Kiss (1986)

"Kiss" is a song by American musician Prince. Released by the Paisley Park label as the lead single from Prince and the Revolution's eighth studio album, Parade, on February 5, 1986. It was a No. 1 hit, holding the top spot of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks. The single was certified gold in 1986 for shipments of 1,000,000 copies by RIAA.

The song is ranked No. 85 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2021, No. 464 in 2010, and No. 461 in 2004. NME ranked the song at No. 4 in their list of The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time, and voted "Kiss" the best single of 1986.

Following Prince's death in April 2016, the song re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 28, and jumped to No. 23 a week later. The song also reached No. 2 on the French Singles Chart. As of April 30, 2016, it had sold 1.33 million digital copies in the U.S.

Age of Chance and Art of Noise also released versions of the song that were critical and chart successes.

Development, production and release

"Kiss" started as a rough acoustic demo, with a verse and chorus written by Prince. He gave his demo to the funk band Mazarati (who approached him in the first place for an extra song for their debut album), and they worked on it with producer David Z at Sunset Sound Studio 2, while Prince was busy working in the studio next to them, Studio 3. Z recalls having one of the band members play a piano part inspired by Bo Diddley's song "Say Man". In the Sound On Sound article for "Kiss", he recalled programming the song's beat on a LinnDrum drum machine, but in the Mixonline article he refers to a Linn 9000. However, it's unlikely either of them were used as the drums sound more like the LM-1, Prince's usual drum machine. In the end, Prince decided to finish the song, retaining David Z's unique, funky rhythm and background vocal arrangements by Mazarati's Bruce DeShazer and Marvin Gunn (David Z recounts how the band had expected a songwriting credit, and were "pissed" when it did not materialise); he removed the bass line, and added the signature guitar and falsetto vocal. For the distinctive "ah-wah-ah" backing vocals, David Z adapted vocals by Brenda Lee - one of the biggest US chart toppers in the Sixties - from her 1959/1960 hit "Sweet Nothin's", a single from her eponymous album. To make up for the absence of bass, the kick drum was run through an AMS RMX-16 reverb on the non-linear setting. The underlying "keyboard chop" in the background is an acoustic guitar (played by David Z.) run through a Kepex noise gate triggered by the hi-hat track on the multitrack tape - this effect, however, was rather difficult to recreate live on keyboards. The final, minimalist song was a hard sell to Warner Bros., but upon Prince's insistence, the song was released and added to Parade.

Despite Warner Bros. not wanting to release it as a single, "Kiss" became Prince's third number-one US hit, following 1984's highly successful "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy". It was also a big hit across the Atlantic, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The song won Prince another Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. The song became a staple at Prince's concerts and was usually sung partially by the audience.

The 12-inch single of the song is an extension of the album track. The extended section is based on the funky guitar line and contains much fuller instrumentation than the main track, including bass guitar, organ and horns. New lyrics are present from Prince, along with Jill Jones, that end with a humorous dialogue between a wife and her husband watching Prince on television. The B-side of "Kiss" was "♥ or $" ("Love or Money"), sung in a processed, higher-pitched vocal, which Prince would later use for his Camille material. The song relates to the theme in Under the Cherry Moon, and a bit of the song was heard in the film, as was a bit of the extended version of "Kiss". The extended "Kiss" was included on 2006's Ultimate; "♥ or $" was re-released as a digital B-side on iTunes.

Revolution bassist Brownmark claims to have co-written the song with Prince: he most likely wrote the second verse as the first verse was on the demo Prince provided himself and Mazarati with to work from. Despite being promised a songwriting credit by Prince, he never got any proper credit and has not received any royalties from it.

Composition

The song is written in the key of A minor (utilizing the Dorian mode) and has a tempo of 112 beats per minute in common time.

Critical reception

Robert Hilburn from Los Angeles Times wrote, "The single combines an ever-so-cool update of a classic James Brown guitar-accented funk riff with witty lyrics that suggest a bit more humility in Prince's sexually aggressive posture. You don't have to be rich to be my girl, he advises. You don't have to be cool to rule my world. Even the put-downs are tinged with humor: Act your age, not your shoe size, he tells one prospective lover."