Most of times single releases were representing the sound

of the album but wasn't Kiss the most deciving Prince single ever? it sounded like Dirty Mind

era Prince with 1999 era drum sound much different

than the Europen vibe of the rest of Parade.

It was co-produced by David Z (when he was producing Mazarati) and so yeah it'll sound a bit different from the rest of the album. That song probably has more production touches from him than it does from Prince. No one knows for sure but reading the story, it would make sense. Who actually really knows.

Kiss is one of my favorite prince songs. I think it is actually a little underrated! To me its the perfect single! A brilliant tune.

I'd say it's misleading on how minimally it's produced and also retro it's core composition is. But it does have the delayed compressed sound on the drums that seems to be one of the defining details of Parade (you can hear that special audio effect very clearly on the first track "Christoper Tracy's Parade").

The "I think I'm going to Dance" bridge was pre-dated in a maximum-ly arranged way on the track "Around the World in a Day"

the sound the vocals the chorus, and just how tight it is. Theres no fat on this tune. Its a perfect song. From start to finish. Thats why I rate it so much.

The second half of the 12" version is very Parade-ish.

Quite different. Luckily when it came out, the rest of the album was so fascinating that by the time Kiss came along I was like, "oh yeah, and this song's on it, too!"

Never a favorite for me either, probably the weakest track on side 2.

Milty2 said:

It was co-produced by David Z (when he was producing Mazarati) and so yeah it'll sound a bit different from the rest of the album. That song probably has more production touches from him than it does from Prince. No one knows for sure but reading the story, it would make sense. Who actually really knows.

It was a Mazarati track that was 'prettied-up' by Prince & David Z.

thebanishedone said:

Most of times single releases were representing the sound

of the album but wasn't Kiss the most deciving Prince single ever? it sounded like Dirty Mind

era Prince with 1999 era drum sound much different

than the Europen vibe of the rest of Parade.

Yeah, I've always thought the same thing. From the standpoint of muscial style, Kiss (a techno-funk song) doesn't fit with the rest of the album (accoustic and even orchestral pop).

Imagine a non-fan or casual fan who hears Kiss on the radio, loves that techno sound, and runs out to buy the album expecting it to be full similar tracks. They would have been shocked and, depending on their disposition, possibly disappointed by what they found.

As for my own opinion on Kiss, I've always thought it was over-rated.

antonb said:

the sound the vocals the chorus, and just how tight it is. Theres no fat on this tune. Its a perfect song. From start to finish. Thats why I rate it so much.

Well Put...it is perfectly constructed from guitar, syncopated rhythm and brilliant vocals. It is so genius in it's design that he was never able to copy the sound in concert. An amazing amalgamation of Blues, James Brown and Prince's voice/humor/sexuality...cant go wrong with that combo.

And I think it works on Parade...fits the glossy black/white aesthetic.

It was the perfect single. It sounded modern enough in 1986 (for the younger fans), but it also had an old school blues thing where the older folks dug it. And it was another big crossover hit for him too. It was all over R&B and pop radio in the spring of 86. The video was popular on all of the music video outlets too.

antonb said:

Kiss is one of my favorite prince songs. I think it is actually a little underrated! To me its the perfect single! A brilliant tune.

But the point of the OP's post is that the production of "Kiss" is unlike anything else on the record, not that it's a bad single or song. Therefore, since "Kiss" was the first single, people would've expected something with a similar vibe.

Clearly, Parade's aural aesthetic is nowhere near "Kiss;" not even stuff like "Girls and Boys," "Life Can Be So Nice," or "Anotherloverholenyohead." All those have an organic, textured, band-oriented sound to them. "Kiss" sounds like it's a holdover from ATWIAD or something. Somewhere else besides the Parade sessions.

None of that speaks to the brilliance of the song, its sheer lack of danceability, and it's uniqueness.

I do agree with the OP. I think "Girls and Boys" wouldn't been a better lead single, followed by "Kiss," "Anotherloverholenyohead," "Mountains." There's no real radio-friendly ballad on it for 1986, although maybe "Under The Cherry Moon" would've gotten a little airplay.

