Detroit Rock City

This article is about the song. For the film, see Detroit Rock City (film). For the book by Steve Miller, see Detroit Rock City (book).
"Detroit Rock City"
Single by Kiss
from the album Destroyer
B-side "Beth"
Released July 28, 1976
Format 7"
Recorded Record Plant Studios,
New York City: 1976
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal
Length 5:17 (album version)
2:58 (single version)
3:35 (Double Platinum version)
Label Casablanca
Writer(s) Paul Stanley
Bob Ezrin
Producer(s) Bob Ezrin
Kiss singles chronology
"Flaming Youth"/"God of Thunder"
(1976)		 "Detroit Rock City"/"Beth"
(1976)		 "Beth"/"Detroit Rock City"
(1976)

"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss featured on their 1976 album, Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin and is about a real Kiss fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to a Kiss concert.

Song information

The song, recorded and released as a single in 1976, was the third single from Kiss's album Destroyer and was planned to be their last in support of the album. As a single, it did poorly in sales and radio play (other than in Detroit), and failed to chart in the U.S. even though it would prove to be a fan favorite. It came as a surprise that the B-side "Beth", a ballad written and sung by drummer Peter Criss, wound up catching on in different markets in the United States, so the single was reissued with "Beth" as the A-side and "Detroit Rock City" as the B-side.

On the Destroyer album, the song segues into "King of the Night Time World", via the sounds of a car crash. The songs were played together on the Destroyer tour.

During the Love Gun/Alive II tour, Stanley changed the lyric, "I know I'm gonna die, why?" to "I know I'm gonna die, and I don't care!" The song was #6 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs and is featured on the album Heavy Metal – The First 20 Years. "Detroit Rock City" was based on an earlier song that Kiss performed only in concert called "Acrobat".

Other versions

Personnel

See also

Notes

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