 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Alive III" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Alive III | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | May 18, 1993 (1993-05-18) | |||
| Recorded | November 27–29, 1992 | |||
| Venue | Cleveland, Detroit, andMarket Square Arena,Indianapolis | |||
| Genre | Hard rock,heavy metal | |||
| Length | 66:53 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Producer | Kiss,Eddie Kramer | |||
| Kiss chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Alive III | ||||
| ||||
Alive III is a live album released by the Americanhard rock bandKiss in 1993. The recording ofAlive III took place over multiple dates (inCleveland,Detroit andIndianapolis) during the band's 1992 tour in support ofRevenge. It was certifiedgold in 1994.
Alive III was the first live album the band had released since 1977'sAlive II, and the first live recordings released since 1984'sAnimalize Live Uncensored concert film. The recording of "I Was Made for Lovin' You" was actually recorded at one of the band's soundchecks, but an audience wasoverdubbed onto the song to make it appear "live".
The album is the first Kiss live album released during the group's non-makeup era, followed byKiss Unplugged in 1996. During the recording ofAlive II, Kiss did not want to duplicate songs fromAlive!, although some songs inAlive III are duplicate songs from their previous live albums, such as "Rock and Roll All Nite". It is also the first Kiss live album to feature a different lineup to the previous two, which featured the original lineup.
The liner notes ofAlive III include afamily tree showing the various Kiss lineups from 1973 to 1993, as well as bands that the then-current and former members of Kiss were in. It was designed by the band's Japanese fan club.Tony Iommi ofBlack Sabbath (for whomEric Singer drummed in 1986–87) is misnamed Tommy. The notes also mistakenly claim that "Watchin' You" is fromKiss, and "I Was Made for Lovin' You" fromDressed to Kill. There-release ofAlive III (as part of theKiss Alive! 1975–2000box set) contains an additional track, "Take It Off", matching the original international CD and USvinyl versions of the album.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 7/10[2] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
| Q | [4] |
| Rock Hard | 7.0/10[5] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [6] |
"Canny power-pop gave a merciless headbanging", decided Jeremy Clarke inQ.[4]Kerrang! magazine listedAlive III as eleventh best album of 1993.[7]
Bruce Kulick's climactic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was ranked seventh on theUltimate Classic Rock list "Top 10 National Anthem Guitar Solos", beforeAce Frehley's version and afterJoe Satriani's.[8]
Alive III was certifiedGold by theRIAA on October 27, 1994.[9]
All credits adapted from the original release.[10]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Creatures of the Night" | Paul Stanley, Adam Mitchell | Paul Stanley | 4:40 |
| 2. | "Deuce" | Gene Simmons | Gene Simmons | 3:43 |
| 3. | "I Just Wanna" | Stanley,Vinnie Vincent | Stanley | 4:24 |
| 4. | "Unholy" | Simmons, Vincent | Simmons | 3:27 |
| 5. | "Heaven's on Fire" | Stanley,Desmond Child | Stanley | 4:15 |
| 6. | "Watchin' You" | Simmons | Simmons | 3:35 |
| 7. | "Domino" | Simmons | Simmons | 3:47 |
| 8. | "I Was Made for Lovin' You" | Stanley, Child,Vini Poncia | Stanley | 4:32 |
| 9. | "I Still Love You" | Stanley, Vincent | Stanley | 6:03 |
| 10. | "Rock and Roll All Nite" | Stanley, Simmons | Simmons | 3:32 |
| 11. | "Lick It Up" | Stanley, Vincent | Stanley | 4:18 |
| 12. | "Forever" | Stanley,Michael Bolton | Stanley | 3:53 |
| 13. | "Take It Off" (bonus track) | Stanley,Bob Ezrin,Kane Roberts | Stanley | 6:04 |
| 14. | "I Love It Loud" | Simmons, Vincent | Simmons | 3:20 |
| 15. | "Detroit Rock City" | Stanley, Ezrin | Stanley | 5:30 |
| 16. | "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II" | Stanley, Simmons, Ezrin,Russ Ballard | Stanley, Simmons | 5:22 |
| 17. | "Star-Spangled Banner" | Francis Scott Key | (instrumental) | 2:40 |
"Take It Off" was a bonus track on the Japanese, European and South American CD releases and the US vinyl release. This version of the album would later be included in theKiss Alive! 1975–2000 CD box set.
| Chart (1993) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[12] | 14 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[13] | 31 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[14] | 9 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[15] | 58 |
| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[16] | 25 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[17] | 57 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[18] | 22 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[19] | 15 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[20] | 20 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[21] | 32 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[22] | 24 |
| USBillboard 200[23] | 9 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[24] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[9] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
