KISS cofounders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are marking the 50th anniversary of “Rock and Roll All Nite” with a new behind-the-scenes episode for Vevo Footnotes. The episode traces the song’s creation and long life as the band’s defining anthem, with Stanley recalling how the idea came from Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart. “Casablanca President Neil Bogart brought up the idea of us writing an ‘anthem song,’” Stanley explains. “After explaining the concept of a rallying song that would represent our connection to our fans, I went back to our hotel on Sunset Blvd. and came up with the chords, melody, and lyrics of the hook, which was ‘I wanna rock & roll all night and party every day.’”
Simmons expands on the collaborative nature of the track, noting, “It was very much a collaborative effort, with Paul writing the chorus and me writing the verses that were pulled from a song I had previously written called ‘Drive Me Wild,’ which was actually a song about a car.” He adds that friends, road crew, and fellow musicians were brought in to clap and sing, giving the recording its communal feel. The episode also captures the electricity of New York’s early rock and glam scenes, the chemistry that has powered KISS for decades, and rare footage from the 1987 film KISS eXposed. “It’s kind of a quintessential KISS song in our discography,” Stanley says. “This song is such a big piece of our story. And it connects with people on all different levels across generations and generations of fans.”