"Psycho Circus" is a song by the American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

. It is the title track from the 1998 album ''

Psycho Circus ''Psycho Circus'' is the eighteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss and the first to involve all four original members since 1979's ''Dynasty.'' While touted as a band effort, Peter Criss only played drums on the Ace Frehley-penned trac ...

''. The single charted highly, hitting number 1 on ''Billboard''

Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

chart. Even though

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

hardly played the song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, the VHS home video proved a big seller, eventually going Platinum in the US.

Song information

"Psycho Circus" was written by guitarist/vocalist

Paul Stanley Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular ...

and Curt Cuomo specifically to fit the theme of the ''Psycho Circus'' Tour and album. According to producer

Bruce Fairbairn Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are ''Slippery When Wet'' an ...

, "We didn't have an opener for the record. We didn't have anything that was going to start things off. And

aul An aul (; ce, oil; russian: аул) is a type of fortified village or town found throughout the Caucasus mountains and Soviet Central Asia, Central Asia. The word itself is of Turkic origin and simply means ''village'' in many Turkic language ...

just looked at me and said, 'check this. This is it...' We both sat there and looked at each other and started to laugh. Because that was it" As a single, the song became the band's first number one hit on the ''Billboard''

chart, while also proving to be a Top Ten hit in other countries in the world, including

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

.International Chart Info
/ref> The song would open sets for the band on the Psycho Circus Tour to support the album, and was performed on Kiss's live album '' Kiss Symphony: Alive IV'' in 2003. "Psycho Circus" returned to setlist during the 2010s, on both the Monster World Tour and The KISS 40th Anniversary World Tour. "Psycho Circus" was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

for

Best Hard Rock Performance The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards until 2011. The academy recognized hard rock music artists for the first time at the 31st Grammy Awards (1989). The category was ori ...

, losing out to

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

and

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

's "Most High".

Video

was made to promote the single, which was made in the same 3-D theme as the album and tour, and was directed by James J. Hurlburt and produced by

Doc McGhee Doc McGhee is an American music manager, best known for working with hard rock bands Kiss, Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe. The latter two groups experienced their rise to stardom under his management. He has also worked with Hootie & the Blowfish. H ...

and Eddie Vasker. Although the video was generally ignored by

, it won a 1998

Metal Edge ''Metal Edge'' was a magazine covering heavy metal music published by Zenbu Media. The magazine was founded in the summer of 1985, during the height of glam metal's success. Zenbu Media acquired ''Metal Edge'' in February 2007. Both ''Metal Edge ...

Readers' Choice Award for Video of the Year. To compensate for the lack of MTV airplay the band released the video on VHS complete with 3-D glasses. In addition to "Psycho Circus" the included CD single features Ace Frehley's "In Your Face", a song not available elsewhere in North America. The video was certified Platinum in the US.

Charts

Personnel

- lead vocals, rhythm guitar *

Tommy Thayer Thomas Cunningham Thayer (born November 7, 1960) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the American hard rock band Kiss. He was also lead guitarist for the band Black 'n Blue. Early life Thomas Cun ...

- lead guitar *

Bruce Kulick Bruce Howard Kulick (born December 12, 1953) is an American guitarist and since 2000 a member of the rock band Grand Funk Railroad. Previously, Kulick was a long-time member of the band Kiss (19841996). He was also a member of Union with John Cor ...

- bass guitar, backing vocals *

Kevin Valentine Kevin Valentine is an American rock drummer who is best known for being a member of Donnie Iris and the Cruisers. Valentine played drums on all of the band's early albums during the 1980s. Valentine has recorded as a member of Breathless, The ...

- drums

References

{{Authority control Kiss (band) songs 1998 singles Songs written by Paul Stanley Songs written by Curtis Cuomo Song recordings produced by Bruce Fairbairn Mercury Records singles PolyGram singles