For us Prince fans, it all makes sense. But the OP has a point that if you stand back and can take a larger unbiased look, then the sound of "Kiss" is misleading as a first single from an album like Parade.

alphastreet said:

Yeah, reading this thread, and on'ly Trivial Pursuit and ufoclub have actually responded to the topic, haha....

Everyone else seems to think they're in a 'is Kiss a good song or not?' thread!

I think it's true, Kiss was a misleading single probably for some at the time. It has a little of the production sound of the rest of Parade, but not much.

You could say, really, that Kiss ONLY JUST fits on Parade, sonically... but I think it works because, although there's a cohesion of production style to the majority of the record, the charm of Parade is that, really, none of these tracks should fit together! The album is all over the place stylistically, and covers a huge amount of ground in 40 minutes.

This is why it's such a classic; taken in pieces, Parade doesn't seem to have much to it, there seems to be a lack of stone-cold classics on there, like there might be on other Prince albums around then, but taken together, Parade is just a fantastic ride. So much imagination, sense of adventure and great musicianship....

That's the genius of the album I think... but yes, it's true, that trying to sum the album up for the charts in a truly representative single was always going to be difficult.

Fortunately, Prince's star was in the ascendant enough at the time, that he could get away with not worrying about that too much.... and I guess, Kiss was already different enough to the hits off of Around The World In A Day and Purple Rain that he almost had the defence of 'well, Kiss is different from my other big hits, you should be expecting the unexpected at this point!'

If Kiss had been the first song on the record, I think people might have been a lot less kind to the rest of the record. But as I've said, the rest of the album is so good, Kiss just feels like a cherry on top when you finally come to it on side 2. It was smart to put the song way back there.

I agree withe the OP. It was the introduction to the album to most people since it got lots of radio play immediately upon release. The Purple Rain crowd already were disappointed with how ATWIAD was so different, and even though many apparently liked Raspberry Beret even that single didn't prepare people for how far out some of the songs on the album were. So, I think after enough people ran out and got Parade on the basis on Kiss were disappointed too, it seemed the masses stopped buying Prince albums until Batman was released even though some singles did well. The next release SOTT seemed to get burned by this trend, as it definitely deserved better sales than it got even though it had 3 hit singles.

As far as KIss goes, it was a great single that just didn't fit the album. It lost a little of it's appeal to me over time, which was partly due to it just being a so-so song in concert.

Sorry didnt mean to change the subject of what you were saying. Saying that though, I do believe that Kiss does go with the album also. The first 2 or 3 songs you could argue are different to the rest of the songs on the album. So it is what it is really. I have had A love/hate relationship with the album since i first heard it years ago. I found i could take it or leave it. Same with Around the World in A Day. Just this last week I have played them both and enjoyed them more than i had been doing! So maybe I am finally getting them after all these years!

Rimshottbob said:

Yeah, reading this thread, and on'ly Trivial Pursuit and ufoclub have actually responded to the topic, haha....

Hey, my post was on topic too! I wrote:

"From the standpoint of muscial style, Kiss (a techno-funk song) doesn't fit with the rest of the album (accoustic and even orchestral pop). Imagine a non-fan or casual fan who hears Kiss on the radio, loves that techno sound, and runs out to buy the album expecting it to be full similar tracks. They would have been shocked and, depending on their disposition, possibly disappointed by what they found."

lurker316 said:

It took me a while to truly appreciate the genius of this song, quite possibly because I was so used to the Art of Noise/Tom Jones version, which has a more easuly accessible sound (especuially for a 9 year old in 1988).

lurker316 said:

Rimshottbob said:

Yeah, reading this thread, and on'ly Trivial Pursuit and ufoclub have actually responded to the topic, haha....

Hey, my post was on topic too! I wrote:

"From the standpoint of muscial style, Kiss (a techno-funk song) doesn't fit with the rest of the album (accoustic and even orchestral pop). Imagine a non-fan or casual fan who hears Kiss on the radio, loves that techno sound, and runs out to buy the album expecting it to be full similar tracks. They would have been shocked and, depending on their disposition, possibly disappointed by what they found."

Ha! Sorry, yes, quite right! I missed you out in my 'good behaviour' list!