The Most Skipped Song on Every Kiss Album

When it comes to streaming, Kiss fans have no problem making their likes and dislikes known.

You could probably name the group’s five or six most popular songs off the top of your head, although the order might surprise you. “Rock and Roll All Nite” must be at the top, right? Wrong! As you’ll see below, that honor goes to a much more divisive song.

Similarly, the songs fans skip the most from each Kiss record typically make sense, although a lot of people are missing out on some real gems from Asylum, Hotter Than Hell and a few other abums

Using Spotify stats as of Sept. 15, 2025, here are the most skipped songs from every Kiss album:

Kiss (1974) 

Most Popular Track: “Strutter” – 101,772,520 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Love Theme From Kiss” – 1,677,203 streams

Apart from a gimmicky label-mandated cover of Bobby Rydell’s 1959 hit “Kissin’ TIme,” Kiss’ debut album is packed with future classics like “Cold Gin,” “Black Diamond” and “Deuce,” which dominated the group’s concert set lists for over 50 years.

So it makes sense that the album’s lone instrumental is the song with least streams. “Love Theme From Kiss” takes the first two minutes of a much longer song named “Acrobat” from the band’s early club days. A live version of the original track can be heard on the band’s self-titled 2001 box set.

 

Hotter Than Hell (1974)

Most Popular Track: “Hotter Than Hell” – 5,816,696 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Comin’ Home” – 999,030 streams 

The title track to Kiss’ second album has racked up an impressive 5.8 million streams, plus another 2.2 million for the excellent Alive! version. That’s the good news.

The sad part is that one of the band’s most underrated songs, the early Beatles-inspired “Comin’ Home,” somehow hasn’t quite cracked a million streams yet. Happily, the live version from the band’s 1995 MTV Unplugged appearance has earned a much more suitable 4.2 million listens.

 

Dressed to Kill (1975)

Most Popular Track: “Rock and Roll All Nite” – 576,452,198 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Ladies in Waiting” – 1,337,257

“Rock and Roll All Nite” is undeniably the first song anybody thinks of when Kiss is mentioned, right? Well, maybe not, as Dynasty‘s “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” has earned more than twice as many Spotify streams to date.

The rest of the tracks from the hastily recorded Dressed to Kill hover way below “Rock and Roll All Nite”‘s nearly 600 thousand streams, with Gene Simmons’ particularly lecherous “Ladies in Waiting” narrowly in last place with 1.3 million streams.

 

Read More: Kiss Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Destroyer (1976)

Most Popular Track: “Beth” – 78,271,245 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Sweet Pain” – 1,394,351 streams

Originally relegated to the B-side of the “Detroit Rock City” single, Peter Criss’ ballad “Beth” became the unexpected commercial savior of Destroyer, cracking the Top 10 and sending the album back up the charts.

Excluding the run-out groove sonic collage “Rock ‘N’ Roll Party,” the most skipped song on the album is Simmons’ “Sweet Pain.” It was recently passed by one of the weirdest songs in Kiss’ career, the overly ornate “Great Expectations.”

 

Rock and Roll Over (1976)

Most Popular Track: “Hard Luck Woman” – 34,204,980 streams
Most Skipped Track: “See You In Your Dreams” – 901,205 streams

Wisely noting the success of “Beth,” Paul Stanley moved off his plan to offer “Hard Luck Woman” to Rod Stewart and instead had Criss sing it on Rock and Roll Over, giving the band another soft-rock success story.

Simmons wrote and sang the album’s second-biggest hit, “Calling Dr. Love,” but is also on the hook for the most-skipped track, “See You In Your Dreams.” Unhappy with the way the song turned out here, he’d later re-record it for his 1978 solo album.

 

Love Gun (1977)

Most Popular Track: “Love Gun” – 90,366,528 Streams
Most Skipped Track: “Got Love For Sale” – 1,387,345 streams

Boy, Simmons is taking a beating so far. While his longtime bandmate Paul Stanley delivers another smash with the title track to the last album of Kiss’ ’70s golden era, Simmons once again takes the collar with the least-streamed track, “Got Love For Sale.” On the plus side, this is also the album where he unleashed “Christine Sixteen” and the sinister “Almost Human.”

