Lick It Up by Kiss

Lick It Up is an album by the U.S. hard rock/heavy metal band Kiss. On the day of the album's release, Kiss appeared on MTV without their trademark makeup. It was the first public appearance without makeup by Kiss since the very early days of the band. The album cover had bassist/band co-founder Gene Simmons sticking out his long trademark tongue to show fans that the quartet were still Kiss, with or without makeup. Lick It Up was certified Platinum on December 19, 1990. While the title track remains a regular staple on the band's live performances, the rest of the album is seldom played live. This is the first Kiss release to feature the band (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, the late Eric Carr and Vincent Cusano) without their trademark greasepaint that made therm famous in the early seventies. Lineup changes and musical direction had plagued the group since the '78 release of the four solo albums, which was an ego-fueled decision, and a bad one. This effort put them back in the forefront of hard rock's top arena acts, and gained them some respect from some that considered them a "gimmick." Lick It Up built upon the harder sound Kiss had displayed on 1982's Creatures of the Night. But while Creatures of the Night was a commercial disappointment for Kiss, Lick It Up sold much better. It was certified gold on December 22, 1983, the first Kiss album to achieve certification since 1980's Unmasked. This is at least partially attributable to the increased publicity the band received after their unmasking. "Lick It Up" and "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" were released as the only two singles from the album. They were accompanied by a pair of similarly themed, tongue-in-cheek videos featuring the band (along with many scantily clad women) in desolate, post-apocalyptic settings. This is the first Kiss album that lead guitarist Vinnie Vincent officially contributed to; he unofficially contributed to Creatures of the Night. Also for the first time, Vincent appeared on the cover art for the album, whereas the already departed Ace Frehley had appeared on the Creatures of the Night cover despite leaving the band after the release of their second compilation album Killers and was not involved in the recording of the album. Vincent, however, was not legally a member of the band. Due partly to disputes over what his role in the band and his pay would be, Vincent never signed any contract making his employment official. These disputes would lead to him leaving the band (or being fired, depending on the source) after the European leg of the Lick It Up tour. Vincent returned to the band for the American leg of the tour but left (or was fired for a second time) afterward. This time the break was permanent. Vinny went on to form Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Although according Simmons and Stanley, Vinnie Vincent was never "officially" a member of the band, but he appears on the cover and is credited in the liner notes as the band's lead guitarist. If Vinnie Vincent was "officially" the lead guitarist, Lick It Up would be to date one of two Kiss albums in which every song is credited to only band members with no outside writers or no cover songs, the other being 2009's Sonic Boom "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" is one of two songs in the history of the band in which all four (current at the time) members share song-writing credit, the other being being "Love Theme From Kiss" In an interview for KISSology 2, Paul Stanley made the statement that: "People were now listening with their eyes rather than their ears. Mainly, because Creatures of the Night was arguably a better album than Lick It Up." He also made the statement that "The only reason why I think people bought Lick It Up more than Creatures of the Night was because we had no make-up on. That was the only reason." ℗ 2014 The Island Def Jam Music Group