When it came time for KISS to bounce back from the uneven at best reception to the band's ambitious four-solo-albums-in-one-day campaign of late 1978, they wanted to make a splashy return. With disco still raging across America, the group took a huge chance with the first single from 1979 comeback album, Dynasty: "I Was Made for Lovin' You," released May 20, 1979.
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The gamble paid off--to a degree. Released in the run-up to the full Dynasty album, the song hit radio like a bomb. Suddenly, the menacing shock-rockers were cooing on Top 40 radio. As younger and younger kids flocked to the sound, longtime fans were left in a state of shock. Let's take a look behind the makeup for five freaky but fun facts about the most controversial KISS single in history, "I Was Made for Lovin' You."
1. Paul Stanley co-wrote the song with Desmond Child
"I went to a Kiss rehearsal in New York City, and they had this huge soundstage, with mountains of Marshall amps and all the guitars and everything," Child told the Tennessean last year. "They were getting ready for a big tour, and there was a beautiful grand piano off to the side, and they took a lunch break. Paul and I went over to the piano, and I had this little bit of a start, which were the chords and the melody to the verse. ... It was very theatrical, and the line "I was made for you girl, you were made for me, and I was made for you" came out of that session. Then Paul went into the studio, and along with their producer Vini Poncia, they just built on that. They kind of revved up the chorus, which is the signature part of the song, so I can't take credit for that."
2. "I Was Made for Lovin' You" helped inspire Disco Demolition Night in Chicago
With rock fans feeling threatened by the cultural juggernaut of disco, the "Disco Sucks!" campaign kicked up in earnest, particularly across the Midwest. When one of the biggest rock bands in the world scored with a disco hit, rockers were devastated, and angry. "That's the moment they jumped the shark," groused Lance Tawzer to the Chicago Tribute. Tawzer curated a museum exhibit chronicling the infamous July 1979 "Disco Demolition Night" riot in 2017.
3. "I Was Made for Lovin' You" is only KISS' third-highest charting song in America
For all of the hoopla around the global chart success of the song, the track did hit #1 in more than a half-dozen countries around the world. Released in the US in May 1979, it could only reach #11 on the Hot 100. That was for the week of August 11, 1979, when the #1 song in the country was Donna Summer's "Bad Girls." The band hit #7 in 1976 with "Beth"/"Detroit Rock City," and #8 in 1990 with "Forever."
4. Gene Simmons still hates the song
The same day that Simmons brought the Love Gun song, "Almost Human," to the band, Paul Stanley revealed "I Was Made for Lovin' You": "He goes, 'I've got one. [It goes] 'Tonight.'' "Ooooh. That's cool. What's the next line?' 'I'm gonna give it all to you.' 'Oh, yeah. I know what 'it' means — I know exactly what you mean.' 'In the darkness.' [Claps] 'Love that!' 'There something I wanna do.' 'Yeah, I know what that 'something' is. Wow! That's a cool song," Simmons told OK! in 2017. "Okay, what's my part?' [Sings] 'Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.' 'You're killing me. Really? I'm gonna sing like my grandmother?' [Sings] 'Do, do, do…' I hate playing that song to [this] day. Stadiums full of people jump up and down like biblical locusts — they go nuts — with tattoos and grills on… 'Ahhhh!' They're all jumping up and down, and I'm going, 'Do, do, do, do, do, do… Kill me now.' Still — still to this day I hate that song." The segment kicks in around the 3:45 mark.
5. Lynda Carter performed the song on a 1980 TV special
When ABC was working to flip Carter's Wonder Woman image, she was given a series of TV variety show specials. It was during a segment titled "Lynda Carter's Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" that the actress rolled out a theatrical take on the tune, complete with dancers clad in KISS makeup.
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