Rock and Roll All Nite With All the Hits From the Hottest Band in the World Collected on Their Biggest-Ever Single-Disc Retrospective: `The Very Best Of KISS'.

Entertainment Editors & Music/Retail Writers

LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--July 26, 2002

With more than 80 million albums sold, SRO tours and more gold-plus awards (24), the #1 American Gold record champ (third overall behind only The Beatles and Rolling Stones), including late 2001's KISS Box Set, KISS are a rock `n' roll institution. They've outlasted their first critics who now embrace them like long-lost brothers while their rabid fans, the KISS Army, have stood by them the entire way.

Now the band's greatest hits album serves as both an introduction to KISS for new fans and the one KISS album listeners who just want the hits-and-nothing-but-the-hits will need. "The Very Best Of KISS" (Mercury/UTV Records), released August 27, 2002, collects the original versions of all of their biggest hits on one 21-track album. Featured on the chronologically sequenced "The Very Best Of KISS" are the band's two gold singles -- "Beth" (from 1976's "Destroyer") and "I Was Made For Loving You" (from 1979's "Dynasty").

Critics and fans alike have noted the flaws in previous compilations, from 1978's platinum "Double Platinum" and 1988's double platinum "Smashes, Trashes & Hits" to the most recent attempt, 1997's "Greatest Kiss." Truly living up to its "Very Best Of" billing, from the original hit live version Of "Rock And Roll All Nite," the group's breakthrough, to the '80s anthem "Lick It Up," "The Very Best Of KISS" is the ultimate summation of their career for a general audience yet assembled.

The album kicks off with two tracks apiece from the band's first two albums: "Strutter" and "Deuce" from 1974's "KISS" and "Got To Choose" and the title track from that same year's "Hotter Than Hell." "C'mon And Love Me" was culled from "Dressed To Kill" (1975) and "Rock And Roll All Nite" from "ALIVE!" (1975).

Two albums from the following year, "Destroyer" and "Rock And Roll Over," are represented by "Beth," "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud" from the former, and "I Want You," "Calling Dr. Love" and "Hard Luck Woman" from the latter. 1977's "Love Gun" also contributes three tracks: "I Stole Your Gun," "Christine Sixteen" and "Love Gun." Finishing off the '70s are "New York Groove" from Ace Frehley, one of 1978's simultaneously released four separate KISS solo albums, and "I Was Made For Loving You" from 1979's "Dynasty."

Taken from the '80s are "I Love It Loud" from "Creatures Of The Night" (1982), "Lick It Up" from the 1983 album of the same name and "Forever" from "Hot In The Shade" (1989). "The Very Best Of KISS" aptly concludes with a track from "Revenge" (1992), "God Gave Rock `N' Roll To You II." "The Very Best Of KISS" is absolutely the best!