| "Reason To Live" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Kiss | ||||
| from the album Crazy Nights | ||||
| Released | November 12, 1987 (US) | |||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||
| Studio | One on One (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | Pop metal [1] | |||
| Length | 4:00 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Paul Stanley, Desmond Child | |||
| Producer(s) | Ron Nevison | |||
| Kiss singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Reason to Live" on YouTube | ||||
"Reason to Live" is a song by the American rock band Kiss. It is featured on the band's 1987 studio album Crazy Nights .
Written by singer/guitarist Paul Stanley and professional songwriter Desmond Child, "Reason to Live" is a power ballad, heavy on keyboards and production. The B-side is the Gene Simmons-helmed album track "Thief in the Night".
The song's official music video was directed by Marty Callner and produced by Callner, Doug Major and Bill Brigode. [2] It received airplay on MTV.
The video shows the band playing the song live on a large, well-lit stage, interspersed with shots of a young blonde woman (portrayed by Playboy Playmate and model Eloise Broady), who is visibly distressed over relationship troubles with Stanley. She vents her frustrations by throwing a wine bottle at a picture of the two of them and then burning it at the end of the video. When Stanley visits her house, she comes out of hiding and douses his Porsche 928 with gasoline before setting it on fire. It is implied that Stanley ended the relationship with the woman due to her unstable behavior.
The band performance portion of the video was filmed in the Orange Pavilion in San Bernardino, California, while the scenes of the woman as well as her house were shot in Hollywood, California. The Porsche in the video was a gift from Simmons to Stanley, in appreciation of the latter's dedication to the band. Simmons' bass bears an image of him in his classic "Demon" makeup.
Released as a single in 1987, the song would prove to be a minor hit for the band. It made the Top 40 charts in the United Kingdom, [3] and reached number 34 on Billboard' s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks [4] It also peaked at the 64 position on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in early 1988. [4]
| Chart (1987-1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles (Kent Music Report) [5] | 85 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100) [6] | 89 |
| UK Singles (OCC) [7] | 33 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 [8] | 64 |
| US Mainstream Rock ( Billboard ) [9] | 34 |
Hot in the Shade is the fifteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, released in 1989. It is the first Kiss studio album since 1981's Music From "The Elder" to feature lead vocals from someone other than Paul Stanley or Gene Simmons, with drummer Eric Carr singing lead on "Little Caesar". It is also the final Kiss album in its entirety to feature Carr before his death in November 1991 during production of the band’s next album Revenge. Unlike its predecessor album, 1987's Crazy Nights, Hot in the Shade does not heavily feature keyboards.
Crazy Nights is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, recorded from March to June 1987 and released on September 21, 1987, by Mercury worldwide and Vertigo in the UK. This was the second album to feature the line-up of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Eric Carr. The album is notable for its pop-metal sound as well as for its use of keyboards and synthesizers, a reflection of popular trends in the commercial rock genre of this time. It was re-released in 1998 as part of the Kiss Remasters series and is the last Kiss album to have been remastered.
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At worst, keyboards were viewed as an essential component of pop-metal power ballads: think of the KISS song "Reason to Live," or Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."
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