Kiss (Prince song)



"Kiss" is a 1986 single by Prince and The Revolution, from the album Parade.

The song ranked number 464 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. NME ranked the song number 4 in their list of The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time. The same magazine voted "Kiss" the best single of the year 1986.

Following Prince's death, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 28 and jumped to number 23 the week after. The song also reached number two on the French Singles Chart. As of April 30, 2016, it has sold 1,330,336 copies in the United States.

Age of Chance and The Art of Noise also released versions of the song that were critical and chart successes.

Composition
The song is written in the key of A major and has a tempo of 112 beats per minute in common time. Prince's vocals span an octave in the song, from E4 to E5.

Version history, development and release
"Kiss" started as a short acoustic demo, about a minute in length, consisting of a single 12-bar blues verse. Prince gave the song to the funk band Mazarati for their debut album. Mazarati and producer David Z drastically reworked the song, giving it its stripped-down minimalist sound. When Mazarati delivered the song to Prince, he was amazed at their work and decided to take back the song for himself. He replaced their lead vocal, added the guitar break in the chorus and edited the song to its present form. Mazarati were credited for their backing vocals, which Prince left intact. Prince added the song at the last minute to Parade.

Despite Warner Bros. not wanting to release it as a single, "Kiss" became Prince's third number-one U.S. hit following 1984's highly successful "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy". It was also a big hit across the Atlantic, reaching #6 on the UK Singles Chart. The song won Prince another Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and was nominated for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. The song became a staple at Prince's concerts and was usually sung partially by the audience.

The 12″ single of the song is an extension of the album track. The extended section is based on the funky guitar line and contains much fuller instrumentation than the main track, including bass guitar, organ and horns. New lyrics are present from Prince, along with Jill Jones, that end with a humorous dialogue between a wife and her husband watching Prince on television. The B-side of "Kiss" was "♥ or $" ("Love or Money"), sung in a processed, higher-pitched vocal, which Prince would later use for his Camille material. The song relates to the theme in Under the Cherry Moon, and a bit of the song was heard in the film, as was a bit of the extended version of "Kiss". The extended "Kiss" was included on 2006's Ultimate; "♥ or $" was recently re-released as a digital B-side on iTunes.

Music video
The music video was directed by Rebecca Blake. In the plot of the video, Prince appears in a half shirt and leather jacket and then all shirtless and performs dance choreography in a hall. He is accompanied by the veiled dancer Monique Manning wearing black lingerie and aviator sunglasses while Revolution member Wendy Melvoin sits playing guitar.

Personnel

 * Prince — lead vocals and various instruments
 * Mazarati — backing vocals
 * Craig Powell — guitar
 * Tony Christian — keyboards
 * Marr Star — drums
 * Aaron Keith — drums
 * Kevin Patrick — backing vocals

Track listings
7″ single
 * 1) "Kiss" – 3:46
 * 2) "♥ or $" – 3:57

12″ single
 * 1) "Kiss" (extended version) – 7:16
 * 2) "♥ or $" (extended version) – 6:50

CD single
 * 1) "Kiss" (extended version) – 7:16
 * 2) "Girls & Boys" – 5:30
 * 3) "Under the Cherry Moon" – 2:57

Age of Chance version
An industrial cover of the song was released in November 1986 by Age of Chance. Bass player Geoff Taylor described it as: "We basically removed the sex and replaced it with lump hammers."

The band worked out the music from hearing it in clubs and consulted Smash Hits for the lyrics, although they changed them substantially.

The band first recorded the track for a Peel session in June 1986, when the Prince version was still in the UK charts. They were inspired by The Fire Engines having covered Heaven 17's "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" for their first Peel session while that song was still in the charts. John Peel got many listener requests to play the track again, and it made No. 2 in Peel's Festive Fifty for 1986.

The single version was recorded at Chakk's Fon Studios in Sheffield and released on the Fon label in the UK in November 1986. Its success led to a contract with Virgin Records, who released the single in the rest of the world.

The single was accompanied by a video which received some airplay on MTV in the United States.

The sleeve was one of the first major productions by The Designers Republic, helping make their reputation. It was available in white, pink, orange or green.