 

Paul Stanley (1978)

Most Popular Track: “Tonight You Belong to Me” – 3,723,623 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Goodbye” – 409,675 streams

Unlike Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley didn’t feel like he had anything to prove with his 1978 solo album. So what he made turned out to be exactly what you’d expect – a Kiss album without any Gene Simmons songs.

Lyrically, Paul Stanley chronicled a real-life love triangle, with the opening “Tonight You Belong to Me” earning the most streams, and the closing “Goodbye’ earning the least.

 

Ace Frehley (1978)

Most Popular Track: “New York Groove” – 72,006,388 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Wiped-Out” – 635,424 streams

Unhappy that he was blocked from getting a bigger role in Kiss, Ace Frehley’s mindset as he recorded his 1978 album was simple and direct: “I’m gonna show those fuckers, and I’m gonna show the world,” he recalled in his 2011 memoir No Regrets.

Mission accomplished. Fans, critics and even his bandmates agree Frehley’s album was the best of the four, and featured the only real hit single, a cover of Hello’s “New York Groove” that reached No. 13. The surf-rock throwback “Wiped-Out” is the most skipped song, with a still respectable 635K.

Frehley was given a much bigger slice of album space on each of Kiss’ next two albums, before he departed the group over creative differences in 1981.

 

Gene Simmons (1978)

Most Popular Track: “Radioactive” – 3,368,080 streams
Most Skipped Track: “True Confessions” – 228,409 streams

Like Stanley, Simmons had no frustrations and nothing to prove with a solo album. But instead of staying on the previously paved road like his bandmate, Simmons threw a party, inviting friends and fellow rock stars to join in while he tried out different musical styles.

“Radioactive” was a modest hit, while the piano-heavy “True Confessions,” featuring none other than Helen Reddy on backing vocals, is the least streamed song to date. If you’ve never heard it before, make sure you also check out the Demon’s shockingly earnest version of “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

 

Peter Criss (1978)

Most Popular Track: “You Matter to Me” – 2,239,512 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Kiss the Girl Goodbye” – 246,517 streams

One of the main reasons the four members of Kiss recorded and simultaneously released solo albums was to keep Peter Criss from leaving the band. The plan backfired in at least three ways: overloading the market with Kiss product, showing Ace Frehley he could make it as a solo artist, and proving that Criss could not.

His was the lowest-selling of the four albums and neither of his singles reached the charts. “Kiss the Girl Goodbye” was the most skipped track, but only two songs have cracked a million streams so far. As for Kiss, Criss was pretty much out the door anyway, only performing on one song from their next two albums before leaving entirely.

 

Dynasty (1979)

Most Popular Track: “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” – 1,349,507,785 streams
Most Skipped Track: “X-Ray Eyes” – 2,598,314 streams

It turns out all the 1978 solo albums did was buy Kiss a little more time before their inevitable fracturing. After a car crash Criss was only able to play and sing one on song from their 1979 comeback Dynasty. Frehley had earned himself equal time on lead vocals with Simmons and Stanley, but the resulting albums sounds scattered and toothless.

Although the disco-fied lead single “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” has gone on to become Kiss’ most popular streaming song, it alienated fans of the band’s original hard rock sound, leading to poor attendance on the band’s 1979 tour.

Oddly enough, Simmons’ “X-Ray Eyes,” which sticks pretty close to the band’s original formula, is the least streamed Dynasty song, with 2.6 million listens to date.

 

Unmasked (1980)

Most Popular Track: “Shandi” – 11,181,150 streams
Most Skipped Track: “You’re All That I Want” – 603,688 streams

Kiss went fully power-pop on 1980’s Unmasked, which worked unexpectedly well even if Paul Stanley later labeled it “crappy.” Although it barely cracked the Top 50 in America, the ballad “Shandi” was a big hit worldwide, even sparking an isolated case of Kiss-mania in Australia.

