Neil on one side and everybody else on the other.”
The fact that the song stood for everything that the band didn’t, did not matter. Bogart was a man who liked gimmicks – he had signed KISS, after all! He felt and hoped that the song would achieve the same success for them as it had for Rydell. The fact that it could label them a bubblegum rock band did not concern him in the slightest.
“Kissin’ Time was one of the Neil Bogart ruses,” said KISS vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley. “He told us that it was just being recorded for a commercial and that it’ll never come out as a single. That was part of Neil’s philosophy; Neil, bless his soul, if he could get you a hit today and ruin your career that was well worth it ‘cause you’d have had a hit. So that’s just a different way of looking at things. We were perfectly capable of writing our own material and at that point to have to record a Bobby Rydell song was unnecessary.”
“Everybody hated it,” said KISS manager Bill Aucoin. “Neil was going to do this major promotion and he was going to spend a fortune on it. So I said, ‘Guys, we have to do it.’ There are certain things in everyone’s career where you know it’s not what you want to do, but you know, if you don’t do it, you’re really stupid.”
As the band got into the studio to record the song, they found the original lyrics ill-suited to KISS’ leather-clad style. Lines like ‘They’re smoochin’ all over, even in St. Lou’ and ‘Sweeter than wine and feels so fine, wa-hoo!’ had to go (or be changed), and a rewrite was in order. They all sat down, pads and pencil in their hands, everyone throwing in suggestions if and when they had any. The band had gone down well in Detroit, so that was a location that they added. In other words, the same kind of considerations would go into their version of the song that had gone into the Bobby Rydell version. The song was re-worded to suit the band and their audience as much as possible.
It has to be said that despite the band’s strong misgivings, they really gave this song their all. The song has a high level of energy and a swagger that is both commendable and impressive, knowing that they did it against their will every step of the way. A lot of fans have a soft spot for the song, which although it clearly comes from a different place than most of their songs, was done in the KISS style to good effect. It is also great to hear Gene, Paul, and Peter sing one verse each, all of them bursting at the seams to make their verse the best one. It’s a great team effort, although personally I think Peter (who sings the third verse) particularly shines here.
The KISS version of Kissin’ Time was released as a single on 10 May 1974, three months after the initial release of their first album. A few months later the song was also added to the track listing of that album, becoming the new first track on Side 2 on any copies printed after July 1974.
KISS’ version of the song did not achieve anywhere near the success of Rydell’s original, reaching only number 83 on the US Pop Charts and 79 on US Cashbox. Still, it was their highest charting single to date, and would remain so for another year and a half, when a live version of Rock’n’Roll All Nite from their Alive! album reached #12 and launched them into superstardom. Kissin’ Time and the whole hoopla around the kissing contest may still have helped the album somewhat, as it seemed to get a bit of second wind and managed to climb up to a respectable #87 position.
I have searched in vain for any reference to whether Bobby Rydell ever heard the KISS version of his hit (he must have), and what he said about it (if anything). If anyone should come across a link or reference to this, please get in touch or leave a comment in the fields below.
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