KISS – Shout It Out Loud

This is for Song Lyric Sunday by newepicauthor otherwise known as Jim. Song Lyric Sunday is at the link below. This week the theme is songs that include the lyrics Sounds, Talk, Voice, Words so I thought SHOUT would fit in that with the theme.   https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/2022/09/03/human-speech-2/

This was one of KISS’s anthems in the 1970s and I guess still is for the band. Paul Stanely and Gene Simmons were in a band called Wicked Lester before KISS and they played a song called I Wanna Shout by The Hollies. With Wicked Lester they recorded a version called (We Want To) Shout It Out Loud.

Who knew that this song was influenced by the Hollies? I would have never guessed. After listening to it now…it’s more pop/rock than I remember rather than the harder rock that Kiss is known for. I’ve heard the live versions more than the studio cut.

When they were making their Destroyer album they reworked the song’s lyrics and came up with Shout It Out Loud with their producer Bob Ezrin. It is credited to Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Bob Erzin.

The band released a live album called Alive! in 1975 and that album opened the door to their popularity. They still hadn’t had a big hit with their studio albums…but this album would change that. Destroyer was the first Kiss album Bob Ezrin worked on… he did a lot of teaching during their time together, even using a blackboard and pointer about music. He put them through, what Stanley called BootCamp, making them pay attention to details to a point where they had never done before. This was their 4th studio album and it was their most successful studio album at the time.

Erzin was no rookie…he had worked with Alice Cooper (still does), Aerosmith, and others.

This was the first of four singles released from the album, chosen because it’s upbeat and radio-friendly. It did well on the charts, but the biggest hit from the album was the last single, the ballad Beth.

The song was released in 1976 and peaked at #1 in Canada,  #31 on the Billboard 100, and #40 in New Zealand. The album Destroyer peaked at #11 on The Billboard Album Charts and #7 in Canada.

Paul Stanley: “You have the verse, ‘Well the night’s begun and you want some fun, do you think you’re gonna find it, think you’re gonna find it.’ That answer in the background is the Four Tops! The call-and-response is something that the Four Tops did in ‘Sugar Pie Honey Bunch.'”

The first video is the original Hollies song, the second is Wicked Lester’s version of the Hollies song, and then Shout It Out Loud…the song that grew from the Hollies song. 

Shout It Out Loud

Well the night’s begun and you want some fun
Do you think you’re gonna find it
You got to treat yourself like number one
Do you need to be reminded
It doesn’t matter what you do or say
Just forget the things that you’ve been told
We can’t do it any other way
Ev’rybody’s got to rock n roll yay

Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud

If you don’t feel good ev’ry way you could
Don’t sit there broken hearted
Call all your friends in the neighborhood
And get the party started
Don’t let them tell you that there’s too much noise
They’re too old to really understand
You’ll still get rowdy with the girls and boys
Cause it’s time for you to take a stand yay

Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

16 thoughts on “KISS – Shout It Out Loud”

  1. Great stuff Max. Whenever I see posts like this I wonder what it was like back in ’76 to go into a record store and grab an album like this right off the rocks without hearing a single note as today u can stream it before it gets to the stores…
    Your right Ezrin cracked the whip and almost drove Criss bonkers when it came time to do the drums. lol

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  4. Not a bad Kiss tune. Admittedly, they’ve never been much my cup of tea, though they were super popular among some of my school classmates. The one Kiss song I really like is “Rock and Roll All Nite” – it’s just a fun rock anthem!

    I had never heard of the Hollies tune before – nice song! The rendition by Wicked Lester (agin, something completely new to me) sounds pretty decent as well!

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    1. Oh in my school…they were everywhere…like with most bands Christian…I didn’t listen to them real time much…it was mostly later.
      All this history was new to me. The 70s version of Kiss is the only era I’ll normally listen to.

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  6. I loved the song back then (I wrote about Kiss not long back and mentioned that when ‘Destroyer’ came out I was the perfect age to be blown away by its rock and the makeup/theatrics) , wouldn’t say I do anymore but it still sounds alright. Seems odd it wasn’t bigger here in their home market.

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    1. That was unusual as far as the ranking…#1 compared to #31 in America….usually they are much closer than that.
      It’s more pop/rock than I remember

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  7. Kiss did take it a long way from the the straight Hollies cover. Yes the DNA is there but it is buried deep, and the song has a whole new feel. I’m not much of a Kiss fan but I do like the way they progressed this one.

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    1. It really did surprise me on how tame the studio version is… I guess I’ve heard the live versions mostly… but yea…there are some select songs that I like.

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