Simmons again takes the rather undeserved “L” with the least-streamed track, the album-closing “You’re All That I Want.”

 

Music From ‘The Elder’ (1981)

Most Popular Track: “The Oath” – 2,311,221 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Mr. Blackwell” – 511,496 streams

With the career now fully in the toilet, Kiss teamed up with Destroyer producer Bob Ezrin with the full intent of delivering a back-to-basics hard rock record that would reconnect them with their fans. Then they all got the crazy idea to try and make their own version of Pink Floyd‘s The Wall and… well if you don’t already know, let’s just say a bad situation got much worse.

Excluding the brief classical music opener “Fanfare,” the most-skipped song on Music From ‘The Elder’ is actually one of the album’s best tracks. Gene Simmons delivers a moody, menacing slice of hard progressive rock on “Mr. Blackwell,” but it seems likely many listeners didn’t get that far into the album.

Although the tender keyboard-based ballad “A World Without Heroes” was a (very) minor hit, it’s one of the album’s most traditional songs – the metallic “The Oath” – that has racked up the most streams, with over 2.3 million.

 

Creatures of the Night (1982)

Most Popular Track: “I Love It Loud” – 54,825,739 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Keep Me Comin'” – 376,289 streams

Five years after Love Gun, Kiss finally delivered the hard rock follow-up their fans had been clamoring for with 1982’s Creatures of the Night. Unfortunately, most listeners had already given up on the band, leaving Kiss with a long road back to commercial success.

Over time, the album became regarded as one of the band’s high-water marks, with “I Love It Loud” standing as one of their most popular ’80s songs at 54 million streams and counting.

For just the second time on this list it’s Stanley who’s on the hook for the least-streamed song on a Kiss album, for the thundering “Keep Me Comin’,” which features that would make Spinal Tap blush.

 

Lick it Up (1983)

Most Popular Track: “Lick It Up” – 120,167,878 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Dance All Over Your Face” – 751,934 streams

With no more cards left to play and Frehley and Criss both now gone, Kiss removed their makeup to help promote their slick 1983 comeback Lick it Up. The move got them the spark of attention they needed on MTV and radio, with the undeniably catchy title track helping the band get back on the charts.

Simmons’ vengeful “Dance All Over Your Face” falls victim to the second-to-last song on an album curse, coming in last with a still-strong 752K streams.

 

Animalize (1984) 

Most Popular Track: “Heaven’s On Fire” – 209,892,547 streams
Most Skipped Track: “While the City Sleeps” – 831,935 streams 

With Gene Simmons overly focused on his movie career and lead guitarists flying in and out of the band at a dizzying pace, Paul Stanley took control and delivered the band the hit they needed to fully re-establish themselves with Animalize and “Heaven’s on Fire.”

Simmons, who years later would apologize for going AWOL by buying Stanley an expensive sports car, once again ends up with the most-skipped (and again, second-to-last) song, “While the City Sleeps.”

 

Asylum (1985) 

Most Popular Track: “Tears are Falling” – 13,948,179 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Radar For Love” – 480,536 streams

Although Simmons’ attention was still divided, Kiss found a great (and lasting) lead guitarist in Bruce Kulick and delivered one of their strongest and most well-rounded albums of the ’80s with Asylum. “Tears Are Falling” kept their string of MTV hits intact and has earned nearly 14 million streams to date.

As for the least-streamed song, well, this is just wrong, wrong, wrong. “Radar For Love” is a rousing bit of Led Zeppelin worship, complete with an absolutely smoking extended instrumental ending. It’s gotta be the “second-to-last song” curse.

 

Crazy Nights (1987)

Most Popular Track: “Crazy Crazy Nights” – 95,668,791 streams
Most Skipped Track: “When Your Walls Come Down” – 638,198 streams

What does Kiss do when they hit on a winning formula? That’s right, needlessly change things up in order to pursue a more mainstream audience. For Crazy Nights, that meant adding keyboards and overly polished production, in a naked attempt to replicate Bon Jovi‘s success.

