Kiss confirmed this week what has been rumoured for a while, with the announcement of The Casablanca Singles 1974-1982, a limited edition box set consisting of the band’s 29 singles on legendary Casablanca label, to be released in December.
Gene Simmons, Kiss. photo by Ros O'Gorman
The band was first signed to the late Neil Bogart’s newly formed Casablanca Records label after he saw and recognized their talent and showmanship during their spectacular performance at a showcase concert at New York City’s Le Tang’s Ballet Studio in 1973, offering them a contract on the spot.
Celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, Kiss have broken box-office records set by The Beatles and Elvis and have more than 28 U.S. gold albums, 40 million sales in the U.S. and a total exceeding 100 million worldwide.
In their early years, Kiss released a total of 29 singles on seven-inch 45 RPM records for the Casablanca label. These were available for sale to the public, used for commercial radio airplay and to promote album sales. Many of these singles had entirely different mixes, edits and material that didn’t appear on their vinyl albums.
The singles will be released in two box set configurations entitled The Casablanca Singles 1974-1982, on Dec. 4. The set of 29 CDs will be available through all retail outlets. Vinyl fans can order the limited edition set of 29 seven-inch vinyl records through Universal’s website.
Amongst other collector delights, the vinyl collection also features singles from all four solo albums in purple, blue, red and green vinyl with a picture sleeve representing each individual member as originally released in the U.K. Both sets include a booklet which tracks the genesis and chart history of each single represented in the package and four individual Kiss masks.
“Even I haven’t heard some of this stuff, but this is all part of our master plan to celebrate Kiss at this milestone in our careers,” says Gene Simmons. “This box set represents us at the very beginning of our career, and documents the band’s early success and subsequent growth.”
The special set comes out after the release of Monster, their 20th studio album, last month.
Kiss will be in Australia early next year when they tour with Motley Crue in January.
