"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss featured on their 1976 album, Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin and is about a real Kiss fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to a Kiss concert. The song, recorded and released as a single in 1976, was the third single from Kiss's album Destroyer and was planned to be their last in support of the album. As a single, it did poorly in sales and radio play (other than in Detroit), and failed to chart in the U.S. even though it would prove to be a fan favorite. It came as a surprise that the B-side "Beth", a ballad sung by drummer Peter Criss, wound up catching on in different markets in the United States, so the single was reissued with "Beth" as the A-side and "Detroit Rock City" as the B-side. During the Love Gun/Alive II tour, Stanley changed the lyric, "I know I'm gonna die, why?" to "I know I'm gonna die, and I don't care!" The song was #6 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs and is featured on the album Heavy Metal – The First 20 Years.
[edit] Interesting Facts About Song
The newscaster at the beginning of Detroit Rock City is actually unkown to this day. It had been widely rumored that the voice was either Gene Simmons or Bob Ezrin, however, both have denied any involvement with the newscast intro. Detroit Rock City was based on an earlier song that Kiss performed only in concert called "Acrobat".
[edit] In pop culture
- Its title was used for a 1999 motion picture.
- Detroit Tigers often use the song when the team takes the field at the beginning of the game.
- Detroit Red Wings play the tune right before the first face-off of a game and also during television and radio broadcasts.
- Fictional venue—The Rock City Theater located in Detroit, Michigan—appeared in the music video game Guitar Hero II.
- It is featured in the 2007 music video game Rock Band,in which the master track is used - however, the first solo appears extended, and the ending "Get up!/Everybody's gonna leave their seats/Get down!" was cut off the song.
- Kiss played it on an episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
- It is featured in the 2008 music video game Rock Revolution.
- Rock Band version of the song appears in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
- It is featured in the 2008 movie Role Models.
- It is featured in the 2009 music video game Dance Dance Revolution.
- It is featured in the 2011 movie The Dilemma.
[edit] Other versions
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