Although the relatively guitar-heavy title track remains a streaming success story, the plan didn’t work, sending Kiss back to the drawing board. Stanley takes a rare loss here with the least-streamed song, the overly puffed-up “When Your Walls Come Down.”

 

Hot in the Shade (1989) 

Most Popular Track: “Forever” – 87,185,658 streams
Most Skipped: “The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away” – 379,550 streams

Correctly sensing that it was time to get back to basics again, Kiss took things a bit too far with Hot in the Shade, a self-produced, overly long and directionless mess of an album. The Top 10 hit ballad “Forever” – co-written with Michael Bolton – kept the band’s commercial fortunes intact.

On the other end of the spectrum, Simmons’ “The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away,” which rather clumsily borrows the “hey man” from David Bowie‘s “Suffragette City,” is the most-skipped track with just over 379,000 streams.

 

Revenge (1992) 

Most Popular Track: “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II” – 46,995,240 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Paralyzed” – 689,989 streams

Once again feeling a bit lost, Kiss once again called on Destroyer and Elder producer Bob Ezrin – and this time, everybody kept their eye on the ball. Revenge is the group’s hardest-hitting and most consistent album since at least Creatures of the Night, with Simmons fully recapturing his “Demon” essence for the first time in the band’s makeup-free era.

The band’s re-write of Argent’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You II” is far and away the album’s biggest streaming hit. Excluding the instrumental tribute to their recently deceased drummer Eric Carr, the least-streamed song is Simmons’ “Paralyzed,” which features particularly awesome work from Kulick and does not deserve this fate. Then again, nothing on Revenge does.

 

Carnival of Souls (1997) 

Most Popular Track: “I Will Be There” – 1,525,863 streams
Most Skipped Track: “I Confess” – 292,341 streams

Although Paul Stanley declared he was “dead set” against it, Kiss once again fell into their trend-chasing ways by exploring grunge on Carnival of Souls. The album was short-circuited and delayed by the 1996 reunion of Kiss’ original lineup, and was unceremoniously dumped into stores the next year.

Despite Stanley’s reservation, a more serious, down-tuned Kiss works… about half the time. Once again a ballad, “I Will Be There” – which would be right at home on Music From ‘The Elder,‘ not that anybody asked – proves to be the biggest hit, while Simmons’ ambitious “I Confess” gets most-skipped “honors” this time around.

Psycho Circus (1998) 

Most Popular Track: “Psycho Circus” – 16,527,724 streams
Most Skipped Track: “I Finally Found My Way” – 984,526 streams

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were fully on-board with the idea of an original lineup Kiss studio album – as long as they didn’t have to include Peter Criss and Ace Frehely. So save for a few songs Pyscho Circus, which actually works rather nicely as a tour through the band’s various eras, is a reunion in name only.

The epic opening title track, which features Ezrin-style guitar orchestration, earned itself a steady spot in the band’s future set lists, while the obligatory and limp Criss-led ballad “I Finally Found My Way” is in last place streaming-wise with less than one million.

 

Sonic Boom (2009)

Most Popular Track: “Modern Day Delilah” – 4,919,984 streams
Most Skipped Track: “When Lightning Strikes” – 616,307 streams

After a full decade away from the studio, and with Criss and Frehley (but not their makeup) once again long gone, Kiss returned with the ballad, gimmick and outside songwrier-free Sonic Boom.

“Modern Day Delilah” was an instant classic and deservedly the most streamed song on the album, with “new” lead guitarist Tommy Thayer’s vocal debut “When Lightning Strikes” a hair behind the rest of the closely-packed field.

 

Monster (2012) 

Most Popular Track: “Hell or Hallelujah” – 7,204,078 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Last Chance” – 1,286,340 streams

Three years after Sonic Boom, Kiss delivered a slightly darker and more consistent take on the same formula with Monster, which seems destined to be their last studio effort. The streaming scorecard here is pretty predictable, with the lead single and opening track in first place and Stanley’s motivational closer “Last Chance” bringing up the rear.