The band recorded a remix called "Kisspower" with Alan Smyth of Fon Studios in November 1986, using Fon's Akai S900 sampler. It included samples from the Prince original, Bruce Springsteen, Run–D.M.C. and other artists. Virgin wanted to release it but it was vetoed by Simon Draper of Virgin America over copyright concerns. It was eventually released as a run of 500 white label promotional copies. It would have been one of the first mainstream sample-based singles, six months before "Pump Up the Volume" and "Say Kids What Time Is It?". "Kisspower" was acclaimed as a "landmark" and a "cut'n'paste trailblazer" by musician's magazine Electronic Sound.

Critical response
On release, the single achieved Single Of The Week in Sounds 15 November 1986, which described it as "The first white band on an independent label to deliver a record that successfully crosses the alertness of hip hop and electro" and emphasised the quality of the artwork.

Greil Marcus in The Village Voice 10 March 1987 called it a "trash masterpiece ... Instant party, with an edge of menace."

Simon Reynolds described the single in Blissed Out: The raptures of rock as "anti-anti-pop, a gesture against indie stasis."

Track listings

 * 7" (Fon AGE-5) (Virgin VS-951)
 * A. Kiss (Prince & The Revolution) (3:04)
 * B. Crash Conscious (Elvidge/Howson/Perry/Taylor) (2:54)


 * 12" (Fon AGE-T-5) (Virgin VS-951-12)
 * A. Kiss (3:06)
 * B1. Kiss (Collision Cut) remixed by Crush Commander (4:11)
 * B2 Crash Conscious (2:55)


 * 12" Jack-Knife Remixes (Fon AGE-L-5)
 * A. Kiss (Sonic Crush Symphony) remixed by D.J. Chakk
 * B1. Kiss (Your Move America) remixed by D.J. Chakk
 * B2. Kiss (Leeds V The Bronx) remixed by D.J. Chakk
 * B3. Crash Conscious


 * 12" "Kisspower" (Fon AGE-X-5) (promo)
 * A. Kisspower (6:55)
 * B. Kisspower (6:55)

Chart history
The single reached No. 1 on the UK Indie Charts in late 1986. It spent 11 weeks on the mainstream pop charts in the United Kingdom, starting at 6 December 1986 and peaking at No. 50 in early 1987.

In New Zealand it charted for four weeks, peaking at No. 21.

In the United States, it spent six weeks on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart, peaking at No. 35 on 23 May 1987.

The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones version
In 1988, British synthpop group the Art of Noise released a cover of the song, featuring Welsh singer Tom Jones on vocals. Jones had added the song to his Vegas live show and the Art of Noise contacted him after seeing him perform it on TV.

The song became the band's biggest hit to that point, reaching No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart (higher than the original in that country), top 10 in several countries and No. 18 on the US dance chart. It was also No. 1 in New Zealand and Spain.

The song alternates between two distinct rhythms: a fast paced 4/4 rock beat, panned entirely to the left channel; and a half-speed quiet storm-inspired percussion section. The guitar and horns break in the middle of the track musically references the themes to Dragnet and Peter Gunn (two songs the Art of Noise covered with much commercial success) as well as their own breakthrough hit, "Close (to the Edit)" and "Paranoimia", their 1986 collaboration with Max Headroom.

This version was later included as part of an episode of the series Listed on MuchMoreMusic, which was on the Top 20 cover songs. It can also be heard during the main title sequence of the movie My Stepmother Is an Alien.

Jones later recorded a new version of the song for his 2003 Reloaded: Greatest Hits album.

Track listings
7″ single
 * 1) "Kiss" – 3:30
 * 2) "E.F.L." (The Art of Noise) – 5:15

12″ single
 * 1) "Kiss" (The Battery Mix) – 8:17
 * 2) "Kiss" (7" version) – 3:30
 * 3) "E.F.L." – 5:15

CD single
 * 1) "Kiss" (7" version) – 3:30
 * 2) "E.F.L." (The Art of Noise) – 5:15
 * 3) "Kiss" (The Battery Mix) – 8:17