KISS "Detriot Rock City" Isolated Vocals

Here's another fun isolated vocal track, this time from KISS. It's called "Detroit Rock City" and it's from their Destroyer album from 1976. The song was the A side of the 3rd single from the album, but the B side, "Beth," unexpectedly became the big hit, which shot them to world-wide fame.

Here are some things to listen for:

1) Paul Stanley has a pretty dynamic voice, and you can sometimes hear the compressor flattening it out as a result. Doesn't sound too bad in the track though.

2) The lead vocal is doubled, but Paul does a great job because the double is so close to the lead vocal that it almost doesn't sound like a double at all. The double becomes very apparent when you hear the answer vocals in the chorus, which are not doubled.

3) The lead vocal has a very bright long reverb on it, but it also has a separate short delay as well.

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KISS "Detroit Rock City" - Isolated Vocals

Here's one for the KISS Army out there. It's the isolated lead vocal for "Detroit Rock City." The third single from KISS's hit album Destroyer, DRC didn't go anywhere on the charts except in Detroit. That is, until the B-side of the single, Beth, caught fire.

Today, DRC is still a KISS concert favorite, while Beth is.........that KISS song with strings.

1) Paul Stanley's vocal is doubled with a regenerated short delay and long reverb trail. The sound is state of the art for that period in time (1976).

2) Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss have always sung very well together. In this case, the harmony vocals on the chorus are very tight, especially the releases, which is unusual for the period. Chalk that up to Bob Ezrin's most excellent production (he also co-wrote the song with Stanley).

KISS has always been under-appreciated for its music skills. Tracks like this show you just how good they were, and still are today.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.