"Do You Love Me"'s lyrics were written by Kim Fowley, and it never charted. I also think it's a stupid song, fwiw.

You guys are seriously comparing Kiss to the Ramones, huh?

Did you watch the video? In the first 2.5 years of this band they resembled a punk band much more than the Whopper w/ cheese they became in 1977 and onward.

EDIT: and I don't mean stylistically exactly, I mean in terms of the fact they wrote loud, bombastic shit that offended people, and pretty much everyone hated them.

Look, SK, I know you love them, but you're talking to someone who saw Kiss live in 1975. They were exactly as punk as Steve Miller. In 30 some years they've managed to write exactly 3 good songs ("Deuce", "Strutter", and, arguably, "Rock and Roll All Nite"), and all of them came from their first few years.

Just stop.

Hey, look. Sanity.

All I have to say about the Kiss-Ramone comparison is that the film Rock N Roll High School is vastly superior to Kiss meets the Phantom of the Park.

Just read an interview that Paul and Gene did with a radio station. They feel that they should pick which members of KISS goes in. FWIW, the HoF nom'd them with Ace and Peter. This coming after Paul and Gene slagged on Pete and Ace for lack of professionalism during the Psycho Circus tour.

In this respect, I agree with the naysayers. Paul and Gene need to just shut up about Peter and Ace. I'm not going to this tour because Ace isn't part of it. Like I said earlier I think its a mockery that just anyone can put the make-up on, but so it goes.

Radcliffe, while I'm surprised you saw this band in 1975, I do not think you've paid close enough attention to this band over the past 35 years to be an authority on the relative value of their entire career.

Not saying this is you, but what kills me about this is that KISS' harshest critics have always tended to be those who know the least about the band, its music and its fans. I put this band's canon of songs up there with any 70s hard rock band.

They maintained a pretty wide audience for 35 years, put out more gold records than any other american band with the exception of Aerosmith, and that's pretty much is the only thing that matters, because very, very few bands can boast this. Certainly Huey Lewis can't boast this, nor 99% of any other shit band you want might want to say gets in because of simply looking at commercial success as a standard. It's not just commercial success, it's virtually unparalled, consistent, long term commercial success with a huge audience.

Really, how many bands have released 15+ gold studio albums?

I'm not arguing their merits for entrance into the HoF. I don't care who's in that place. I'm sure they deserve inclusion in there as much as anybody.

There's just some claims in this thread about them that I find either hyperbolic or bogus.

I can admit that the Ramones comparison was a stretch.

In my youth, I remember most elementary school age boys being big kiss fans. I used to have everything through Alive II on 8 track or LP. I have pictures of me and all my friends with fake Kiss tattoos at a birthday party. I think they were included inside one of the albums much like a kid's cereal surprise. I don't remember a single friend still being a fan by 7th grade. Its pretty hard for me to take them seriously as artists.

I don't care if they make the HOF or not. There are certainly worse acts in there. If they make it though, its on the back of album sales and being cultural icons not on the quality of their music or any great influence on any acts worth a damn.

you'll be eating those words when the Bay City Rollers are admitted!

trey anastasio is inducting genesis.
billie joe armstrong's inducting the stooges.
wyclef jean is inducting jimmy cliff.

ok.

Those all make sense to me.